What happens if you are not on either UFB or RBI?

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Geektastic

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# 107098 7-Aug-2012 12:59

My broadband is now down to 0.98mbps from time to time.

I have rung Vodafone who tell me it is a network issue due to a Conklin cabinet. They said look on Chorus' website to see when it will be upgraded.

I looked at the coverage map and our house (3km from the centre of Martinborough village) seems to be situated on a tract of land that falls between the UFB rollout in the village and the RBI rollout outside the village!

Thus we appear to be excluded from either - as are many other properties in that land tract.

We do not live in the middle of nowhere by any means and there are at least 20 houses within 1500m of mine, so why do we not seem to count?

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# 668903 7-Aug-2012 13:16

It looks like RBI Wireless will be arriving in your area very soon:

http://www.vodafone.co.nz/about/media-centre/rural-broadband-initiative/coverage/

I am in exactly the same situation:

- Coverage from a roadside cabinet 7km away doesn't reach me on one side
- Coverage from an RBI cabinet 6km away doesn't reach me on the other side

RBI Wireless is working very well for me with speeds of 5Mbps+ down / 2Mbps+ up.

Plenty fast enough for streaming good quality SD Video, although not quite good enough for HD video. Downloading HD video rather than streaming does however work fine if I want to commit sufficient of my data cap to it. Mostly I just download SD video so I don't end up paying any overage.

Geektastic

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# 668948 7-Aug-2012 13:36

How much does wireless cost though?

kyhwana2

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# 668956 7-Aug-2012 13:43

See http://www.vodafone.co.nz/broadband/wireless/ for RBI wireless pricing.

Geektastic

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# 668998 7-Aug-2012 14:06

Wow. That is expensive. I need a data cap at least 5 times the size of what is on offer!!

grant_k

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# 669000 7-Aug-2012 14:08

Geektastic: How much does wireless cost though?

Although Vodafone provides the cellular network and backhaul, my ISP is Ultimate Mobile:

http://www.ultimatemobile.co.nz/rbi-wireless-pricing.html

Their monthly prices are a little cheaper, and they have more flexible options regarding overage (pay $5.25 per GB, instead of the 5GB block for $20, or $30 per GB casual rate that Vodafone insist upon).

grant_k

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# 669006 7-Aug-2012 14:13

Geektastic: Wow. That is expensive. I need a data cap at least 5 times the size of what is on offer!!

Sounds like you need to look at coming to an arrangement with a nearby property owner who is connected via ADSL or UFB, and either share their connection, or provide your own, which is then hooked up to your place via an RF Link.

ajobbins

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# 669007 7-Aug-2012 14:15

I thought the point of them getting the tender for RBI was to provide mobile services at a price point similar to fixed line services for customer where a fixed line service was impossible, impractical or cost probative?

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sbiddle

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# 669023 7-Aug-2012 14:23

There is a large wireless provider (can't recall their name) covering most of the Wairarapa. Why not move to them rather than putting up with poor quality DSL?

grant_k

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# 669036 7-Aug-2012 14:28

sbiddle: There is a large wireless provider (can't recall their name) covering most of the Wairarapa. Why not move to them rather than putting up with poor quality DSL?

Wiz Wireless: http://www.wizbiz.co.nz/

Geektastic

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# 669158 7-Aug-2012 17:23

grant_k:
sbiddle: There is a large wireless provider (can't recall their name) covering most of the Wairarapa. Why not move to them rather than putting up with poor quality DSL?

Wiz Wireless: http://www.wizbiz.co.nz/

Not cheap - up to $1200 per month for 10mbps with no cap...!

Even the domestic plans are at least $115 a month with a 40Gb cap. Set up costs are quite high as well, being $400 (plus mileage which is charged separately for some reason!).

Maddening to know that I can actually see houses from my window that probably get ADSL2+!

Geektastic

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# 669164 7-Aug-2012 17:29

grant_k:
Geektastic: Wow. That is expensive. I need a data cap at least 5 times the size of what is on offer!!

Sounds like you need to look at coming to an arrangement with a nearby property owner who is connected via ADSL or UFB, and either share their connection, or provide your own, which is then hooked up to your place via an RF Link.

We do have ADSL - it's just very slow (0.98 mbps the other day!). There seems to be no sign of when - or even if - Chorus will ever upgrade our cabinet to allow ADSL2.

It seems to me that by the time they have finished rolling out RBI the speeds etc on offer will already look like dial up in comparison.

We barely get 2 bars on a VF mobile here despite the fact that I can actually see the cell towers on the hill on the other side of the valley from my office! I'm not sure how well a wireless broadband system would actually work.

johnr

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# 669195 7-Aug-2012 18:17

You maybe able to see the cell but this does not mean the panels on it are pointing in your direction

Most RBI sites are dual carrier and are plenty fast enough

sbiddle

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# 669241 7-Aug-2012 19:55

Geektastic:Not cheap - up to $1200 per month for 10mbps with no cap...!

That's not a bad price for an unlimited 10Mbps symmetrical connection with good CIR and unlimited data, regardless of location and delivery method.

chevrolux

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# 669246 7-Aug-2012 20:11

Maddening to know that I can actually see houses from my window that probably get ADSL2+!

if you can see houses that get decent ADSL then go and team up with them, set up a wireless link and share the cost of the connection.

Also, $400 is not bad at all for set up. Could take the installer 2-3 hours to run cable and mount the radio. And also you get a symmetrical connection. Ring up telecom and ask what a 10Mbps HSNS connection costs because that is essentially what you will get.

grant_k

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# 669253 7-Aug-2012 20:17

Geektastic: We barely get 2 bars on a VF mobile here despite the fact that I can actually see the cell towers on the hill on the other side of the valley from my office! I'm not sure how well a wireless broadband system would actually work.

We only get 2 or 3 bars on our mobiles, but the RBI kit includes an outdoor aerial which boosts the signal tremendously. Using an 8-element Yagi, the signal is boosted to a full 5 bars even though the cellsite is 12km away. If you can see the towers on the hill across the valley, and have 2 bars of signal on a mobile handset, you will have no difficulty in getting a decent speed with the RBI kit.

The problem remaining is your wish (need?) for 50GB of data. That is going to be a big cost with any wireless ISP. Sharing an ADSL connection via an RF link will be the cheapest option once you get it up and running.

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