3G (Mobile Broadband) in Ewelme
This page is intended as a means to share experiences of
using '3G - Mobile Broadband' in Ewelme. (last
update: 22/10/11).
Since it was first published over 2 years ago, there have been
quite a few amendments made to the contents, to reflect the
availability of newer hardware, and the rapid improvements made
to coverage in terms of speed and signal strength in this area.
If you have visited this page before, you may be surprised at
the changes that have been made quite recently. If you are a new
visitor without broadband, you might be encouraged that
broadband is just a 'dongle dangle' away!
You might also like to see
4G v Cable.
Brief History
Although the additional high quality cable installation
between Wallingford exchange and Ewelme in 2007 provided the
opportunity for some 50 extra households to get hold of an ADSL
connection for the first time, it still left a number of residents without the
ability to connect to the Internet using Broadband. The WiFi
based Ewelme Community Wireless Network (LocustWorld Mesh) has
provided a number of households (13 at one time or another) with a sub 1 Mbs
(Megabits per second) connection,
who would otherwise not have been able to get onto the Internet
other than by using a 56 Kbs (Kilobits per second) dial-up modem (see
Ewelme Wireless Broadband).
However, it has been absolutely necessary for these users
to be located within 'line-of-sight' of various interconnected
'nodes' or Access Points positioned in various places within the
village, and this community service cannot therefore be
utilized by very many.
Evolving Technology
Whilst some villagers are not interested in using computers
at all, or perfectly happy to just use 'dial up' facilities,
there are still a number who are frustrated by the lack of
progress in either the village obtaining extra wire pairs to be
made available, or the fact that a fibre optic based cable has
yet to reach us (although one by-passes to the West
of the village while linking Watlington and Wallingford
exchanges). During the last 2 years, a new wireless technology
has gradually become more widely available to the cellular
telephone community. The use of a mobile phone to connect to the
Internet has been available for some time now, to send emails
perhaps with photo attachments, and somewhat restrictively, to
browse the Web. For the more computer savvy, one could also
attach the mobile phone to the PC and use it as a PC modem.
However, this technology (technically known as GPRS) was/is
still quite slow (about dial-up modem speeds) , and although no
charge is made for the time connected, the amount of data
transferred is charged for. This has been called 2nd Generation
or 2G technology, but now 3G or 3rd Generation (technically
known as UMTS) is becoming more widespread (up to about 0.5 Mbs,
which is about the same as Ewelme entry level landline broadband) . Due to the
significant increase in data packet transfer using 3G, it is
also being marketed as 'Mobile Broadband' by the mobile phone
providers. This is a fair description, since in well serviced
areas also able to receive '3.5G' (enhanced 3G, technically
known as HSDPA), the speed can exceed what any of us can
receive within Ewelme via landline at around 1 Mbs. However, tests show
that within the village boundaries 3G can actually
provide a data rate which regularly exceeds 2 Mbs and in
recent times using the latest modems, has been measured at
over 6.8 Mbs!
However, if the 3G signal is weak or that the 'cell' is very
busy with other traffic, it can also transfer data at a slower
rate than this due, to data packet 'resends'.
Click the icons to see suppliers' products.
Signing Up for 3G
So, what are the pros and cons of 3G in Ewelme? If you cannot
obtain, or get slow Broadband using a landline, can't use the
Ewelme Wireless Community Network (LocustWorld), or
can't share with a neighbour who has it, there is little to lose
and the possibility to gain a significant advantage over current broadband
users, by trying 3G. It should be remembered that the
providers ('3', Vodafone, Orange, O2, T-Mobile etc.) have all
paid the government £BILLIONS£ to get a licence to use the
frequencies used by 3G, so they are obviously going to try to
recover this vast investment by whatever means they can. The
first thing they want is to commit you to a 1/12/18/24
month contract. For this they will allow you to transfer a
certain amount of data per month for a monthly fee. If this can
be resisted, especially not knowing how successful your
connection will be, it might be more sensible to initially consider
just
buying the latest 3G 'dongle' (£10-£20),
see dongles for sale at PCWorld, or from your local high
street shop, and then
paying a top-up fee, which will entitle you to a certain amount
of data transfer to be used within a set period e.g.
