3G Wireless Broadband in Ewelme (and other rural areas).
This page is intended as a means to share experiences of using fixed 3G - Mobile Broadband in Ewelme. (last update: 18/4/14).
In July 2013 Three launched Ultrafast 3.9G wireless broadband, and download tests during quiet usage periods were measured in Ewelme (and other rural villages in Oxfordshire) at speeds of up to 21 Mbps!
Here's an up-to-date table of the measured bandwidth that has been seen here during the week using the latest window mounted hardware. These long term full function download and upload speeds can be compared with an average of less than 1 Mbps down and around 0.3 Mbps up for the original telephone line speeds in the village. N.B. As of 18th December 2013, high speed fibre optic broadband has been made available from the central cabinet in Ewelme (as has RAF Benson and Letchlade!). See the page comparing Fibre and 4G based broadband
Try this basic in-page configured speed tester. If the instant speed needle never flicks above 1.5Mb during the test, and that the final average Download Speed for this particular transfer of data is always below 1Mb, then the following page will hopefully be of some help. There are opportunities to try more dedicated speed testers later on in this and other associated pages, but you might take some encouragement that perfectly decent broadband is available in Ewelme (and many other rural areas in Oxfordshire!) by having a look at a Three year log of speed tests (as a 1.35 MB pdf document), taken from this location of the village, to see just how things have improved over that period, while BT broadband hasn't changed at all since 2007! (until now!)
This captured example from this tester also shows the kind of speeds that can be expected in this village, i.e. up to 10x copper based landline.
Since it was originally published a few years ago, to convey that there was a better/faster way to get broadband in Ewelme than landline broadband via BT, there have been quite a few amendments made to the contents, to reflect the availability of newer hardware and services, 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 looking for a way to get either an improved or even first broadband connection at home, you might be encouraged to know that mobile (or wireless) broadband is just a 'dongle dangle' away! Should you not feel very confident about understanding some of the words and terms used, it might be a good idea to visit The Beginner's Guide to Broadband page first and come back here later. You might also like to visit the 4G v Fibre page, which discusses how to test and compare the differences between land based fibre optic broadband (when it eventually arrives!) and the continually evolving wireless based mobile broadband.
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 a basic
broadband connection for the first time, it still left a number
of residents without the ability to connect to the Internet at
all. The Wi-Fi
based 'Ewelme Community Wireless Network' initially
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 Network).
However, it was 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 (Church and private dwellings), and this community service
could not therefore be
utilized by very many.
Evolving Technology
Whilst some villagers are perhaps 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 fact that
there is now little chance that extra wire pairs will be
made available here, and that an alternative fibre optic based cable
is unlikely to reach us until next year. However, during the last few years, a new wireless technology
has gradually become more widely available to the cellular
mobile telephone community. The use of a mobile phone to connect to the
Internet has been available for some time now, enabling texts
and emails
to be sent, even with photo attachments, and somewhat restrictively, to
browse the Web. For the more computer savvy, one could also
attach (tether) one of the 'smarter' mobile phones to the PC and use it as a PC modem.
This initial technology (technically known as GPRS) was
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 - Universal Mobile Telephone System) has become more widespread. Due to the
significant increase in data packet transfer (speed) when 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 enhanced 3G, (technically
known as HSPA+), the speed can exceed what any of us can
receive within Ewelme via landline. Indeed, tests show
that within the village boundaries 3G can actually
provide a data rate which regularly exceeds 2 Mbs and
until
recently using the latest 'dongle'/modems, has been measured at
over 10 Mbs!
During the Summer of 2013, Three introduced its 'Ultrafast'
network (DC-HSDPA or 3.9G) as a precursor to 4G. Although this
requires an upgrade to hardware, it has been measured up to
21 Mbs during off peak periods.
However, it is important to understand that if the received 3G
wireless signal is weakened due to external walls or external
terrain or trees then speed performance will be reduced. In most
cases however, some careful placement of the receiver on a
window facing the 3G wireless mast, will
ensure a perfectly adequate and full function broadband service
to be enjoyed.
Click the icons to see suppliers' products.
Three (3), are the mobile broadband (and mobile phone) company who have provided 3G network coverage in this area for the longest period, although quite recently Vodafone 3G signals can also be received here. However Three also offer receivers (dongles) and Wi-Fi routers that can operate on their evolving 21 Mbs network.
How does Broadband by wireless get here?
