Satellite broadband alternatives?

emy-87

Hi everyone,

Apologies if I'm in the wrong place. I'm living in the Dublin mountains and currently using satellite broadband (formally Big Blu, now Eutelsat). We're included in the intervention areas in the NBI rollout but we're waiting to be surveyed so I imagine that will take an age to do.

The satellite broadband has been fairly useless (getting speeds of 0.5-2mbps) particularly in bad weather and yet a mile down the road at my parents house they're getting 50 mbps, with what I think is the copper fibre as it's wired from the road to the house but they aren't getting crazy speeds like 1000 mbps.

A friend has suggested installing an antenna on my parent's house and then bouncing the signal to my house up the road. Is this doable? Is this the same as 'line of sight' broadband? Is 'line of sight' broadband the same as fixed wireless? I'm quite confused about it all. I've tried to do a search on rural broadband but didn't find what I was looking for! Any help would be greatly appreciated!

alan4cult

Is there a complete line of sight between the two houses?
If so you can use a Ubiquiti wireless bridge to bridge to your parent's network.

The Cush

emy-87 wrote: »

I'm living in the Dublin mountains and currently using satellite broadband (formally Big Blu, now Eutelsat). We're included in the intervention areas in the NBI rollout but we're waiting to be surveyed so I imagine that will take an age to do.

The satellite broadband has been fairly useless (getting speeds of 0.5-2mbps) particularly in bad weather

Just on the satellite broadband, a family member is also using this service but a business package from the KA-Sat satellite. The capacity on this satellite is over-subscribed due to Covid/WFH.

Some changes that happened late last year, Eutelsat sold its reamining interest in this satellite to US satellite operator Viasat and BigBlu's retail satellite division was purchased by Eutelsat.

BigBlu/Eutelsat continues to support their legacy KA-Sat customers but will not contract new customers to KA-Sat.

BigBlu/Eutelsat's retail arm now named Konnect, offers a satellite broadband package from the new Eutelsat Konnect satellite. The biggest difference between the KA-Sat and Konnect offering is the free install and equipment with Konnect. A new dish and modem are required for the Konnect service.
https://europe.konnect.com/en-IE

ED E

Depending on location theres a possibility of cellular there. Quite a few sites on peaks if you're on a Dublin facing slope.

2 Wheels Good

alan4cult wrote: »

Is there a complete line of sight between the two houses?
If so you can use a Ubiquiti wireless bridge to bridge to your parent's network.

Mikrotik make directional antennas https://mikrotik.com/products/group/wireless-systems
I think they're sold in Ireland and would do the job over a distance if you have line of sight.

emy-87

The Cush wrote: »

Just on the satellite broadband, a family member is also using this service but a business package from the KA-Sat satellite. The capacity on this satellite is over-subscribed due to Covid/WFH.

Some changes that happened late last year, Eutelsat sold its reamining interest in this satellite to US satellite operator Viasat and BigBlu's retail satellite division was purchased by Eutelsat.

BigBlu/Eutelsat continues to support their legacy KA-Sat customers but will not contract new customers to KA-Sat.

BigBlu/Eutelsat's retail arm now named Konnect, offers a satellite broadband package from the new Eutelsat Konnect satellite. The biggest difference between the KA-Sat and Konnect offering is the free install and equipment with Konnect. A new dish and modem are required for the Konnect service.
https://europe.konnect.com/en-IE

Thanks for the info. We had an engineer out over the weekend and he was saying the same thing. He said Konnect are better to deal with but I'm still reluctant to go with satellite broadband again, if I can help it.

emy-87

ED E wrote: »

Depending on location theres a possibility of cellular there. Quite a few sites on peaks if you're on a Dublin facing slope.

We can get 4G in one particular part of the bedroom, if I hold my phone up high. Apart from that it's like we're living in a lead box, there's absolutely nothing. Not even enough to make a phone call! I contacted Vodafone and they gave me the sales pitch but I'm reluctant to buy it unless I know it will work. i.e. if I was able to do a speed test on the modem before getting into the contract.

2 Wheels Good

emy-87 wrote: »

We can get 4G in one particular part of the bedroom, if I hold my phone up high. Apart from that it's like we're living in a lead box, there's absolutely nothing. Not even enough to make a phone call! I contacted Vodafone and they gave me the sales pitch but I'm reluctant to buy it unless I know it will work. i.e. if I was able to do a speed test on the modem before getting into the contract.

If Vodafone don't offer a trial period you could buy a 4G mifi modem. I bought a Huawei E5577 from Amazon a couple of years ago, I think they're still available for ~65. It's handy to have anyways as a backup. Get a payg sim and test it, you'll know quick enough if it works anywhere in the house.

TheDriver

Have you done a speed test on your phone? Pick up a VF, three and eir sim and test them all. If you can get any sort of speed, then you can make plans.

ED E

emy-87 wrote: »

We can get 4G in one particular part of the bedroom, if I hold my phone up high. Apart from that it's like we're living in a lead box, there's absolutely nothing. Not even enough to make a phone call! I contacted Vodafone and they gave me the sales pitch but I'm reluctant to buy it unless I know it will work. i.e. if I was able to do a speed test on the modem before getting into the contract.

Perfect setup for an external antenna.


Get yourself an unlocked phone and an Eir and Three SIMs. Test at roof level.

joe123

Id also suggest testing at different times of the day especially around peak (~6pm)

I was seriously considering going this route as I could get 4g/LTE in some areas of the house and speeds were pretty good during the day (20 Up / 5 down). Whenever I tested after 3pm - midnight the speeds completely fell off a cliff, was lucky to get 3/4Mb down.

This was with GoMo.