£10/1GB/month.
The tentative alternative is to sign up to a rolling monthly contract with a Direct Debit e.g. £15/month, which will entitle you to a free 'dongle' plus a certain data throughput usage a month e.g. between 5 GB and 15 GB a month. See See Broadband-Expert. These alternatives are very similar to arrangements that are made when one arranges to 'Pay as you go' (PAYG) or Pay Monthly for a mobile phone. Indeed, most modern mobile phones (Smart Phones) also offer 3G and WiFi communication built in, where with the former, charges will be made for the amount of packet data transferred. As with 2G enabled phones, some 3G enabled phones can also be used as a broadband PC modem, substituting for a 3G 'dongle'. Incidentally, a dongle uses a SIM card in the same way a mobile phone does.
Wireless Broadband in Ewelme
As
with all wireless technologies, the most important parameter for
successful operation is obtaining sufficient signal strength. To
enable high speed data transfer for multiple users, the
transmission frequency needs to be around the microwave part of
the electromagnetic spectrum. WiFi is a higher frequency than 3G
(only just), but all the same, the ideal requirement is
line-of-sight between transmitter and receiver. However,
cellular telephone systems rely on more than one transmitter
providing alternative communications paths so that one can roam
about, and depending on the transmitter power used, can produce
signal 'reflections' and 'scatter', enabling signals to
penetrate into enclosed buildings in built up areas. In a rural
area like ours, signals get attenuated over distance, so we
perhaps we can't expect the same speeds as obtained in cities
unless transmitters are nearby.
Investigations (See
Sitefinder),
have shown that the nearest 3G transmitter to Ewelme is between Crowmarsh and Nuffield (Turners court?) at around 3.75 Km from
the village (over a hill), which is owned by '3'
and radiates at full power (32dbW - orders of magnitude higher
than does a Ewelme Mesh wireless node). There is also one
located just North of Brightwell-cum-Sotwell in the Sinodun
Hills (we have line of site to Wittenham Clumps!), and one in
Stadhampton, also both owned by '3'. However,
information recently received has
indicated that '3' have,
or are about to install additional 3G masts on
Crowmarsh
Hill and in Benson
(Hale Farm) and
will be active before the end of June
2010. Since it has already been found that signal
levels within a room
within the Ewelme boundaries are of sufficient strength to
obtain a transfer rate higher than dial-up, and tests
outside have
achieved much higher than the best landline broadband speeds in this
area, it is highly likely that signal strengths will improve
significantly when these masts come on stream. The following maps provide the ability to check on the
currently published signal coverage of the main 3G providers for where you live in
the village :
Directmobilephones.com . (Thanks to
Patrick Gosset for the link for '3'
coverage).
3G Mast Location
The map below represents an interpretation of information
gathered regarding the physical location of wireless masts owned by '3' in this area.
After some persuasive discussion with support engineers in both
India and Scotland, it has been recognised that this area
has been one of the first country wide to be permanently 'upgraded' to a
7 Mbs 3.5G
network locally, requiring modems capable of operating at 7.2
Mbs for best results. From this map it should be able to be judged which side
of a house is best for modem placement to receive the strongest 3G signal!
Setting Up Your System
Below shows one method of ensuring that the strongest signal is
obtained within a house, by utilizing a couple of highly
technical pieces of equipment! You can also do a similar thing
with the more versatile MiFi wireless module (see later).
The '3Connect' utility program provides an indication of signal strength for the selected position of the dongle.
This broadband speed tester can be found at www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk and will show download and upload speeds, as well as keeping an historical log and the ability to show results in a graphical form. Another one favoured by '3', can be found at http://www.speedtest.bbmax.co.uk/ . This one can provide an average speed calculation when used over a long period.