3G Mast Location
The map below represents an interpretation of information
gathered regarding the physical location of broadband wireless masts owned by 'Three'
and 'Vodafone' in this area.
After some persuasive discussion with support engineers from
Three 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
HSPA+ 3.5G
network locally, requiring modems capable of operating at 21.6
Mbs for best results. From this map it should be able to be judged which side
of a house is best for modem window placement to receive the strongest 3G signal!
You can find your own wireless broadband 3G (UMTS type) mast locations and owners by visiting Sitefinder
3G Broadband Coverage
Each provider tends to define coverage in slightly different ways. The first diagram by Three, basically shows that 3G can be received by ALL of Ewelme for outside (or window mounted) devices, whereas the second diagram by Vodafone, shows signal strength as a four level analysis, where the main Village seems to have been given a weak measurement. On the other hand, Vodafone seems to favour certain parts of the area that would be shown on the Three map as deep purple! It should be noted that these maps are basically theoretical, calculated using the position and propagated direction and power of the transmitter, together with the terrain of the landscape. Hence the valley of The Street in Ewelme being favoured by Three rather than Vodafone. What the diagrams can't show is the expected speed of broadband for each pixelated area shown. However, the Three network has a 21.6 Mbs capability, whereas, at the time of writing, Vodafone is only selling product to work up to 7.2 Mbs.
You can compare/update the coverage maps of all the mobile broadband providers using your post code, by visiting this web page.
Signing Up and Costs for 3G
So, what are the pros and cons of 3G in Ewelme? If you cannot
obtain, or get slow broadband using a landline, there is little to lose
and the possibility to gain a significant advantage over current
landline broadband
users, by trying 3G. It should be remembered that the
providers ('3', Vodafone, EE (Orange/
T-Mobile), O2,etc.) have all paid the government £BILLIONS£ to
get a licence to use the microwave frequencies used by 3G, and
have recently gone through the same process again for 4G
(fourth generation), using the lower more penetrating
frequencies left from the now defunct analogue TV channels.
SEE 4G v Fibre page. So,
they are obviously keen to recover this vast investment by
whatever means they can. The way this is done is to sell you a
certain amount of data usage per month, which cannot be carried
over. This is unlike a Pay As You Go (PAYG) arrangement for a
mobile phone, where you top up when you have run out of phone
calls or messages. So, unless you are confident of your local
performance in terms of signal strength and speed from a
particular provider, it might be more sensible to initially
consider just buying the latest 3G 'dongle' or MiFi wireless
'router'
on line or from your local high
street shop, and then
paying a monthly top-up fee, which will entitle you to a certain amount
of data transfer to be used within a set period e.g.
£8 for 1GB/month or £16 for 5GB/month. Obviously, if/when you commit to a contract
period, you will get more megabytes for your buck! e.g.
between £17 and £21/ month for 15GB on 24 month
contract depending on the included hardware.
See Broadband-Expert. It is also possible to purchase a
dongle or the more versatile 3G Wi-Fi router (see later)
and getting it 'unlocked' (see link at end), so that short term
3G SIM cards can be used to try out various local providers, or
for reliable use with alternative local providers when
travelling on holiday or abroad.
Wireless Broadband in Ewelme
As
with all wireless technologies, the most
important parameter for successful operation is
about obtaining the best possible signal
strength, which is why an outside digital TV
aerial tends to provide a better performance
than an indoor one. To
enable high speed data transfer for multiple users, the
transmission frequency needs to be around the microwave part of
the electromagnetic spectrum. Wi-Fi uses 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 perhaps we can't
expect the same speeds as obtained in cities
unless transmitters are nearby. Investigations
have shown that for Three, the nearest masts are at Hale Farm in
Benson and the original source from the hills
near Wittenham Clumps. For Vodafone the nearest
3G transmitter is situated in Preston Crowmarsh,
on the S.W. corner of RAF Benson airfield. It
will be realised therefore, that not all
telephone masts you see transmit 3G signals, and
those that do are owned by specific companies
(See
Sitefinder)
Setting Up Your System
Below shows a proven method for ensuring that the strongest
signal is obtained within a house, by utilizing a couple of
highly technical pieces of equipment! However, it should be
noted that a 'dongle' can only be used by one person on one computer at a time.
But you can also use a similar method
with the much more versatile 'MiFi' wireless module, so that more than
one Wi-Fi enabled device can be using the internet at the same time (see later).
