Hello all

We are in rural North Canterbury between Motunau and Greta Valley.  In the early / mid 2000s our exchange was upgraded to ADSL. At that time our ping was 50 / 80ms, dl 1.6mb, uplink 0.4mb. For the time the connection was great and a big improvement over the iHug satellite service we were having to use. But that must have been over a decade ago. 

Circa 2010 we noticed that the dl shot up to a consistent and exact 3.2mbps from the 1.6mbps previous. No change to uplink.

Unfortunately now the connection will range between 1 and 3.2 mbps.  There seems to be little correlation with the decrease in speed to peak times or days of week.  All the neighbours on the same exchange have noticed the same.  The unrealibility of the speed is frustrating and it is so bad that basic email, trade me browsing, or internet banking can come to a halt. Forget tv on demand or youtube. Of course the connection has a greater load on it now more than ever as there are several computers online, several misc items (apple tv x2, samsung tv, WD media server), 3 smartphones and 2 tablets.  We have lodged faults perviously but nothing useful ever gets done and there never seems to be any improvements made. 

We have no mobile coverage from any 3 providers due to a very large hill obstructing the signal, however, a paddock of ours adjacent to the house (paddock is 2km line of sight from house) is line of sight (12km) to the Greta Valley towers for Spark and Vodafone - the paddock has line of site to both towers and all smartphones show full signal on either network.

I think it should be easy enough to set up a small relay station on the paddock powered by solar and battery and 4G modem and antenna, and with a point to point network between the station and the house.  That part I understand. I think a few thousand dollars would be needed for the build, but of course don’t want to shell out anything until have some assurance the connection will be a significant upgrade over our copper connection which is unreliable, and underwhelming even when on form. 

When I approached a RBI reseller they did not advise connecting to the Vodafone tower because it needs an upgrade which will be happening in early 2016.  (their system said it was unsuitable for RBI connection for now). 

Does anyone have access to information on what exactly the overhaul to Vodafone’s infrastructure will entail? Will the tower be fibre linked, and upgraded to 700MHz 4G? Assume perfect conditions is there an approach speed we could reasonably expect? Are there others who are connecting via 700MHz 4G with between 10 and 20 km line of sight? What about Spark's existing infrastructure there? Also will 2degrees erect a tower there soon (they have been coming north of Chch - now with Waikuku, Amberley, Waipara, Hamner and Culverden all towered)? Also, are there any particular experiences or problems when using any particular 4G RBI reseller? I understand from a family member's 4G RBI set up (they are down in southland) that Spark do not allow their RBI plan users to use 3G, and my family member was supplied a 4G only modem so there was no 3G fallback. 

Thanks.