So, 3G is now a perfectly viable possibility in
Ewelme. Of those who have had little or unreliable success with
it, it is likely that operation would be improved if the dongle
is not just plugged directly into the PC USB socket, but
extended with an extension USB cable so that the dongle is at
least near to or attached to a window.
As an interesting anecdote for the importance of positioning, one '3'
user who shall remain nameless, had his modem attached to the
side of his PC, which was positioned facing a window. A speed
test revealed a disappointing (for some) 800 Kbs data transfer
rate. By moving it about a foot forward and attaching it to the
window pane, achieved a whopping 2.5 Mbs! (But still
using an older modem type).
See USB extension leads. If this doesn't improve things
sufficiently for consistently reliable operation,
consideration needs to be given to attaching a higher gain
antenna (aerial) to the dongle. Higher gain doesn't mean that
anything is amplified, just that the receiver will be more
sensitive to the available airborne signal.
It is a distinct advantage if the dongle (3G modem) has an
external aerial connector built in, so that with a short adaptor
cable, will plug directly into an external aerial. A reputable
make of dongle, often supplied in 3G kits from '3', is
manufactured by Huawei. Part of their range is the latest E122 high speed version
dongle capable of operating within a 7.2 Mbs network, and
includes the ability to attach an external antenna to a
weenie connector via a short cable adaptor. If the dongle
doesn't have an external aerial connection, another way of attaching
one would be to buy a sort of dongle 'jacket' (about £20). This
provides an electromagnetic link between the dongle and a choice
of attached antennas. 
However, in my opinion, this will
only produce any noticeable difference if an antenna with a gain
higher than 12 db is fitted, since the 'insertion loss' of the
adaptor reduces what is gained by around 8db! 3G antennas come
in all sorts of shapes and sizes (and prices), where obviously,
outdoor types are more likely to overcome signal strength
shortcomings than indoor types
.
At the time of writing '3' are distributing the
ZTE MF112 dongle, which doesn't have an aerial connector, but
during tests was found to be more sensitive than previous
offerings and also capable of operating up to 7.2 Mbs. It
is this model that is currently recommended as
suitable for window mounting within the boundaries of the
village, without having to be concerned about aerial
attachments.
Unfortunately, it is a matter of trial and error. As a rule of
thumb, if you can obtain 3G inside (near a window), but its not
too reliable, it's quite possible that a higher gain internal
aerial might improve things. However, if you cannot get a 3G
connection at all inside, but you can when the dongle is
outside, an external aerial is likely to be the answer.
Incidentally, in the same way that one expects a mobile phone
from any provider to work in the same area, in theory it shouldn't
really matter too much which 3G provider you choose (apart from
comparing service and costs), since each provider often has a
'roaming agreement' with the others to enable 'mobile' users to
use different providers' cellular transmitters. However,
at the moment, it
should be considered that we are surrounded by 3G masts all
owned by '3' and it should be mentioned that the majority
of tests that have been done were performed using a PAYG '3'
dongle. Trying a Vodafone unit for a couple of tests did not
perform as well! The technical press (PC Pro magazine March '09)
report that '3' probably has the widest 3G and 3.5G
coverage in the UK at the moment, and are currently
working with T-Mobile on extending the coverage and speed of
this technology towards 4G (LTE - Long Term Evolution). This is also likely to lead to
higher signal level availability and stability.
Be warned:
Certain providers may not cover this area at all, or able to provide the best signal strength.
Here is the 3G coverage from Vodafone. As can be seen, the signal is practically non existent for most of the households in Ewelme, although Martyn's Way and the barns in Chaucer Court may get a similar coverage as provided by '3'
Unfortunately, it is known that certain forward thinking residents originally chose Vodafone kit, and have not unexpectedly, become somewhat disillusioned with Mobile Broadband!
Sharing
3G in the House
Assuming
you have been able to get a satisfactory 3G service, with or
without extra internal or external equipment, that may be all
that you require (until fibre-optic cable comes to town!).