It is VERY important, especially if you live in a location with
'outdoor' signal strength (most of Ewelme), to mount the
receiver actually on the glass of a window which is facing the
direction of the 3G mast. Even if your location is within an
'indoor' strength area, using the same method will ensure the
best possible reception from your local mast. Other techniques
that have been used include double sided sucker soap holders and
even Blu Tack.
The dongle and MiFi in-built utility program provides an indication of signal strength on your PC or more usefully, on a mobile device, for the selected mounted position of the device. The display design and layout will vary depending on which receiver type you are using, but is intended to provide you with operational information about your connection to the internet via 3G.
Apart from ensuring that the 3G signal available from your nearest mast is as good as it can be at your location, another method of determining the efficacy of your internet connection is by doing a speed test. There are many test utilities available, where the basic idea is that a file of a certain known size is downloaded from a server (a dedicated remote computer), and the time taken for this 'download' to occur is measured. Then, the file is sent back or 'uploaded' to the server. The resultant times are then displayed. the download speed is the most important, but the higher the upload speed the better to provide good performance for a particular activity. One example of a broadband speed tester can be found at www.speedtest.net and will show download and upload speeds, as well as keeping an historical log and the ability to show results in a graphical form. This one also allows you to chose the location of the test server either close by or anywhere in the world, and provides some excellent and useful statistics that can be shared and compared.
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, and has been used to provide the 3 year comparative log (see link in introduction).
Is an aerial necessary?
NEW
Well, No, if you get a consistent 4-5 signal bars but possibly Yes, if you
struggle to get 2-3 bars at best at your location! The whole concept of 3G/4G technology is that
is has been designed to be portable, hence the generic name
‘mobile broadband’. So like a mobile phone, dedicated 3G and 4G
devices have internal aerials built in to cope with most
prevailing signal strength conditions. A user in an area deemed
having ‘indoor’ strength 3G signals (see above) shouldn’t have
any problems with setting up a convenient fixed wireless
broadband facility within the house. But if you live in a
‘outdoor’ strength area, as with most of Ewelme, then much more
careful preparation in terms of fixing the best position for
good reception has to be considered. This can only really be
established by experiment, by performing a speed test during off
peak periods to see firstly whether the signal strength
indicator provided is high (4-5 bars) , but also whether a speed
test results in anything like expectations for the highest
download protocol for your device (e.g. up to 10 Mbs for a HSPA+
device such as an E5331 or E586, or up to 20 Mbs for a DC-HSDPA
device such as a E5756). In any event, the best place for the
device without an additional external aerial would be on (not just near) a window
facing the direction of the local mast. However, one has to
consider the difference between receiving a standard TV signal,
where an indoor or loft aerial may suffice to get satisfactory
reception (TVs don’t have inbuilt aerials), and that of
receiving High Definition TV, where a directional roof mounted
TV aerial is essential.
On
the other hand, you have to make a subjective assessment as to
whether the performance of your internet usage meets your
requirements of just emailing or casual browsing, or the need to
regularly watch HDTV, Skype or download large amounts of data (2 – 4
Mbs allows most things to be enjoyed).
So, assuming that your receiving dongle or
3G wireless router contains a SIM card supplied by a provider
transmitting 3G/4G in the area (e.g. Three, Vodafone but NOT
O2), and the tests suggested above do not meet expectations
(consistent 2-4 bars),
then you are perhaps in the unfortunate position of needing
specialist help, as you would with having a TV aerial
installed. In this situation, you have to make sure your
receiving device has provision for having an external aerial
attached. Such requirements are certainly more unusual than with
the need for a TV aerial but the principle is the same, which
will need to be discussed with an installer. Perhaps a simple
dipole aerial attached to the side of your house facing the mast
not having an appropriate window. Maybe a chimney mounted omni-directional
aerial will be the
answer to overcome blocking walls or trees, but a worst case
scenario would be a directional aerial (Yagi - looking a bit like a TV
aerial) would be the answer if you are a long distance from the
mast. Refer to
SOLWISE to see a range of 3G/4G aerials and more
information, or seek professional advice.
One very useful utility that can be tried
to establish whether there may be problems with reception at
your location,
can be used on-line from your browser. Here,
by putting in your post code and marking the position of your
local mast (see above) and then marking your own location, you will
not only be shown the best side of your house to hang your
window mounted receiver, but also if there is any particular
problem with natural terrain. By zooming fully down to your
location, you will also be able to establish whether there are
any houses or trees that might cause problems to justify the
installation of an external aerial. You can see that at this
location, I do have houses in the way, but due to our actual
higher elevation and the scattering/reflecting nature of
microwave wireless signals, we do NOT require an aerial here!
