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The 'BROADBANDNOW' site is a look at what broadband internet access is already available on the island. Check out the map for coverage information. We still aim to provide a unbiased view of Island Broadband..
NEWS UPDATES:
Did you know that satellite broadband is fully available and reliable and at a price equivalent to business ADSL with better contention ratios! BT Business 500 ADSL is 20:1 contention ratio. Aramiska Satellite broadband is around the same price with only 6:1 contention down and 3:1 contention up. If you don't need to play online games! then this system is very reliable and fast. Most people think that ADSL from BT is the only form of broadband but they are wrong. I have now come to the conclusion that really the only users on the Island that are still denied service are home users and gamers who typically only pay about £30 per month for a fairly heavily contented service like 50:1. Soon if people follow the Turboweb wireless model then low cost broadband at a price and service level equivalent to BT can be achieved.
Freshwater isle of Wight has wireless broadband installed by 'Turboweb' at JCB Imaging, Avenue road. This is one of the UK's first local broadband isp's. Fully wireless distribution network fed by satellite. The service has now been providing speeds of 512kbps all over Freshwater for 5 months.
CLICK HERE FOR HISTORICAL INFO.
WHATS AVAILABLE ON THE ISLE OF WIGHT:
Things are looking up on the Broadband front thanks to all the new satellite services. Gillat and Huges and Aramiska all have developed satellite systems for home and small to medium business use. The monthly price of £59 - £200 per month, if you pay for the equipment. The only downside is the cost of the kit which is £800 - £1200. If you choose to rent then the prices are between £149 and £299 per month which is about the same as business ADSL! The Hughes systems we have tested have been pretty poor in reliability and performance with 900 - 2000ms pings and about 256kbps actual bandwidth compared to 512kbps service. We have not tested gillat yet. The Aramiska systems actually provide better bandwidth than business ADSL with the downside of 600 - 900ms pings, the throughput on a 512kbps Aramiska system is about 450 - 512kbps pretty stable, using highly reliable linux router (which you get as part of the package). The arrival of wireless local lans enables connections to be delivered at lower cost. I have separated the different service available now between home and business users based on cost of service.
Rough Guide to prices.
BT ADSL costs around £100 - £300 install and around £30/Month
Cable broadband costs around £150 install and around £20 - £100/month
Turboweb broadband costs £200 install and £30/month
Satellite costs from £0 - £1500 install and £70 - £2000/month
Leased line costs £2000 - £25000 install and £1500 - £5000/month
Broadband Wight Coming soon.
Business Broadband.
| Company | Satweb |
| type |
satellite/business |
| monthly cost | £200-£400 |
| setup cost | £1200 |
| pro's | High end bandwidth for high end app's |
| con's | setup and monthly cost high |
| bandwidth upstream | 128kbps-512kbps |
| bandwidth downstream | 256kbps-2mbps |
| comment | Satellite equivalent to a Leased line. Untested. |
| sales@satweb.co.uk | |
| website | www.satweb.co.uk |
| Company | Isonetric |
| type | satellite/business |
| monthly cost | |
| setup cost | |
| pro's | |
| con's | |
| bandwidth upstream | |
| bandwidth downstream | |
| comment | Very bad service and support. |
| website | Bankrupt Company since Feb 2003 |
| Company | Bridge |
| type | satellite/business |
| monthly cost | £159-£499 |
| setup cost | First months payment in advance |
| pro's | no setup cost. |
| con's | 3 year contract unless you buy kit |
| bandwidth upstream | 128kbps |
| bandwidth downstream | 512kbps-2mbps |
| comment | Poor quality Hughes system. Too heavily contented. Unreliable equipment. Virtually impossible to network reliably. Would only suit home or soho use. Also has FAP which slows your bandwidth if you download too much!! |
| website | www.bridgebroadband.co.uk |
| Company | Beam |
| type | satellite/home?/business |
| monthly cost | £110-£200 |
| setup cost | £400 |
| pro's | fairly cheap monthly! |
| con's | 12 month contract |
| bandwidth upstream | 153kbps |
| bandwidth downstream | 450kbps-512kbps |
| comment | Untested |
| website | Beam |
| Company | Armiska |
| type | satellite/business |
| monthly cost | £199-£549 |
| setup cost | £0 |
| pro's | good for higher end service |
| con's | No port forwarding on router |
| bandwidth upstream | 64kbps-320kbps |
| bandwidth downstream | 256kbps-2048mbps |
| comment | Most reliable hardware we have tested. Fairly high end bandwidth suits medium to large networks. Much better than the Hughes systems. System comes with a good Linux based router with enterprise level features. No possibility to forward ports though (apart from a VPN) is only bad point. |