However, getting up and running with 'Mobile Broadband' also
allows you to configure your household requirements in the same
way as with 'static broadband'. In other words, you can share
the connections with other computers in the house via cable
and/or WiFi (and also enable Internet linking to the
LocustWorld Mesh). This
would require a 3G router (around £37 and up, but also available
'free' in a contract deal), which is very
similar to the type of router used for land based ADSL
connections. This will contain all the firewall protection required
to provide the network security expected within a household
local area network (LAN). When purchasing any ancillary
equipment associated with 3G, it is worth visiting
Solwise or
Panorama-Antennas whose sites provides a great deal of information and a choice of products for
improving the operation of a 3G dongle if necessary. '3'
also offer a WiFi dongle, which they call MiFi. This
means that when the best window pane for reception has been
found, the dongle will transmit received data by wireless to
other computers within the house, and can also be connected to a
USB port on a single PC. This device is also manufactured by Huawei, but ensure you get the latest E585 issued 1st
July which will operate
to 7.2 Mbs (recorded 6.6 down and 1.6
up on 31/01/11 @ 08:06) rather than the older E5830 that can only deal with
3.6 Mbs networks. This advice also applies to using dongle based
proprietary routers, by ensuring the the router supports your
dongle type and operates to at least 7.2 Mbs. Although the E585 MiFi Modem/Router is more expensive than a wired dongle
(£39.99), there is no need to worry about USB extension leads,
and up to 5 PCs can use it at the same time! Apart from a highly
reflective display which makes it difficult to read in daylight,
all monitoring of the device, including signal strength, can be
better achieved via WiFi on any local PC. For those who need the
facilities, the unit is in fact a fully fledged configurable
router and firewall with extensive built in help facilities,
although for those who don't, it operates as a simple plug and
play device. Due to this impressive versatility,
this unit is highly recommended as the 3G receiver of
choice in Ewelme.
Various Methods Being Used for MiFi Window Mounting
Click on the thumbnails for greater detail
"I Spy Broadband Dongles" gives 10 points for each of these. If you find any more, send for inclusion!
The PC browser display provided by local wireless MiFi router. If you've got one, this is the local web address: http://3.home/indexf.asp
Do you live in the Hills?
Isn't technology wonderful, in that it never stops evolving?
Even now (14/03/11) there is an even more sensitive piece of kit
recently been launched, which although a bit expensive right
now, and probably would not normally be required in Ewelme, does
enable people many miles away from a mast or in a very difficult
to receive area, to get wireless broadband. Its being called
WiBE by Deltenna, and you can see it's spec at
http://www.deltenna.com/
(Thanks to Andy Cheung from rural Cambridgeshire for this).
Quite a lot that has been conveyed above about dongle types has
been wrapped into an interesting TV clip from the technology
programme 'Click', including this new device, and is well worth
a look.
Three announces new
HSPA+ dongle
HSPA+ is the next step up in the evolution
from 3G to 4G network speeds, providing wireless broadband
speeds of up to 21 Mbs. It will be available from Three after
the 7th April 2011. But before you rush out and buy one, refer
to this page first for confirmation that our local network has
been upgraded to achieve an increase on our current speed of up
to 7 Mbs. Thanks again to Andy Cheung for the following links.
The Huawei E367 dongle.
Here are some more on the same issue:
Latest Dongle Technology Comes to Three and
Three Promises Network Upgrades - 2011 and
Three Quietly Rolling Out HSPA+
Tools and Bandwidth
Although the broadband speed test described above is a jolly
good way of giving an idea of how fast your broadband connection
is operating at a particular point in time, it does only
operate over a few seconds and only shows communication between
two fixed sites on the Internet. For those a little more
interested in the technicalities of broadband in general and
wireless broadband in particular, may be interested to try a
powerful tool provided by 'thinkbroadband' (see link at end of
page). This is called tbbMeter, and provides the means,
especially if set up to be 'always in front', to show a real
time monitor of the amount and speed of data being uploaded and
downloaded from the Internet.