J. You could also see whether by using a different
providers' 3G mast position, may give you a better option of receiving good
reception (e.g. Vodafone instead of Three)
By hovering your mouse over the profile, you will be able to establish whether there is a particular point blocking your line-of-sight, or whether you have a clear 'view'. It is not absolutely essential to have nothing in the way, since reflections from objects such as buildings and even clouds, can still provide sufficient signal strength to give adequate signal strength.
The MOST important aspect for the successful use of wireless broadband is to ensure that you obtain the strongest 3G/4G signal possible at your location. Unless you are a single dongle user, or plug your MiFi router directly into your PC or other device via a USB extension cable, there is still one more important step to consider. This is to make another wireless connection between your router and the Wi-Fi enabled devices that are to use the Internet, such as PCs or Macs, iPads or tablets, smart phones or TVs. Of course this also applies if your primary connection to the Internet is via landline, with say a BT Home Hub as Wi-Fi router. As with an external wireless signal from a local 3G/4G mast, Wi-Fi acts just like invisible LIGHT to/from the router. In other words, it won't travel through brick walls or go around corners. However, it will possibly travel in a weakened state through non-metalized plasterboard, and like a lamp in another room, it will reflect off walls and through open doors (or closed glass ones!) to reach your eyes. The effect of not making a good Wi-Fi connection between router and device, is that it just slows down those hard earned potentially fast download speeds gathered from the external airwaves. So, if you just can't site your devices in the near vicinity of the router to make your Wi-Fi icon also show 5 bars, what can you do?
Well, if you can imagine that your router is a reading lamp, while you are in the same room you are likely to be able to read perfectly in all positions (full data speed). If you go into the next unlit room with the door open, you may well still be able to read by the defuse reflected light from walls and ceilings, but might strain your eyes a bit (slower data speed). If you shut the door, it is unlikely that much light will pass through except via cracks and under the door. You might just still be able to read something (slow data speed with errors). Now, if you were able to switch on another light in the second room from the on/off switch of the light in the first, you could 'repeat' the ability to carry on reading in the next room. Such an ability also applies to Wi-Fi, by means of various techniques.
1. Extend the wireless receiving ability of your PC or laptop by attaching a Wi-Fi dongle at the end of a 5 metre USB extension lead, or longer with an amplified type. This will only satisfy one device.
2. Purchase a Wi-Fi Repeater. This device basically does what its name implies, and receives the original Wi-Fi signal at a weakening signal strength (say at that imaginary door between two rooms), and repeats download and upload data. Using the reading lamp analogy, this provides another lamp in the second room, but a bit dimmer, since the whole process can slow the speed by as much as half.
3. If your router has an Ethernet port, you can install physical network wiring to transport received data to any location within the house. An easier way is to use a kit of units to transfer the data from the router to another location via the domestic mains wiring. The unit at the far end of this route will convert the method of data transport to Wi-Fi, for use by enabled devices. There will also be some speed degradation since this is also a form of repeater. Apart from landline broadband providers, wireless broadband providers don't normally offer Ethernet routers, but these are available as unlocked types on the open market, e.g. Huawei E5151, but this isn't an ultrafast type!
Again,SOLWISE provide a variety of internal repeaters and network hubs to enhance your Wi-Fi capabilities.
What else can affect speed/performance? (Also applies to fibre)
Wi-Fi uses 13 different but overlapping channels (frequencies). Under normal circumstances, the controlling router will chose the best local free channel to communicate with connected devices. However, sometimes other routers in the area may be using the same or close channel, which could affect the speed. A channel can be manually changed within router configuration, but often a power down/up reboot will often cure that problem. An android utility app can be used to check which routers are using what channels and at what strength. Wi-Fi Analyzer can be downloaded for free to your Android phone or tablet using Google Play. There are similar apps for Windows or iPads and iPhone, and can prove extremely useful when installed on a portable device to plot your internal 'not spots' and whether something close by may be interfering with your own Wi-Fi signal.
