Suggestions wanted about satellite internet.

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philipnewmannz

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Topic # 32476 17-Apr-2009 14:52

I have a friend of mine who lives on the west coast of the south island and he's slightly out of any ADSL services and lives in a valley that has poor phone coverage. Can anyone make any constructive comments about satellite based internet services in New Zealand? Maybe post their experiences with it if they have had any.

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Reply # 209415 26-Apr-2009 10:03

Hi Philip, I'm totally biased because I'm an agent for them but you could try Rural Inzone at $59.95 + gst per month for 256k down/64k up and 1gb of data. My business partners and I have signed up 30 customers in South and West Otago since Nov 08, many of them defections from the opposition. We find Inzone will work without cutting trees etc because of the angle of the dish to the sky. Rain fade is much less, which will probably be a concern on the coast.
Most of the complaints with the opposition have to do with totally lousy customer service. Both my partners have been installers for the other crowd and they are more than happy to work with Inzone.

philipnewmannz

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Reply # 209417 26-Apr-2009 10:07

Oh sweet thanks for the information.

n00dy

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Reply # 209460 26-Apr-2009 12:54

when you say there is poor cellphone coverage, ie is there any service at all. One option is a Telecom T-stick with a 12 bar yagi antenna, ideally you want at least -80dbm to get a fast connection. The antenna is good for a 15 -18db gain. You can use a telecom mobile phone and go into service mode to get a db reading from that point you can decide if it is an option. FYI -110dbm is no signal or extremenly poor where as -60 is a great signal. you could visit www.logicenergy.co.nz to get the feild service codes. A stainless steel yagi will set you back around $275 from cellutronics.co.nz the datacard is $149 on a 2 year plan with telecom and $55 a month

philipnewmannz

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Geek

Reply # 209469 26-Apr-2009 13:35

n00dy: when you say there is poor cellphone coverage, ie is there any service at all. One option is a Telecom T-stick with a 12 bar yagi antenna, ideally you want at least -80dbm to get a fast connection. The antenna is good for a 15 -18db gain. You can use a telecom mobile phone and go into service mode to get a db reading from that point you can decide if it is an option. FYI -110dbm is no signal or extremenly poor where as -60 is a great signal. you could visit www.logicenergy.co.nz to get the feild service codes. A stainless steel yagi will set you back around $275 from cellutronics.co.nz the datacard is $149 on a 2 year plan with telecom and $55 a month

When I was there last there was no coverage at all. You can get it on the top of the hill but there is no service in the gully. This has opened up the suggestion have a base mobile unit up the top of the hill and wi-fi the services down into the house. It still just seems easyer to bang a satellite dish on the roof and point it at the sky...

nate

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Reply # 209470 26-Apr-2009 13:39

gwh: Rain fade is much less, which will probably be a concern on the coast.

Isn't the best way to avoid rain fade is just to install a decent size dish?

Also (for my curiosity) what's the latency like?

Fraktul

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Reply # 209473 26-Apr-2009 14:00

Bigger dish, higher power transponder, dynamically shifting to a lower symbol rate carrier are amongst some of the options for dvb-rcs to mitigate rain fade effects.

600-750ms are typical rtt figures.

gwh

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Reply # 209492 26-Apr-2009 15:16

yes you could install a bigger dish-but who gets to decide? you or the service company? And if you change it, will they give you the passwords to recalibrate the UT for the increased signal? You'll find both Inzone and Farmside as keen for you to tinker with their kit as Telecom would be for you to make your own adjustments to your DSLAM port. As Fraktul says, there are many options for rain fade mitigation and all are in use by IPSTAR and the AMC23 resellers.
However latency of 600-750mS is too kind . 850ms on Inzone and up to 1200ms on farmside seem to be more usual.

In South Otago the Inzone dish points at 37 degrees almost due north and the dish is 1200mm in diameter. Yes it's a monster compared to the opposition but the signal strength is more than adequate and rain fade doesn't seem to be a problem.

cokemaster

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Reply # 209495 26-Apr-2009 15:42

You may want to look at the Satellite pricing plans section on NZ connections.

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Fraktul

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Reply # 209606 27-Apr-2009 03:32

gwh:

However latency of 600-750mS is too kind . 850ms on Inzone and up to 1200ms on farmside seem to be more usual.

Have not used dvb-rct in NZ so this may well be the case, using services off IS903 in Europe 600-750ms is typical however. The physical RF path lenght obviously effects latency significantly in satellite broadband systems however 1200ms would be in excess of would this effect would account for; either there is significant latency due to excessive contention and or additional latency from the hub to the IP gateway or some other factor at work there.

gwh

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Reply # 209613 27-Apr-2009 08:14

Inzone's uplink and gateways are in NZ. Apparently the other crowd's are not.

bbman

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Reply # 209616 27-Apr-2009 08:57

philipnewmannz:
n00dy: when you say there is poor cellphone coverage, ie is there any service at all. One option is a Telecom T-stick with a 12 bar yagi antenna, ideally you want at least -80dbm to get a fast connection. The antenna is good for a 15 -18db gain. You can use a telecom mobile phone and go into service mode to get a db reading from that point you can decide if it is an option. FYI -110dbm is no signal or extremenly poor where as -60 is a great signal. you could visit www.logicenergy.co.nz to get the feild service codes. A stainless steel yagi will set you back around $275 from cellutronics.co.nz the datacard is $149 on a 2 year plan with telecom and $55 a month

When I was there last there was no coverage at all. You can get it on the top of the hill but there is no service in the gully. This has opened up the suggestion have a base mobile unit up the top of the hill and wi-fi the services down into the house. It still just seems easyer to bang a satellite dish on the roof and point it at the sky...

Yes Sat easier, but mobile broadband using 3G from either major carrier by June would probably be faster & more affordable on going.

I have a few clients who have a YAGI, router on the hill giving excellent LOS to the cell site achieving excellent speed on EVDO (no WCDMA which will be faster again) they have a cheap PTP WIFI to the property, providing the house & other buildings with WIFI access using WIFI routers in building.

The set up is more expensive but there on going costs are not bad & will get better.

Also when you say you have no coverage, is that also on the roof? Get up there and test it as you may find there is some?

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Ragnor

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Reply # 210135 28-Apr-2009 11:56

Do you have line of sight to anyone who's in range of ADSL? If so make friends with them!

Point to point wireless to their place then hook into a 2nd line + ADSL there would be the best performing solution imo.

bbman

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Reply # 210140 28-Apr-2009 12:07

Ragnor: Do you have line of sight to anyone who's in range of ADSL? If so make friends with them!

Point to point wireless to their place then hook into a 2nd line + ADSL there would be the best performing solution imo.

Another good idea!! This would be the cheapest even with the second line cost

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philipnewmannz

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Reply # 210172 28-Apr-2009 12:56

That is actually a good point ... How far can wi-fi travel though?

mjb

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Reply # 210179 28-Apr-2009 13:04

With the right antennae, line of sight, and good weather, 15km.

edit: http://www.crc.net.nz/topology.php

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