The display above can be arranged to be shown in any position and size on the screen. It will indicate the instant speeds of download and upload data in the two right hand columns. The rest of the timebase graph provides a log of the speed of communication and an accumulating total of the amount of data used. As a matter of interest regarding the required bandwidth required to, for example, watch a missed TV program (if you can afford the amount within your monthly data allocation!), the left-hand quarter of the graph shows a sample of a BBC iplayer programme, while the rest is showing the bandwidth required to listen to an Internet radio programme. Both programmes ran uninterrupted without breaks, and it can be seen that the maximum bandwidth availability at that time was around 1.5 Mbs, which is higher than landline broadband, but well within the measured bandwidth accessibility of mobile broadband. Obviously, for the download of large program or update files, the higher the bandwidth the better, but this tool will indicate both good and bad performance for analysis.
Here we have another example on a day when the bandwidth availability was in the region of 4.5 Mbs. The first batch of data shows a short period of watching a High Definition quality programme from the BBC iPlayer. Each download burst is buffered (stored) while being watched, then a request is sent for more. The next thinner bursts are when watching a standard definition programme, where less data is required and not so often. The final section shows the file download of a programme for later watching, and shows here that it takes up nearly all the available bandwidth. As more users join the cellular network, the bandwidth will reduce and it will take longer to download the same file.
Local Surveys
In earlier versions of this article, results of
some speed test surveys conducted around the village were
recorded during the
Summer of 2009 and early part of 2010.These were intended to show
(and did!) that most of the
village was capable of obtaining broadband using 3G technology.
Considering that the better landline broadband connections were
only capable of around 1Mbs, if that, it was very encouraging to
find that some tests showed 3G could reach internet speeds of up
to 2.9 Mbs! However, after a couple more surveys during
recent weeks using two newer and improved versions of dongle, has
shown this capability has increased to up to 5.4 Mbs.
Rather than continuing to include the older results, it is
thought it would be less confusing to now just show the
latest results. These tests were performed from within a roaming
car using an E122 dongle dangling inside the windscreen,
(I think I feel a song coming on...♫
We do dongle dangling...dot
com...♫
ahem) and attached via a USB extension
lead to a netbook running the
www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk speed tester, while monitoring
signal strength using the '3Connect' utility from '3'
(see above).
The results show the best of three
cycles of download and upload of a 1 MB file at each of the
brief stopping points stated. Most
locations within the 'variable' area shown on the above map have
been covered, and show every reason to be optimistic about the
possibilities of receiving 3G inside a house. Remember that
landline broadband download speeds in Ewelme, for the most part,
vary from about 0.5 Mbs (500 kbits/sec) to around 1 Mbs (1000
kbits/sec).
In previous surveys, the upload speed was always throttled to around the 300 Kbs mark when using 3.6 Mbs modems, which is about the same as current landline upload speeds. It can be seen here that the upload speeds using a 7.2 Mbs modem are 4 to 5 times faster than before. The nature of Internet data packet transfer is that received packets have to be acknowledged or requested again, so faster upload speeds also help to speed up the overall effect of the experience.
3G Email
For those who would undoubtedly be using email when
connected to the Internet, there are two ways that this can be
done. If an account is held with one of the 'free' providers,
such as 'hotmail', 'freeserve', 'gmail', etc., then the
procedure is that your email is read or compiled by logging on
to a remote site. A similar procedure is used if using an
employer's email server via a 'VPN'. In both these cases,
by using 3G broadband, this procedure would not change. However,
If you have an email 'client' installed on your PC, such as
Outlook or Outlook Express for example, and are paying an ISP
for an email service, then as far as receiving emails via the
ISP server is concerned, nothing will change, but for sending
out emails, it is necessary to use the 3G mail server instead of
the ISP server. Since '3' is likely to be
the better 3G provider in this area for the time being, you will
need to change your SMTP outgoing mail setting in Outlook or
similar client to 'smtp-mbb.three.co.uk'
Performance Issues
It is slightly regrettable to feel the need to insert
this penultimate paragraph regarding an unexplained/unresolved
performance issue, which may or may not be experienced by other
users in this area or elsewhere, depending on how they use their
particular system. For my part I now use two E585 MiFi 3G
wireless routers, which are left permanently powered due to a
need for one of them at least to enable remote access (web cam
etc). The two units are utilised by a variety of laptops, a
desktop, a netbook, an iPad and smart phone to provide WiFi
access to the Internet. For the majority of the time, the
operational performance has been very good. However, since
November 2010, when Three reported some upgrade activity in our
area, there have been regular although random occasions when the
download speed of either or both these connection routes has
been 'capped' at around 100 Kbs. This is my term to
differentiate the phenomenon from 'contention' issues causing a
degradation in download speeds due to more users being on line
(e.g. during evening). These situations are noticed when say
browsing a familiar site and it being obvious that its
displaying rate is not within the bounds of normal operation.
