OT, Period internet connections?

[Flyfisher]

Our village is talking seriously to a provider of something called a Community Internet Service. It is, in effect, a large wi-fi network, where each house is connected via an antenna to a Community Access Point. Depending on what you're prepared to pay as a subscription, you can get up to 35 Mbps download and 100GB data allowance. Those top-rate specs are expensive (£64.99/mth), but for £14.99/mth you can get 12 Mbps and 20GB - more than enough for most domestic needs.

There's an initial premium to pay for the infrastructure, but provided 50% of the households in the area subscribe, it's not exhorbitant.

It'll be interesting to see whether it receives enough support to go ahead.

I'm sure we can all decide on the value of such things depending on our household data consumption but I find it hard to imagine any domestic environment needing 100GB of data at 35Mbps each month unless they are running a music/video piracy business or similar.

Sadly, I see these sorts of data fees as the means by which the business world is claiming ever-increasing control of the initially 'free' resources available via the web, something they've been trying to reign in since its advent caught them by surprise in the 1990s.

I don't know if our household is typical but I do know that our BT internet charges are higher than our BT telephone charges, even though we're on the lowest internet tariff. Also, that tariff originally had no data limits, then 20GB/month was introduced and it's now down to 10GB/month, which we seem to exceed when FF junior is home from uni. So there's little doubt in my mind that internet usage is becoming more expensive, and innovations such as 'cloud computing' will increase costs even more by driving up household data consumption.

 

[Penners]

I find it hard to imagine any domestic environment needing 100GB of data at 35Mbps each month unless they are running a music/video piracy business or similar.

Curses! Discovered!

I agree with you, FF, but you may have noticed that for £14.99/mth we could get 12Mbps and 20GB. As I said above, that's ample for any normal household needs, and it greatly improves on the 2 - 3 Mbps that I currently get. As I understand it, there's also no contention ratio to worry about with this system.

 

[Flyfisher]

I find it hard to imagine any domestic environment needing 100GB of data at 35Mbps each month unless they are running a music/video piracy business or similar.

Curses! Discovered!

I agree with you, FF, but you may have noticed that for £14.99/mth we could get 12Mbps and 20GB. As I said above, that's ample for any normal household needs, and it greatly improves on the 2 - 3 Mbps that I currently get. As I understand it, there's also no contention ratio to worry about with this system.

I had noticed that and I agree that 12Mbps/20GB for £14.99 pcm seems a good deal, though I'm not convinced you'll notice the speed increase. We had 2Mbps at a previous house but now get 6-7Mbps. I can't honestly say this doubling in speed has been particularly noticeable. Yes, large files transfer faster (our band transfers recordings quite a bit) but saving the occasional minute or so is not too important to me. There'll be little noticeable difference for email and web browsing.

Having said that, I would still swap my BT deal for that deal because of the same price.

Still, for really fast large-file transfers, you can't beat a pigeon and a memory stick:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-11325787

 

[Penners]

I can't honestly say this doubling in speed has been particularly noticeable.

I accept that, for the majority of today's internet use, there's not much need for superfast broadband. But I'm convinced that as this service gets rolled out, more and more data-hungry internet services will become commonplace - video streaming perhaps standing top of the list. So I'm keen to ensure that we rural cud-chewers don't get left behind in this development.

 

[sidd]

Picking up on this thread a little later, I hope I can be some help...

ISPs and Routers
I cancelled the Sky broadband contract because they insisted I use their router. Actually, I can understand that for most people, this is a really good option: having a router that the engineer with a script can actually troubleshoot. In addition, it is better proof that the problem is theirs, not yours. And remember, a lot of their customers are... shall we say... prone to operator error. Generally, the worse you are with technology, the more you should accept packaged solutions.

I'm with Virgin BB, which I hate, but I find it hard to decide where else to go. The only thing which keeps me sane with their outages is the hotspot feature on my iPhone, which means I can use the phone's very slow internet connection on my PC in extremis.

Household networking
I'm in Flyfisher's camp, with a full Cat6 setup. I have used a 200mb Homeplug, which was very good, before the Cat6 went in. I use the network for backing up PCs to the server, working with recorded TV video, and other less intensive things. My server can cope with about 15% of my gigabit throughput, which is about double what I would get on 100mbit Cat5 in the real world, and way more than I would get on wireless. So it's worth it for me. I have to say I was very impressed with Homeplug as a solution for old houses with thick walls.

But here are a few useful add-ons which make use of cabling:

1. Telephone distribution: This lets me have a telephone anywhere there is a network port. http://www.run-it-direct.co.uk/bttorj45patchkit.html. I have run the telephone master socket to my patch panel, where the modem, router and server are. I have no surface mount wires anywhere. (Just don't plug a PC into a socket connected to the telephone system)
2. Network TV: This is a gadget that sits in the cupboard, and streams TV from satellite or Digital Terrestrial depending on the model. I can watch TV on a Mac, Pc, iPad, iPhone, and pause and record on PC or Mac. I prefer the Mac software. This is the reason, I installed almost no coax cable in the house http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B004CDQ3FM/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1.
3. I'm not sure it counts because it also uses wireless, but we do watch films from the server and live TV on the kitchen sofa with the iPad, by the Aga if we're too lazy to fire up a woordburner. I really didn't want a fixed TV in the kitchen, so this is ideal.