To think there should be some way of getting unlimited internet in a rural area?

[RumpetaRumpeta]

So, we have moved to a rural area where the broadband speeds are less than 0.3Mbps. We are using the same satellite internet provider that our predecessors used, which gives us a 40gb monthly allowance at great expense (£69.99 a month). The first month, we used this up within two weeks. OK, so we thought this was because we had made the mistake of thinking we could watch a few shows on BBC iPlayer. Obviously, we didn't have enough data for that! We were told by the provider to take advantage of their free download time between 12am and 6am, and download anything we wanted to watch.

Now, none of us actually care enough about TV to get up in the middle of the night to download it, so this month we decided to watch nothing. We used the internet for emails, a little bit of work-related research, some Facebook, and a bit of internet shopping. This time, we ran out of our data allowance in less than two weeks.

I rang up to see what was going on. Auto-update is turned off on all our computers, so that can't be guzzling data. The guy on the end of the line suggested that iCloud backups could be to blame. Fair enough, I hadn't realised that my MacBook could be the culprit.

The thing is, though... I don't really want to have to stop using iCloud as well as to stop streaming TV and films. I don't want to pay £70 a month just for the privilege of sending and receiving emails. I am really frustrated and I am wondering - has anyone else been in this situation, and what solution have you found? I'm thinking about using my mobile phone as a hotspot and getting a larger data package, but won't that just get eaten up really quickly as well?

Does anyone know of an option for unlimited internet in a rural area? I am tearing my hair out - I literally cannot do my (freelance, from home) job with this internet package! Arrggghhhhh! Help!!!! Am I being unreasonable to think that there must be something out there?!

Peekaboo Plusnet use Openreach cabling so they won't be much better than BT.

We're rural, speeds here are pathetic. we can't always watch iPlayer live for example so have learned to download to watch later.

However we used not even to have a reliable landline connection, let alone internet, they both used to cut out until a helpful lorry ran into our telegraph pole and knocked it down. All the ancient copper cabling had to be replaced and finally we had reliable signal.

Felt like paying the lorry driver a bonus, we'd had been complaining to BT about the fault for months.

@EeeSheWasThin, can you ask your friend about point to point broadband and report back?

I've googled a bit but from what I have found it's only for companies so they can have broadband in more than one building. You need an initial good broadband service to make it work, which we obviously don't have.

Virgin can dig up somewhere in your land if you want fiber?

Virgin can dig up somewhere in your land if you want fiber?
Will they do that on request?

So far as I know, it costs over a million pounds per mile to lay broadband cable. And that won't achieve anything unless it can also connect to a modernised exchange and other modern infrastructure.

The people to complain to are national governments, in England and Scotland (and maybe - I don't know - Wales and N. Ireland as well). As a previous poster said, they have given a commercial company - that controls the vast majority of local line infrastructure - hundreds of millions of public money to improve broadband connectivity, but have foolishly/weakly settled for less than 100% coverage. That means that (as another previous poster said) that company can refuse to connect remote places, saying that it is not commercially viable, while still meeting the government-set targets.

Try ‘3’. I pay £30 pm for a sim only contract and this gives me unlimited data but 30gb of personal hotspot. DH and I both have this package and the 60gb of personal hotspot is more than enough for us (and he does LOTS of gaming)

For everyone saying 'try company XYZ' that simply won't work if the local cables - run by BT/Openreach - can't carry the signal.

I live over 11 km from the nearest BT exchange. Have been here for decades, so it's not a question of moving to some supposed rural idyll without doing prior research. Even the landline phone won't work without an online booster. There's not a hope in hell of broadband working. And there is no local mobile phone connection either. There are - thanks to sloppy/thoughtless/cynical government regulations - many places like this throughout the UK.

I know that other posters mean well, and thank you. But if you would really like to help, please lobby your MP/MSP to get decent TOTAL connectivity here in the UK.

This is possible, with investment. I've been travelling - for research- to very remote places in eastern/central Europe with splendid wifi etc thanks to government willpower plus sometimes EU funding.

www.vnworks.net

Look at this, OP.

We live several miles from the nearest exchange too, Flora. As you've said, it's not a question of trying different companies to see if they can help. They can't. There is no service here, no matter which company we try. The infrastructure isn't in place for really rural houses to have broadband.

Virgin can dig up somewhere in your land if you want fiber?

I realise you were trying to help with this comment but no, they can't. Not where I live. We're just too remote. It won't work.

@OnTheRise

It’s these they’re with www.quickline.co.uk

Their house is between two villages (both with rubbish broadband themselves) and there’s no cabling. I gather the broadband is provided via a direct line of site to a mast a few miles away. They pay £30 a month, but not sure what limits/speeds that is for.

Hope they can help!

I looked on their coverage checker and no, they can't help. They depend on cable connections, which we can't have. Never mind.

That’s a shame (and strange considering our friends’ situation).

It was worth a try.

I would have several options. First BT or PlusNet(it's owned by BT but can be cheaper) so you use as much of the available data you can get that way i.e. just for emails etc.

I would then look at your 4g devices and get unlimited on the cheapest deal maybe for more than one device if you find they limit the data if tethered. I looked at EE which have good deals. Then you have options and I'm pretty sure that it will be cheaper or not much more than your current situation and you shouldn't run out of data for work.

Rural doesn't even have to be all that rural, my parents live in a village of 2,500 people but are limited to 512kbs because of the distance from the exchange. No 4g mobile signal either.

I would have several options. First BT or PlusNet(it's owned by BT but can be cheaper) so you use as much of the available data you can get that way i.e. just for emails etc.
I would then look at your 4g devices

The problem for most of us in this thread, though, is that BT/PlusNet isn't available to our locations as we're too far from the exchange; and because we're rural there are no phone masts within reach, so there's no mobile service here either, let alone a 4G signal.

That's the whole point of this thread, I thought.