This can be tested with one of a number of speed testers (see
links above), where rather than the download showing anything
between say 1 Mbs and 6 Mbs, which is quite normal over a
24 hour period, the result will show download stuck in the
region of around 100 Kbs. This speed is still just about usable,
especially for email work, but I have not been able to get a
satisfactory or logical explanation for these situations either
from '3' technical support or from various on-line technical
forums. However, although such a 'capping' period doesn't seem
to clear itself, unless I never noticed its existence in the
first place, in the vast majority of cases, normal operation can
be resumed by forcing a new 3G connection to be made by turning
the power off and on again on the dongle or MiFi (the symptom
has been experienced with a variety of dongles as well as two
MiFi's).
As an illustration of such an event, I can explain that when
such a snail's pace situation is suspected I can use a real time graphical
display to show download and upload speeds. The first graph
firstly shows a speed test being run, which is a request from a
static remote location to down load a 1Mb file and measure it's
speed, then upload it back again to the same location. Notice
that this provides confirmation that the speed has been capped
at around 100 Kbs and does not vary above this to any extent.
Upload speed, shown in red, is off the current scale, since this
is not affected from normal very much, and shows that signal
strength or distance from mast is not really a factor. The
second burst of data shows my Internet Explorer being
started, which has been configured to load up to six different
web pages from various web servers. The last browser 'tab' is
also the speed tester again. This shows that no matter where the
download data is being sourced from it is being specifically
capped to a low level without even instantaneous variations back
to normal speeds.
Now, consider a few minutes later, where this particular MiFi has just been power reset and the Internet Explorer has been closed and then opened again. Hey Presto, the connection is back to normal again, by forcing a new connection. Notice the normal variation in download (green) and upload (red) speeds while IE is loading those favourite web site pages again, finishing off with the download and upload speed test.
If this was all caused because the local cell was being
prevented from downloading any faster because of high usage,
have they all suddenly disappeared during early morning, or is
it that the imposed cap has not been removed since a busy last
evening? Who knows? I can't find the answer!
I don't wish to change my hopefully encouraging conclusions, but
if you find that you experience the same situation, this must be
reported to '3' as soon as possible, since this certainly only
seems to have started to occur following the November 'upgrade'!
Post Script
Since the section above was written (mid January 2011)
and also
published
in a 3G forum, within a day or two the
problem completely disappeared and at the time of writing, has
been error free for two and a half weeks. It is as if Three did
eventually take note and find the allusive two and a half month
on going fault after all! But there is still no recognition from
them that there was ever a problem in the first place! Hey Ho!
Fame At Last?
Well, no as it happens!
The Henley
Standard Link
In the 5th November 2010 issue of the Henley Standard,
a feature article was published conveying the continuing
frustration of many deprived rural households throughout South
Oxfordshire in attaining a useable Broadband connection, and
where the reporter Nigel Wigmore, was investigating whether the recommendations
of the SODC, which had been sent to parish councils to advise
parishioners to 'vote' for a campaign called 'BT Infinity',
was being promulgated, or perhaps not even known about. However,
the piece also conveyed that whilst people would possibly have
to wait up to 5 years for fibre-optic based high speed broadband
to reach their village, there is a perfectly usable 'fast
enough' and better than ADSL alternative for many rural
households within the District right now, as long as they were
also told about this! To see the article on-line, click on this
Link to The Henley Standard .
