North Yorkshire rural broadband/satellite broadband/dead spots

[KievLoverTwo]

Hi all. The OH and I have been trying to move to North Yorkshire for quite a while. House prices are beginning to move in the direction we need them to, so it might be possible sometime soon.

Internet is increasingly playing on my mind. Not helped by the fact that we're currently rural in the North West, a tractor took out our phone line on 9th, and BT have thus far failed to actually get Openreach out to us on four successive occasions. Tomorrow is due to be the fifth appointment, but given I had a call from a bloke who was 'right outside your house' IN COUNTY ANTRIM this morning, I'm not holding out much hope (for added LOL value, the farm who took the phone line out have been up and running since the phone line itself was fixed on the 17th).

I waffle! We've been saved by mobile data internet access (literally, the OH WFH), which I know to be very problematic across a lot of North Yorkshire. As far as I can see, we have the following options:

Move to Harrogate (too crowed), Knaresborough (not the worst idea, also not my favourite in terms of housing stock) or York (small houses (<900sq ft OR ££££, because of a need for a not small house, which disability related and unfortunately not negotiable) - where Virgin is available.

Move to within 3 miles of a BT phone exchange (I do have a list) and hope for the best in terms of phone lines not being taken out again - but this does have an advantage, if that happens, there will be cafes he can go and work in. There's nothing where we are now. You get much outside around 3 miles and speeds seem to drop off, you get 5 miles out and it looks, to the best part to be 3mbps-30mbps max.

Move and hope that Starlink works (I have read on Rural Living 'a lot of people made the mistake of thinking that would work and had to move away') specifically in reference to satellite internet in North Yorkshire. This feels too risky. We don't have excess cash for a second house move.

Move, pay for both and hope for the best.

I really don't know if there are any other options that are tried and tested, and if so, where they are located.

Of course, the problem is, I don't like almost all the houses within a 3 mile radius of the BT exchanges (at least those currently being listed). I like those 5, 7 miles away, a bit further out in the countryside.

Can anyone think of, or know of any other options where I can have my cake (not live IN a town) and eat it, please? If it involves paying ££££ to get something (anything, ANYTHING at all!) hardwired from x location to the house, I'm alright with that. It's the seeming lack of options that's scrambling our brains a bit. Idk how, but we're in the arse end of nowhere, and my landlady somehow got 500 mb internet supplied to our house! (ofc, I can't ask her, she can't know we're looking to move).

We're mostly looking on along the A1 from Darlington south to Harrogate. Richmond, Bedale, Thirsk, Northallerton, Ripon (sinkhole paradise, but I like it), probably not Boroughbridge as almost all the available housing stock is new builds, Knaresborough, Harrogate if needs be, York if needs be. I also have a soft spot for Kirkbymoorside, and I don't really know why. Possibly just because I have a massive crush on the bloke who does the auction show on the telly. Or I like the surrounding countryside. Or I really like their farm shop. Shrug.

I'd prefer to be nearer the Dales if I could (despite knowing it can be a logistical ballache to get most things done), but I'm pretty sure that's 100% 'the internet says no' land, for the most part.

We focussed on the county because a) I love it, I don't really want to be anywhere else, goodness knows I have looked, and b) he can go interview in London if it all goes tits up with work next year. He's currently based in Manchester (goes in once every few months), doesn't mind a long journey for the right house.

Sorry for wall of text, thanks in advance. Even if you dash my dreams and say 'no hope, 3 mile radius or nowt', it's better than not knowing at all.

i did have an issue with the internet in an old house in a market town very close to the cabinet and the issue was the wire running up the side of the house to the over head wires. Once that was replaced my cheap now tv package worked fine.

We are a bit further north but equally rural and the BT Broadband hub works OK for us as we have a fair 4g signal. We can watch streamed TV which our "fibre" (haha) connection couldn't manage. It's similar in price to Starlink.

On the moors near whitby there's Save9 that's wireless internet or a satellite. I'm told works very well.
I'm a bit baffled by your blanket decree the internet is rubbish. Pickering has fibre now. Not sure if it's made it's way to Kirby yet.

Just as an FYI, fibre optic can, in the right circumstances, be good enough - we're just under 3 miles out, in Yorkshire, but the junction box is outside our house so we don't a actually need fast fibre for two people to be online.

I’m further up in north Yorks but we have a 1gb connection with zzoom - they seem to have installed in all the local towns near to us and have been reliable so far. They also offer a business connection which has an upgraded sla which I did consider as I wfh, but I’ve just went with a standard residential

We’re in York, don’t bank on good internet here, depending on where you are! Couldn’t get virgin and could only get 5MB near the city centre in last place we lived, plus mobile reception on two networks was spotty. Where we are now is better - it depends on how easily your street can be dug up. We’ve just switched to Virgin from BT and tbh it’s not that much better

i wouldn’t bank on rural n yorkshire for mobile or internet. Get past harrogate nw into the dales and there’s barely any cell towers so reception is spotty

Internet is usually good on paper, and doesn’t work. Parents used to live in back of beyond on .5mb - technically they were meant to get 5mb+ but the very last part of the wires from
the junction box to the house were so old it didn’t work. Only 3 houses on that side so wasn’t worth BT fixing it

Most of it is based on putting a postcode into a provider's search engine.

Obviously, if other providers are providing better services that BT can't or won't, I have no way of finding out about them other than running dozens of searches for every single town or village or specific house I am considering.

There is no 'you can get internet/satellite/fast 4G speeds here, here and here via x, y and z' map.

...hence this thread being necessary. You either have local knowledge or do an absolute ton of manual work, whilst grappling around in the dark as to if whether those services are reliable or not.

I have had many suggestions on here neither of us were aware of.

The other half came across them for Northallerton after a bit of googling. So I picked three houses exactly five miles outside and it said nope every time :(

So many of these companies don't give you a coverage map. They make it hard to give them your money.

Good luck with your research, but out of interest - which farm shop?

Thanks. It sounds like we may possibly get there... in the end.

Beadlam Grange. It doesn't have the biggest range I have ever seen but their pies look amazing and the staff had us in stitches. I don't often come across farm shops where they are having a good old laugh amongst themselves :)

(also, they 'saved' us with good emergency scampi and chips after the cafe had finished lunch service, before we had to hit the road for another three hours - I think they even had GF menu options for the other half, which is quite rare)

Have a look at B4RN (broadband for the rural north). You can enter a postcode on their website to see if an area has it. If not, it can be built. It’s full fibre with 1,000Mbps download and upload speeds which are among the fastest in the country.

Easingwold always seems a bit odd. ( wife swapping always comes to mind)

:’D

It’s good to have local traditions?

Ha! Not heard that one about Easingwold although i was told to avoid Tollerton for that very reason! 🤣

I've never heard about wife swapping in Easingwold or Tollerton. However, internet speed is very fast and I used to work at home there with no problems at all. Lack of reliable public transport, petrol station and supermarket is annoying in Easingwold. Other then that, nice place to live, with good schools and friendly community.

We don't have any of those where we are now, so they're not a massive deal.

Thanks for the positive comments though, I really know little about either place, but knowing they get good internet is a bonus.