Satellite Broadband Internet

[Nigelpickin]

Warning: old thread!

As far as I am aware, 3 do not have "unlimited roaming", certainly not on PAYG. They do a 12GB SIM for tablets and modems which offers free roaming in their Feel At Home locations. I have had no problems with this solution.

I take hurricanes point but for what it's worth I've used 20gb on my three contract already this month and it suits us pretty well. The 3 contract that we have on our work phones is unlimited data and free to roam unlimited data and calls - so it's perfectly fine for regular use, websites, bbc I radio player, Google Maps, downloading podcasts and so on. It is true that 3 strangle the bandwidth so that you can't stream video on anything other than Facebook, (clever compression).

So if you are visiting mainland Europe and want a great solution for your coms and smartphone, it's really good. We've been away for 3 months now and Ann is missing Casualty, so we are going to have to get a Portuguese data solution worked out...if it wasn't for that I'd be pretty happy not having the TV on....

What will be interesting, as we enter into our fourth month away, is wether or not 3 cut our data off; there's a clause in the contract that lets them do that by discretion....lets see.

 

[Hurricane]

Warning: old thread!

As far as I am aware, 3 do not have "unlimited roaming", certainly not on PAYG. They do a 12GB SIM for tablets and modems which offers free roaming in their Feel At Home locations. I have had no problems with this solution.

Not an old thread
Unfortunately, the 3 experiences in Sant Carles are very different.
Yes - "feel at home" does work - but it is certainly throttled.
So bad sometimes that simple browsing is difficult.
Also, I believe, that 3 doesn't offer tethering.
Not sure what actual service 3 are using in Spain but both Vodafone and Orange in the same location - data is flying along.

We were at anchor yesterday in a very remote place - and the Vodafone service was running at 4Mbs - easily good enough for my VOIP services.
This is really the first season that we have seen these services usable - given more time, this is definitely the way to go.

 

[Piers]

This thread has been really interesting. On Play d'eau we have a Digital Yacht iNav Connect which boosts local wi-fi significantly and which has been a boon in past. But, last year we found we had to use G3 (TP Link) in some places. We thn looked at G4 and found it far better.

So this year we are going to try these: http://www.tp-link.com/en/products/details/cat-4691_TL-MR3040.html with local data PAYG SIMs.

Piers

 

[Mikedefieslife]

I've had problems with my 3 plan in both Ireland and France. It would generally work fine and I'd get 4g but after a while all internet would be blocked and say tethering is not allowed. Even though I wasn't tethering.

3's response in Ireland was to turn off 4g. Their response in France was to try to connect to a different network (didn't work), then it was to stop using the firefox app or the chrome app.

 

[Hurricane]

This thread has been really interesting. On Play d'eau we have a Digital Yacht iNav Connect which boosts local wi-fi significantly and which has been a boon in past. But, last year we found we had to use G3 (TP Link) in some places. We thn looked at G4 and found it far better.

So this year we are going to try these: http://www.tp-link.com/en/products/details/cat-4691_TL-MR3040.html with local data PAYG SIMs.

Piers

Piers, when it comes to hardware, have a look at this kind of thing.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/D-LINK-DW...824279?hash=item5b0caf1357:g:cRYAAOSwCQNWewx-

Twin antenna allow the system to use MIMO technology.
I'm no expert but what I've read seems to imply a better signal.
Two antenna should therefore give you a better signal.
Might be wrong but it works for me.

I've also added one of these which extends the internal antennae to the flybridge.
Seems to give me about 20% better signal.

 

[LadyJ]

Hope you don't mind but interested on how this thread goes so posted to be engaged.

 

[Tender_aft]

This discussion will go on until there is a good solution.

SpaceX are now wanting to put 4000 satellites up (at least they are in the business of launching satellites so their costs will be lower (more chance of it happening.....ever optimistic).

Here's the link to the article: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/nov/17/elon-musk-satellites-internet-spacex

 

[Hurricane]

4,425 satellites - Each satellite SpaceX proposes to put into orbit, without its solar panels extended, is the size of an average car

Wow - made me smile - with that number of satellites, they would need Space Traffic Lights!!

 

[Piers]

Piers, when it comes to hardware, have a look at this kind of thing.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/D-LINK-DW...824279?hash=item5b0caf1357:g:cRYAAOSwCQNWewx-

For some reason I've only just received this notification. It looks a better solution, so thanks Hurricane. I'll give it a go.

 

[TwoHooter]

Anyone trying to follow progress of the technology might find this blog post worth reading.
http://mvdirona.com/2016/12/kvh-industries-factory-tour/
The author designs data centres for Amazon Web Services and he does this work full-time while living on his boat, so he really understands communications from the inside out.