Satellite broadband opinions

homewardbound11

Hi.
I need your opinion on satellite broadband. I have given up completely on eircom. My line is down now since the 8th of January. Their latest update was a carbon copy of my original update from them 2 weeks ago.
The upshot is that it will be several more weeks before they can organize their management team to deal with this.

I am looking now to replace eircom line broadband with satellite broadband and need some real life scenarios
Ideally I would need 8 mb download and upwards of 50 gb per month.
Thanks pat.
Alan . You should have my pm for 2 weeks now if you wish to check my number .

uuPi

Hi there,

in the same boat here and looking at "all" the options...
Biggest problems are latency (lag), download restrictions, and performance slumps at peak times. Depending on the speeds you SHOULD get that most definitely rules out online gaming, and with a reduced probability TV streaming and VOIP coms. In other words, might work fine Tuesday nights, total crap on Wednesday afternoons.
If you have not done so already I would suggest to check the other options available as in fixed wireless, 3G and 4G. Golden rule here: do not believe a salesman...or a coverage map on the suppliers website. We should get 4G no prob where we live, reality is the best we're getting is EDGE at -112 dbm, so basically 2G up to 237 kbit/s. But not at that signal strength...
Easy way: get an Android phone, install Open Signal app on it and measure what you get INSIDE the house. With those readings rule in or out 3G/4G. If ruled out compare the satellite operators. Important points:
- go for a twoway connection (uplink and downlink via satellite, oneway still requires a phoneline!)
- check their "fair usage policy", a lot of operators throttle the speed down once you go over the data allowance, and allownce is upload AND download...
- depending on your needs you could get away with a lower (=cheaper) allowance, if the offer unlimited traffic during night times
- check the hardware options (rental, rent to own, buy to own)
- contract duration (no point in having an inferior connection for 2 years, because the contract is fixed for that time)

Bottom line: it's all very simple and straight forward ;-)

Or you could bring up Pat Rabbitte's promise from 2012:

"He is pledging that every house in the country will have access to broadband speeds of at least 30 megabits-per-second (Mbs) “by 2015”. Furthermore, he is promising over 40Mbs to 70 per cent of the country and over 70Mbs to half the country."

That would be this year, kind of. Won't hold my breath on that...

Equinista

Hi

I have been using satellite broadband since 2012 as my options were virtually nil. It was installed under the NBS scheme and is now under Digiweb. I have an allowance of 15GB per month which is not much for the monthly fee and occasionally go over and buy an extra gigabyte (12 euro!). In my experience, the service is reliable but speeds are variable and from one hour to the next you can experience 5mb down followed by 0.5 meg down. Downloading is slow (I have currently been downloading a 759 MB movie which is averaging 52.1kbps in an elapsed time of 3 hours 36 minutes (with another estimated 26 minutes to go!) OK its peak time. Streaming is OK if you allow a TV programme to buffer for a while first. You tube the same it takes a while buffering. The biggest issue to deal with is the latency. There is a lag between request and data filling the screen, not dreadful but noticeable compared to the immediate data fill from a non satellite system. I do feel that the service is expensive for what it is and obviously if you are a gamer, it is not an option. It is fine for Skype etc. There are many options and you can get faster satellite speeds but it can be very expensive for unlimited data and higher speeds.

I have actually initiated Eircom broadband but so far the survey discovered most of the lines between me and the cabinet are dead, junction boxes full of water etc. Despite this Eircom have sent me a wireless router, allocated me a phone number and told me my service is connected!! They are straining at the leash now to start taking my direct debit no doubt. My first phone encounter to see what was happening after the survey report was met with abruptness rudeness and a sinking feeling as I remembered why I had Eircom 10 years ago. Today when I called there was just a message which said they were experiencing difficulties cutting customers through to advisors followed by the phone cutting off. Great. I have thus decided I would be going backwards by using Eircom again. Thinking closely about it, rural areas are subject to so much outage of phone lines, I am going to cancel the order. It was a nice fantasy to think of speedy broadband although most I could have hoped for was 7m from an up to 24m service.

I am also considering giving mi fi a go just to get better throughput.

homewardbound11

Sorry to hear this. It does look like eircom really aren't helping the minorities in rural Ireland .