It is also well known that there is a tendency for more people to use both landline and wireless broadband during the evenings. The majority of providers of both flavours will perform some kind of 'traffic shaping' to ensure that each user gets at least a minimum bandwidth in order to use most low speed services. Three are happy to explain how they deal with such high traffic situations, which they call Traffic Sense.
The more devices using the router at the same time (contention), the slower each will be able to operate.
An already slow or old device or PC will slow its ability to react swiftly during a speed test or other operation.
Looking 'inside' your MiFi
Your
PC or MAC browser can provide a display of the real time
performance of your local wireless MiFi router. If
you've got one, this is the local web address:
192.168.1.1.
This gives an idea of signal strength,
network speed (3G or HSPA+ or 3.9G), battery charge
etc. You can also do various router configuration functions if
you are that way inclined, just like any other serious router on
the market. If the default User name is 'admin', so is the
password.
This screen capture shows some of the various data that can be shown from within the MiFi. Here, it can be seen that four devices are using the router to gain access to the Internet. It should be noted that some MiFi's will only accept up to 5 devices at a time to be logged onto the unit. If attempts are made to connect further devices, the connection will be inhibited. The best way to overcome such a situation is to power off/on reboot the router and switch off devices not required for the time being. Later Mi-Fi version allow up to ten devices to be simultaneously connected. However, be warned that the more devices connected will tend to reduce the speed capability of them all!
Various Methods Being Used for MiFi Window Mounting
Click on the thumbnails for greater detail
"I Spy Broadband Dongles" gives 10 points for spotting each of these. If you find any more, send for inclusion!
Tools and Bandwidth
Although the broadband speed tests 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 using a
particular server, 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 available 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.
Similar 'apps' are available for other platforms such as Android, e.g. 'Network Monitor' Mini' , which provides an instantiations numerical real time up/down speed in the corner of the screen.
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,
have continued to vary from about 0.5 Mbs (500 kbits/sec) to around 1 Mbs (1000
kbits/sec) since 2007.
Note Well! This survey was performed 3 years ago, and an increasing number of residents in this village have been enjoying the evolving and improved performance since then (now up to 21 Mbs).
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. You can also see a 2.5 year log for fixed wireless broadband performance located at OX10 6LA, latterly using the latest HSPDA+ 21Mbps router, to show the gradual improvement in speed and consistency over that period.
N.B. It is important to realise that communication by wireless or any other medium for that matter, is only as fast as the weakest link. So, if your PC is one which only has a slow microprocessor or is busy with other activities on-line or internally, this can affect (slow) the measurement being made. Another important factor is the operational presence of security software such as a virus checker, which will tend to slow down the speed of communication. To ensure that your speed 'potential' can be measured, it may be necessary to switch this off during such tests or during important download activities.
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 onto 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'
Do you live in the Hills?
Isn't technology wonderful, in that it never stops evolving?
During the transition period between moving from sharing ADSL
connections across the
Ewelme Wireless Network, towards residents starting to use
3G, there were some locations in the village area that couldn't
always get a robust signal to avoid drop outs or the full speeds
offered by the network at that time. In some cases
consideration had to be given to using specialised
dongle/routers that could be enhanced with internal or external
aerials. Due to the increasing strength of 3G signals now,
and the addition of a closer mast since those early days (3
years ago), it is not often required to take any such measures
anymore. However, although many parts of Oxfordshire are now
covered by 3G from a variety of providers, it is known that some
other rural pockets of the county could still be within a 'not
spot' or 'weak spot'. There are a couple of companies who
provide equipment and aerials for 3G enhancement for such
difficult circumstances. One is
Solwise and the other is
Panorama Antennas. There is a sensitive piece of kit launched
in 2011, 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 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 (2011!)
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 has been available from Three
since the 7th April 2011. This is an example of the continuing
evolution of 3G technology where HSPA+ provides a step up
from the previous 7 Mbs network towards the forthcoming 4G
coverage. These links provide a taste of announcements for this
technology enhancement at the time, but which has now been the
standard network offering in Ewelme for some time, providing
measured speeds up to 10 Mbps:
Latest Dongle Technology Comes to Three and
Three Promises Network Upgrades - 2011 and
Three Quietly Rolling Out HSPA
The Campaigns, the Publicity and the Politics
Is Fibre Optic Broadband really
coming?
