Broadband 'rollout' via NBS, when/where?

cowboy1981 · 12-11-2009 9:54pm

Condi wrote: »

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Thanks for posting all the details Condi. Well done on pushing for the Satellite option. This is probably the only half decent service you can get from NBS.

Please let us know if the service consistently delivers the 1M/128k minimum guaranteed Down/Upload speeds. The Govt spec guarantees a maximum of 48:1 contention on satellite - this is as good as residential DSL and would give you a really excellent service, albeit with much poorer latency. However, Satellite services usually have much higher contention ratios >100, and it is hard to believe that 3 have bought this much capacity, given that they are probably losing money on every Satellite customer. You are most likely to notice the impact of contention if there is a big difference between the speed off-peak and peak times.

cowboy1981 · 12-11-2009 10:13pm

hjr wrote: »

Hi Condi,

I'm in the same position, mobile broadband would be useless, but not sure how to push the issue the NBS to get the tooway option.

Thanks

Point out to 3 that they are failing to meet the Govt guaranteed spec for the National Broadband Scam - 1.2M download, 200kbps upload, and 120ms maximum latency. If they fail on any of these specifications at any time of day, you are entitled to push for Satellite. If 3 don't co-operate, escalate to Minister for Comms, ComReg and Analysys Mason - consultants who are supposed to be monitoring the Scam.

Don't give up - ultimately they will have to give you Satellite. There is absolutely no evidence that any customer anywhere in the country has got the minimum NBS specification from 3 using the midband 3G technology - it simply doesn't work reliably enough. Every 3 customer in an NBS area should be automatically entitled to Satellite.

If you really want to improve your chances of getting Satellite, you could consider some or all the following measures,

Plant a shelter belt of mature trees on the side of your house facing the nearest 3 mast. They will blow in the wind and any 3G signal will vanish
Install energy efficient double glazing (Pilkington glass) if you have a window facing the 3 mast. The metallic layer in the glass will block the 3G signal.
Install dry-lining with foil layer on the inside wall facing the 3 mast. (you could use tin-foil underneath wallpaper)
Install a high wire-mesh fence on the side of your garden between house and the 3 mast.
Install a small wind-generator in the line-of-sight between your house and the 3 mast. The blades will cut into the 3 signal and you won't be able to receive it reliably.

However, I doubt that any of the above measures will be necessary. Most likely, the 3 signal will already be sufficiently lousy without doing any of these things.

thebman · 12-11-2009 10:17pm

cowboy1981 wrote: »

Point out to 3 that they are failing to meet the Govt guaranteed spec for the National Broadband Scam - 1.2M download, 200kbps upload, and 120ms maximum latency. If they fail on any of these specifications at any time of day, you are entitled to push for Satellite. If 3 don't co-operate, escalate to Minister for Comms, ComReg and Analysys Mason - consultants who are supposed to be monitoring the Scam.

Don't give up - ultimately they will have to give you Satellite. There is absolutely no evidence that any customer anywhere in the country has got the minimum NBS specification from 3 using the midband 3G technology - it simply doesn't work reliably enough. Every 3 customer in an NBS area should be automatically entitled to Satellite.

If you really want to improve your chances of getting Satellite, you could consider some or all the following measures,

Plant a shelter belt of mature trees on the side of your house facing the nearest 3 mast. They will blow in the wind and any 3G signal will vanish

Install energy efficient double glazing (Pilkington glass) if you have a window facing the 3 mast. The metallic layer in the glass will block the 3G signal.

Install dry-lining with foil layer on the inside wall facing the 3 mast. (you could use tin-foil underneath wallpaper)

Install a high wire-mesh fence on the side of your garden between house and the 3 mast.

Install a small wind-generator in the line-of-sight between your house and the 3 mast. The blades will cut into the 3 signal and you won't be able to receive it reliably.

However, I doubt that any of the above measures will be necessary. Most likely, the 3 signal will already be sufficiently lousy without doing any of these things.

lol and most importantly if you do any of the above let us know and post pics if possible so i can LMAO :P

yuloni · 12-11-2009 10:18pm

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yuloni · 12-11-2009 10:32pm

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cowboy1981 · 12-11-2009 11:46pm

Condi wrote: »

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Given that the IP address is Irish, maybe they have bought a chunk of capacity specifically for NBS customers - perhaps 4Mbps. They could get 200 customers sharing this chunk of capacity before they start to drop below spec. While most NBS customers are experiencing major problems, very few probably have your perseverance in following up to the point where 3 are forced to make Satellite available. It is likely that it might be a while before they get 200 customers.

Sponge Bob · 13-11-2009 12:05am

Depending on how Tooway works precisely it certainly has 500mhz down and 500mhz up from what I can see and depending on what the FEC ratio is ( overtransmission bits) they may get around roughly 1000mbits of download onto that 500mhz.

That is for all of Europe and North Africa off Hotbird 6 .