| website | www.aramiska.com |
| Company | Icon Beam |
| type | satellite/home?/business |
| monthly cost | £99-£249 |
| setup cost | £650 |
| pro's | fairly cheap monthly! |
| con's | setup fee |
| bandwidth upstream | 128kbps-153kbps |
| bandwidth downstream | 400kbps-512kbps |
| comment | Untested |
| website | www.iconbeam.co.uk/ |
| Company | British Telecom |
| type | satellite/home/business |
| monthly cost | £60-£110 |
| setup cost | £900-£1300 |
| pro's | cheapest monthly |
| con's | high cost of setup, BT have a bad record of service. |
| bandwidth upstream | 150kbps |
| bandwidth downstream | up to 500kbps |
| comment | Apart from the setup cost looks okay. Not really fast enough for business though. Untested. Also apparently they disconnect heavy users of the service. |
| website | www.btopenworld.com/satellite/ |
| Company | Mac-1 internet |
| type | satellite/home/business |
| monthly cost | £159-£249 |
| setup cost | £0 |
| pro's | full range of service |
| con's | |
| bandwidth upstream | 128kbps |
| bandwidth downstream | 512kbps-2mbps burstable 4mbps |
| comment | Friendly people, Hughes systems (see Bridge comment) also sells Opensky systems. |
| website | http://www.mac-1.net/broadband/ |
Home Broadband
| Company | OpenSky (Eutelsat) |
| type | satellite/home. download only. (Must be used in conjunction with regular dial up isp. |
| monthly cost | £20 - £35 (excluding dial up access) |
| setup cost | £200 aprox |
| pro's | cheap monthly |
| con's | One way sat is not the best idea, but it's cheap - which is good!! |
| bandwidth upstream | 10 - 30kbps (dial up connection!) |
| bandwidth downstream | 400 kbps - 1.5 mbps |
| comment | Untested |
| website | http://www.opensky.eutelsat.net |
| Company | Isle of Wight Cable |
| type | cable internet + tv and phone |
| monthly cost | £30-£100 |
| setup cost | £150 |
| pro's | Normal price broadband setup |
| con's | was bankrupt but now taken over by new company |
| bandwidth upstream | 256kbps |
| bandwidth downstream | 256kbps-1mbps |
| comment | Looks great but coverage very limited to selected urban areas only. |
| website | www.iowctc.co.uk |
| Company | Bently Walker |
| type | satellite |
| monthly cost | £69 |
| setup cost | £1000 |
| pro's | Local Salesman |
| con's | |
| bandwidth upstream | 128kbps |
| bandwidth downstream | 512kbps - 2mbps |
| comment | Friendly local sales man on Isle of Wight. Hughes system. (see Bridge comment). Also now sells Open Sky systems. |
| sales@bentleywalker.com | |
| website | http://www.bentleywalker.com/ |
| local contact | 01983 555025 inter@postmaster.co.uk |
| Company | ADSL resold by Various companies. |
| type | adsl |
| monthly cost | £25 - 35 |
| setup cost | £150 |
| pro's | cheap simple easy, Provided over existing copper phone wires |
| con's | heavily contented can be oversubscribed. Limited speeds available. |
| bandwidth upstream | 256kbps |
| bandwidth downstream | 256kbps-1mbps |
| comment | great shame it's only available in Ryde so far!! Not too fast though at peak times due to heavy load but setup is cheap thanks to heavy competition between rival isp's. |
| Freeserve, Freeola etc etc etc | |
| website | Most ISP's sell ADSL using BT lines |
| Company | Turboweb wireless broadband. |
| type | 802.11b wireless network |
| monthly cost | £30 |
| setup cost | £200 approx |
| pro's | Low cost, Only option available in Freshwater. Normal priced setup for broadband. Fairly good coverage around Freshwater. |
| con's | Only available in Freshwater |
| bandwidth upstream | 128 kbps coming soon 512kbps |
| bandwidth downstream | 256kbps-1mbps |
| comment | At last people in Freshwater can have always on broadband at lowest possible prices!! |
| sales@turboweb.org | |
| website | www.turboweb.org |
| Phone | 01983 756313 (9-5 mon to fri) |
Some island businesses have leased lines from BT and other ISP's using Various methods of technology's, often using the copper wires of the telephone system. Check with leased line providers. Pretty much all of these installations are provided by BT to carry the data to you over the old post office network, and terminated into the company who sells you the bandwidth. These types of links are notoriously expensive and can only really be used by large corporations and local government 'because we pay for it with our tax and they don't care how much of it they spend!!'. Typical cost could be £16,000 - £39,000 per year for 1 - 4mbps. Unbelievably local Library's have leased lines simply providing a couple of computers with internet access!! It will never be sustainable and they should have chosen satellite. I can only imagine the IT decision makers at the Isle of Wight council are out of touch with modern telecommunications technologies which isn't surprising :>