Rural Broadband

[Yebogogo]

Hi,

Apologies if this is covered elsewhere but I cannot find it. I need to know the best broadband solution in the following scenario: -

Rural Limpopo (at least 30Km away from any main town), exchange not ADSL, exchange not scheduled for ADSL.

Maximum amount of bandwidth (Weighting 40)
Lots of concurrent users (Weighting 20)
Cost (Weighting 40)

Timescale to come online - Mid 2008

So is there, or will there be, an option beyond VSAT. Is there a way to push Telkom into including the exchange on an ADSL rollout plan. Will Wi-Fi/Wi-Max ever go rural. Do iBurst/Sentech/3G operators ever plan to have rural coverage.

Thanks

 

[Boodles]

I think you need to be much closer to the exchange than 30kms to get adsl.

So i think you can count that one out. But the more techie guys can confirm this.

Rural does suck, sometimes even having a landline results in abnoramal disconnections which in turn makes even a 56k line frustrating. (case scenario with me awhile ago - i ended up cancelling telkom line alltogether after telkom techies came to my house about 10 times after me complaining and couldnt improve my line.)

Sorry, gone off topic a bit. lol

 

[etothex]

Yeah, you'll have better luck waiting to see if the SNO does anything about it.

 

[Boodles]

Not sure about satelitte, but using mbile phone via PC is one option.

 

[dominic]

Yebo - welcome to myadsl

check out the under serviced area licencee (USAL) for your area (i suggest google for "USAL + the municipal district you are in"

i am not sure whether any licence will have been issued - if it has it is unlikely that the licencee has rolled out any infrastructure - but it may well be worthwhile to checkout what their plans are

 

[ambo]

In this scenario a WISP is a very good solution. With some skilled labour, the correct equipment and some farmers willing to donate the tops of their hills to the project, a 30km link is no hassle using wifi technology.

If you can get one of the USAL's on board then it would be far more legal - however i very much doubt whether Telkom or ICASA would have any luck shutting you down if you can prove that no one will provide you with a service.

I have seen plenty of evidence that these networks exist (huge clusters of wifi kit on the roof of rural buildings) but unfortunately I do not know who is providing these services.

The other issue is the link from the WISP to the outside world. If Telkom figures out what you are doing they may not give you the diginet or ADSL line you need to run the system - so you may still have to get a VSAT link for that. But if you can share it effectively amongst your neighbours then it may be more worthwhile.

 

[Yebogogo]

Thanks

This is all very interesting, but i did hope it might be easier.

I know I can get ADSL 30km away so maybe the simplest thing to do is rent an office and drive there.

Looks like Wisp could work well but it looks like thats a bit of a project.

Spacestream seems like an alternative (if slightly costly but I guess it's a lot more convient than driving) and Neotel are talking about Wimax today so who knows.

Plenty of time to get it worked out though so I'll keep you posted if I work out a good solution.

 

[skydog]

This is all very interesting, but i did hope it might be easier.

I know I can get ADSL 30km away so maybe the simplest thing to do is rent an office and drive there.

Looks like Wisp could work well but it looks like thats a bit of a project.

Spacestream seems like an alternative (if slightly costly but I guess it's a lot more convient than driving) and Neotel are talking about Wimax today so who knows.

Plenty of time to get it worked out though so I'll keep you posted if I work out a good solution.

depending on Line Of Sight you could "extend" the ADSL line that last 30km with a wireless link.

i guess it just depends how desperate you are

 

[Yebogogo]

3g

Hi,

I've just been onto the Vodacom 3G coverage site http://168.210.128.68/3G/ and much to my suprise it appears that I may even be able to get 3G (or at most it will be only 1 or 2km away) - The MTN site does not give me coverage up to 30km away.

Do these coverage maps bear any relation to reality or is it a case of suck it and see?
Is GPRS of dial up standard or better/worse - I could put up with that bandwidth level some of the time (20%)
Of course, I wouldn't want to sign up for 24 months for something I then cannot use, do they let you trial it?

Also the last Km maybe an interesting problem to solve, I suppose I befriend someone with property in range and ask them to let me put equipment on their roof or I could build a small mast if there's somewhere on my land I can get coverage - but then - how do I keep my 3G and Wifi equipment safe from opportunists?

 

[Syndyre]

GPRS is faster than dialup but not much. See if you can get EDGE coverage from MTN, it generally has a longer range than 3G. Otherwise you might be able to get 3G coverage if you put a Yagi on your roof.