Well, inevitably surely. But if your interest has taken you thus far, this
section includes aspects of some of the newsworthy and political activities
regarding the efforts to highlight and overcome the lack of
landline broadband
availability in Oxfordshire's rural areas, including Ewelme. These newspaper
clips, on-line articles,
radio interviews and TV programmes
hopefully convey quite well the frustration and missed
timescales people have been expecting for
obtaining any kind of landline broadband service exceeding a slow
'up to' 1 Mbs
service or anything better than 'dial up'. However, what is also
included are some results of attempts to generally
convey to the residents of Ewelme in particular, and a number of similar rural
villages, that a perfectly adequate broadband service has already
been available locally by wireless for some time, if only a few
simple steps are taken to install it. Unfortunately, to some, such attempts
to convey information about available alternatives have
possibly been regarded as an encumbrance to the success and
associated kudos in
actually achieving the installation of fibre optic broadband in Ewelme.
This has tended to leave some residents confused with a
continuing see-saw belief that super-fast broadband is or is not just
around the corner.
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 2015 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? This video 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?
Interview for Radio Oxford (2011)
NEW Interviews (2012)
Then 18 months later, along comes Amanda Dellor, a broadcast journalist for Radio Oxford, requesting a live telephone interview for the August bank holiday breakfast show with James Cannon. This had been prompted by the recent news that the Ewelme Parish Council and RAF Benson had taken initial steps to request a grant from DEFRA (Dept. for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) towards getting fibre optic cable installed in Ewelme. The three hour morning show consisted of music and local news interspersed with live and recorded interviews. I have recorded and compressed three sound files, which although some parts are repeated, provide an interesting insight into the current rural broadband dilemma. The first provides a view of the Parish Council. The second indicates that even following fibre optic installation doesn't satisfy everybody! The third tries to convey the adequacy of alternatives.
Stream the sound by clicking each link.
Letter to Ed -
Benson Bulletin
Response to resident of Preston Crowmarsh complaining of
slow broadband in his village. You can
also hear this letter being read, provided
by a very impressive service offered by The
Benson Bulletin.
Recent timescales as reported in the Ewelme News.
January 2010 - Cable is not planned for installation in this village for the foreseeable future.
April 2011 - OCC initiative of sharing Ewelme School's 4 Mbs cable connection will take up to two years.
September 2011 - Ewelme is due to be connected by fibre optic cable at Kings Pool by possibly end of December 2011.
March 2012 - The intention is that Ewelme will get next generation access to broadband by end of 2012.
July 2012 - It is unlikely that fibre optic cable will reach the central box for at least another year. "In the meantime, a solution is available via mobile broadband"
September 2012 - Ewelme might be connected around the end of 2013. (parish council minutes).
July 2013 - Oxfordshire County Council announce that the first phase of Superfast Broadband installations will be complete in the Spring of 2014.
Further articles on the subject of broadband can be found on the Ewelme Village web site.
Conclusions.
It is my personal opinion that 3G/4G is the future of static
wireless broadband communication in this area, even if a fibre-optic based cable eventually becomes available
for fixed domestic locations
(see 4G v
Fibre). It is now highly
unlikely that further telephone cable
pairs will be made available across Wallingford Bridge,
but anyway, basic physics dictates that maximum data speeds of
only around 1 Mbs are possible due to distance from exchange.
Even this speed may not be the norm, where especially to the West of Kings Pool,
it's not possible to achieve much
more than 500 Kbs due to the indigenous aluminium telephone
cables within the village network. Within the last couple of years, it has been
increasingly possible for a number of Ewelme residents
using 3G or Mobile Broadband to
achieve regular broadband speeds of 4 - 6 Mbs or more without much
difficulty, apart from ensuring use of latest hardware and careful dongle placement
on an appropriate window. There are decreasing
situations where a 3G signal is difficult to obtain, and 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 21 Mbs wireless router types. 3.5G (HSDPA+) is
currently technically capable of achieving up to 21.6 Mbs (over
10Mbs has been reported by a new user in Ewelme) and 4G is expected
to provide even higher speeds, 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. You can try 3G
on a monthly basis, and walk away again if it doesn't suit. STOP PRESS -
The government have now completed the sale of the wireless frequencies
originally used for the now defunct analogue TV channels auctioned off in 2012 for use by the mobile
telephone companies for 4G technology. That's 21 Mbs and upwards
without digging up the road!
For those who have found this article complete gobbledegook, or are unwilling to take a risk in investing in equipment without knowing whether it will work, 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 me an email with a request (or feedback) and your contact details , or I'm quite happy to chat about it on 828200.
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.