If it is maxed out then the satellite feed gets really really lousy .

Digiweb do not do that to their customers but they charge accordingly . Digiweb are the only satellite reseller/capacity leaser in ireland who have not gone bankrupt either because their damn service works.

But you may all take it that three are really really hoping that the Ka Sat launch in Q3 2010 is a success before their transponder gets maxed out because they are gagging for the cheap Ka Sat bandwidth kicking in instead of the current expensive Hotbird bandwidth ( both beam from the same part of the Sky so no reconfiguration required on the customer premises )

hjr · 13-11-2009 10:28am

Sponge Bob wrote: »

I fear that 3 and their mates in SBI are now going to stuff you onto an already overloaded Ka band transponder on Hotbird 6 .

Furthermore the NW of Ireland is on the extremity of the Ka footprint from Hotbird 6 ( see graphic) which means that a rather hefty (I guess 100cm ...maybe 90cm if you are lucky ) dish will be required to deal with those little environmental issues such as rain.

QUOTE]

Just a quick question, based on the post above: Anybody any suggestions as to the best satellite option for the north west of Ireland? I have ABB Telecom at the moment, its not that bad during offpeak, but slow during peak periods. Weekends are generally poor.

I note from the post above that SBI may not be best for the northwest either, so really just wondering which option I should try and punt for?

Thanks in advance!

Sponge Bob · 13-11-2009 10:49am

Something coming in from the Atlantic , Tooway comes off a sat which is optimally placed for Europe and Donegal is the north west corner of Europe ....innit

A big dish ...1 - 1.2m helps if you can mount it somewhere sheltered where it wont lift your chimney off.

Condi was very sensible where he/she put their one . Very well done Condi !!!!

hjr · 13-11-2009 10:58am

Thanks Sponebob!

I'm in Sligo so not as far north as Condi! Any suggestions of satellites coming in off the atlantic??

Thanks

hotwhiskey · 14-11-2009 9:06am

Question! What direction is the dish pointing? Thanks.

Sponge Bob · 14-11-2009 11:27am

Dunno who is offering a service off the Atlantic and it will certainly not be as cheap as an NBS Tooway service if it is any good . In theory taking a Tooway off 13e now will mean you have all the right gear for Ka Sat at the same location next year .

Properly installing and aligning 1m to 1.2m dishes is not a task for amateurs .

Intelsat 907 ( I think) was where NBS sat services came from up to October . Much stronger beam than Tooway and smaller dish but no extra capacity due in that slot so it will get congested for sure. Intelsat 907 coverage off an Atlantic orbital slot shown below , note that there are NO MOUNTAINS in the way if you live on the west coast .

Against that size optimality you must factor in the further fact that the dish faces the prevaling SW wind and gets knocked out of whack by storms . Condi has sheltered the dish from those winds by putting it on a gable .

Ka Sat will have a spot beam over Ireland unlike Hotbird 6 which uses a main beam for all of Europe ....and Donegal is on the edge of Europe meaning a bigger dish is required than in France for example to get the same signal .

Watty has long pointed out that the same problem existed with Astra2Connect when it was offered by the defunct NBB.

The Beam was weakest in the west of ireland and this meant that the area with WEAKEST signal inevitably meant a LARGER dish ( min 90cm ) and that of course where the WIND is strongest . It came off 23e .

At least with an atlantic bird you can hope for a smaller dish which may bear up better to the wind in the west of Ireland .

You see the NBS will come to an end in a few years and you will all probably still need that dish if Eamon Ryan is minister

yuloni · 15-11-2009 10:31am

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Sponge Bob · 15-11-2009 11:35am

The NBS will come to an end around 2013 and then you will have to pay the full price for Tooway or indeed any Ka Sat service that comes from the Hotbird cluster on 13e . Tooway or indeed any sat service is only supposed to be used for 5% of all NBS connections but I feel that it will be way more than that .

The only satellite that is proposed that will be anywhere near that Ka capacity is Hylas ....the one that 3 were supposed to use all along and which is supposed to go into an Atlantic slot at 33w . That is a new experimental sat so lets see what really happens shall we ??

Other than Ka Sat and Hylas no significant capacity is planned for Europe over the next few years unlike the US and Asia .

Anyway a single bog standard optical fibre has more capacity than an entire satellite, way it is !

yuloni · 16-11-2009 2:34pm

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Rovers return · 26-11-2009 10:04am

Condi,

I'm in the NBS area and would consider going for the NBS satellite solution, but in your pictures I don't understand how the satellite signal is passed from the outside dish to the indoor modem as in your photos there are NO cables connected to the outside dish!!!! :eek:

Did the installer leave the cabling up to you? For me this would be unacceptable, as i would not know how to cable from the dish to the modem. How do you or the installer know the connection is working if there are no cables attached to the dish?
:mad::mad::mad:

yuloni · 27-11-2009 10:16pm

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Broadband 'rollout' via NBS, when/where?

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