The Oxford Times
Link
Possibly due to the existence of this web page, Rhianne
Pope, a reporter preparing an article about Cowley being due to
get super fast broadband by the end of the year, requested an
opinion about this news. Apart from indicating that the was
hardly a 'rural' issue, it was commented that many households
within rural areas that were complaining about a lack of any
kind of broadband or that it was very slow, could get a
perfectly usable mobile or wireless broadband service if they
took the trouble to take a few simple steps, rather than just
getting increasingly frustrated waiting for a service to be
provided for them. I'm not sure that the article actually got
this across in a way that would encourage anyone to investigate
further!
Link to Oxford Times
One afternoon in February 2011, I was telephoned by Edward Baron, a reporter from the BBC, who informed me that he was preparing a TV news item about the lack of broadband in rural areas. He had heard that I had been trying to promote the use of Mobile Broadband in this rural village and had actually seen this web site! He said he would like to do a video interview from my home, from where I had been running an on-line business for many years. How could I refuse the chance of fame at last? The following evening the news item was broadcast, but concentrated solely on how people and businesses were suffering without broadband and asking why BT were still to take until 1215 to get fibre based broadband to only two thirds of the country. Also, what the Oxfordshire County Council were doing to try to reduce such a timescale, by using government money to stimulate private investment to improve the broadband infrastructure, including wireless! With limited time, it is now obvious that the aspects of current availability of 'fast enough' wireless broadband being available to rural areas right now, would not have fitted the rather gloomy theme depicted by 'cross' villagers after all. A reduced quality recording of the programme can be watched by clicking the link below. I did ask permission to show this, and recognise the copyright of the BBC.
South Today Programme Putting Ewelme on the map? The file has been reduced to a minimum (1 MB) to allow those with a very slow connection to watch it! You need something like the 'Windows Media Player' or 'Real Player' enabled to play '.wmv' files, but I'll send you a full AVI file on DVD if you want one?
By the way, Stoke Row has about the same sort of 3G coverage as Ewelme!
Here is a link to 'Broadband Delivery UK' to which Councillor David Robertson was referring, and here is a link to the official Oxfordshire County Council web site about the initiative discussed.
Now, I did manage to record and edit an audio version of the actual question/answer of my interview while it was being filmed. Since a great deal of this would have been edited out to produce just a few seconds about the current alternatives to a lack of cable or slow landline, you might wish to hear this hopefully 'yes we can' view, as a possible short or long term solution to the problems and frustrations conveyed on TV?
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Perhaps as a consolation for not being included in the item on TV, another phone call was received that same afternoon. This time it was from BBC Radio Berkshire, asking whether I would be available for interview at 5:15 that evening about the lack of broadband in rural villages. Expecting someone to visit again, I said I would be delighted as long as it didn't interfere with me watching South Today on TV. "No no", came the reply. This would be a live interview by telephone!! At 5:15 the telephone rang, and a guy said "thanks for taking part", and then just switched me over to listening to the live programme. After a couple of minutes Rory Macalister announced he was about to talk to me. I hadn't a clue what was about to happen as no-one had briefed me. I also had no idea that whatever I was going to say (and I didn't' know that either), some 'expert' was going to follow me to make comments on what had previously been conveyed. Luckily, this chap initially agreed with what I had said, but I was then appalled by what he explained later about the dangers of grossly overspending your data allowance (the SIM card provided with a dongle doesn't allow this to happen anyway). Even worse, was a warning about using long periods of mobile broadband for internet communication, due to the dangers of electromagnetic radiation from mobile phone equipment, especially for young children with thinner sculls!! This guy had obviously not grasped the idea that window based dongles placed nowhere near a human head were no more dangerous than sitting in a government building offering a WiFi connection to a local Netbook or iPAD. I was not given an opportunity to reply to these statements, but hopefully this erroneous information will not discourage a frustrated rural internet user from giving 3G a try. What do you think?
