Satellite Broadband Rural Meath

dufferlover

Right, here's the situation. We (a young family of four) are moving to rural Meath in the new year, approx eight miles outside of Navan towards Dublin. The house, which is my original home house, is in a black hole! Zero 3g or 4g coverage with any network and no mainstream broadband available.

So my option is satellite broadband and as fair as I can see my options are Ripplecom, Imagine LTE, Net1 and Regional Broadband. Has anyone opinions on them?

Usage wise, we have the usual needs, Netflix, browsing, while I run a Wordpress site so will need to be uploading images to the site frequently.

We are currently living in the middle of a town and have amazing internet so I'm dreading all this!

Thanks in advance.

Gonzo

dufferlover wrote: »

Right, here's the situation. We (a young family of four) are moving to rural Meath in the new year, approx eight miles outside of Navan towards Dublin. The house, which is my original home house, is in a black hole! Zero 3g or 4g coverage with any network and no mainstream broadband available.

So my option is satellite broadband and as fair as I can see my options are Ripplecom, Imagine LTE, Net1 and Regional Broadband. Has anyone opinions on them?

Usage wise, we have the usual needs, Netflix, browsing, while I run a Wordpress site so will need to be uploading images to the site frequently.

We are currently living in the middle of a town and have amazing internet so I'm dreading all this!

Thanks in advance.

have you checked the fibre rollout to see if FTTH will soon be available? Much of the rural areas between Navan and Dunshaughlin will be covered by FTTH very soon.

http://fibrerollout.ie/rollout-map/

dufferlover

Gonzo wrote: »

have you checked the fibre rollout to see if FTTH will soon be available? Much of the rural areas between Navan and Dunshaughlin will be covered by FTTH very soon.

http://fibrerollout.ie/rollout-map/

I did indeed. I was in touch with the Broadband Officer in Meath County Council and I was informed, and I quote:

"The house is in the intervention area and will not be served by the current commercial rollout with open eir (eircom). Open eir have decided that only a limited rollout is commercially viable unless the government steps in to help fund the rest. These discussions are taking place and the intervention strategy will take between now and 2023 to be delivered (at present) and there is no indication on when areas would be passed."

It would do your head in. I'm not far from you. I'm in Lismullen, a mile past the school towards Duleek. At present it's looking like Imagine LTE is who I will try. I'm not overly confident though as the house is in the blackest hole you could possibly imagine!

Who are you with?

Gonzo

dufferlover wrote: »

I did indeed. I was in touch with the Broadband Officer in Meath County Council and I was informed, and I quote:

"The house is in the intervention area and will not be served by the current commercial rollout with open eir (eircom). Open eir have decided that only a limited rollout is commercially viable unless the government steps in to help fund the rest. These discussions are taking place and the intervention strategy will take between now and 2023 to be delivered (at present) and there is no indication on when areas would be passed."

It would do your head in. I'm not far from you. I'm in Lismullen, a mile past the school towards Duleek. At present it's looking like Imagine LTE is who I will try. I'm not overly confident though as the house is in the blackest hole you could possibly imagine!

Who are you with?

that's very unfortunate, as there was fibre being cabled near Lismullen on the Dublin/Navan road not so long ago. I'm with Eir and live in a fairly rural area, luckily our entire area is covered by FTTH.

Ultimanemo

Your best bet is buy unlocked router I bought Huawei UNLOCKED B525 4G/LTE from amazon uk, and try pay as you go cards or sign a contract and test various suppliers during the cooling off period, you may get 3G somewhere, your best chance is the attic. I also bought (3G/4G LTE Outdoor Antenna for D-Link DWR / DWR-118 / DWR-921 DWR-952 / DWR-953) outdoor antenna, from ebay, the antenna is useful if you have signal outdoor but no indoor.
check coverage map for 3, vodafone and eir, and see which one has the nearest signal to your house on the map
Good luck

dufferlover

Ultimanemo wrote: »

Your best bet is buy unlocked router I bought Huawei UNLOCKED B525 4G/LTE from amazon uk, and try pay as you go cards or sign a contract and test various suppliers during the cooling off period, you may get 3G somewhere, your best chance is the attic. I also bought (3G/4G LTE Outdoor Antenna for D-Link DWR / DWR-118 / DWR-921 DWR-952 / DWR-953) outdoor antenna, from ebay, the antenna is useful if you have signal outdoor but no indoor.
check coverage map for 3, vodafone and eir, and see which one has the nearest signal to your house on the map
Good luck

Thanks a million. Forgive my complete ignorance but is LTE running off mobile signal? If it is I'm fecked! At best I'll get Eir 3g if I go down to the very end of the large garden!

tsue921i8wljb3

dufferlover wrote: »

Thanks a million. Forgive my complete ignorance but is LTE running off mobile signal? If it is I'm fecked! At best I'll get Eir 3g if I go down to the very end of the large garden!

No it is not. Imagine LTE is probably your best option if it is available to you.

Ultimanemo

LTE is 4G, the signal you get with the router I mentioned is much stornger than the signal you have in your mobile, even if you buy antenna and put it 5 metres high and connect your router to the antenna and you get 3G still better than satellite.

Ultimanemo

Keaton Scary Shampoo wrote: »

No it is not. Imagine LTE is probably your best option if it is available to you.

Yeah Imagine should be good, but you better hurry, they have limited places and they fill fast

tsue921i8wljb3

Ultimanemo wrote: »

LTE is 4G, the signal you get with the router I mentioned is much stornger than the signal you have in your mobile, even if you buy antenna and put it 5 metres high and connect your router to the antenna and you get 3G still better than satellite.

Just to avoid confusion, Imagine LTE is using licensed spectrum in the 3.6Ghz band that is wholly separate from the LTE or 4G deployed by the mobile networks. The router you mention is of no use for Imagine.

dufferlover

Keaton Scary Shampoo wrote: »

Just to avoid confusion, Imagine LTE is using licensed spectrum in the 3.6Ghz band that is wholly separate from the LTE or 4G deployed by the mobile networks. The router you mention is of no use for Imagine.

This is music to my ears because if I was relying on mobile networks I'm back to square one!

Ultimanemo

Keaton Scary Shampoo wrote: »

Just to avoid confusion, Imagine LTE is using licensed spectrum in the 3.6Ghz band that is wholly separate from the LTE or 4G deployed by the mobile networks. The router you mention is of no use for Imagine.

True, but Imagine comes with it's own router, they don't sell sim cards, I tried the router, it worked for eir, three and vodafone