Interview for BBC Radio Berkshire
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Now would you believe it? In early March 2011, I arrived home at around 6:15 pm to find a message on the answering machine from Phil Mercer at Radio Oxford asking whether I would do an interview about broadband at 6:45 that evening! I duly responded to the telephone number provided, expecting to hear that it was now a bit late to do this, but no, I would be contacted at 6:40 where the same procedure was followed as for the previous radio Berkshire experience. You can make up your own mind as to whether the options discussed about wireless broadband in rural areas might be of use to you?
Conclusions.
It is my personal opinion that 3G/4G is the future of static
wireless broadband communication in this area, with the
exception perhaps if a fibre-optic based cable becomes available
for fixed domestic locations. With the consistent news however
(Ewelme News Dec/Jan 2010), that cable is not even planned for
installation in this village "in the foreseeable future, if
ever", and (Ewelme News Apr/May 2011) that even the OCC
initiative of sharing Ewelme School's 4 Mbs cable connection locally
will take up to 2 years. In the unlikely event of further telephone cable
pairs being made available across Wallingford Bridge,
basic physics dictates that maximum data speeds of only around
1 Mbs are possible. Even this speed may not be the norm, where
one location has been identified as only achieving 250 Kbs
(Fords Farm) and
most, especially to the West of Kings Pool achieve not much
more than 500 Kbs . Within the last couple of years, it has been
increasingly possible for a number of Ewelme residents
using 3G or Mobile Broadband to
achieve broadband speeds of 3 Mbs or more without much
difficulty, apart from ensuring careful dongle placement on a USB
extension near a window, and checking that the provider
actually services this area. Some others who have tried
with variable success, are known to have not realized that by
taking the trouble to mount the extended dongle upstairs, or
even placing it outside in a waterproof container, are quite
likely to achieve reliable higher speeds than the best landline
based connection available in the village. There are decreasing
situations where a 3G signal is difficult to obtain, and those
unfortunate enough to be in that situation without an
alternative, may have to bite the bullet and be prepared to
invest and experiment with outside aerial
installations. However, having driven around the village for
three
measurement surveys within the last 12 months, and obtained a continuous connection
on all of them at ground level, must
give an indication that with a little planning and experiment,
success in one form or another can be achieved. Finally, for
current users of 3G who are still using, for example, E156G or
E1550 or similar modems only capable of operating up to 3.6 Mbs,
it is highly recommended that these are upgraded to one
of the
latest 7.2 Mbs types. 3.5G is
currently technically capable of achieving up to 7.2 Mbs (6.82
Mbs is the current record in Ewelme) and 4G is expected
to provide up to 21 Mbs, and is currently being used in
Scandinavia, with 100Mbs systems under development. As its
name implies, it is also mobile, so you can also use your dongle
on your way to or at work, or on holiday. Perhaps the days of
ageing and fixed copper/aluminium telephone wires are indeed
numbered, and I for one have now relinquished my ADSL landline
connection with BT and used the money for a subscription
for much faster 3G mobile broadband. If you are
worried about giving up your BT broadband for something as yet
unknown to you, remember that unlike landline broadband, you
don't have to sign up for a 12 month contract in order to try 3G
for a month and walk away again. STOP PRESS -
The government have just announced that wireless frequencies
originally used for the now defunct analogue TV channels will
now be auctioned off in early 2012 for use by the mobile
telephone companies for 4G technology. That's 21 Mbs and upwards
without digging up the road!
Submitted by David Pryce-Jones (this record now exceeded!)
For those who have found this article complete gobbledegook, or are unwilling to take a risk in investing in speculative equipment, may find that a free survey using some already prepared kit, would be the most preferable way of confirming that a broadband connection from a particular location within the village of Ewelme is indeed possible. Send an email with a request (or feedback)and your contact details.
Other useful links:
Articles about broadband in the Ewelme News
Video and latest news about the world of Mobile Broadband
MobileBroadbandGenie - Consumer advice website dedicated to Mobile Broadband.
Think Broadband (mobile) - Tips and hints about Mobile Broadband.
Purchase of 'unlocked' dongles to enable preferable type to be chosen.