Telecom XT Mobile Broadband Working; Bye Bye Farmside
November 4th, 2009Farmside, our satellite ISP, represents our largest monthly expense. Every few months, I think about how much we’re spending on Farmside and how much I’d like to find an alternative. Telecom New Zealand launched their new XT network a few months ago. I just assumed that we wouldn’t be able to connect to this network out here in the wopwops. Just out of curiosity, I brought up the coverage map for Telecom’s XT network.
The map has four levels of coverage: Good, fair, limited and none. Our house falls within a “Limited” coverage area. The top of our property is “Fair.” Telecom just started a double-the-bandwidth-deal (all Internet plans have usage caps here) for the full length of a two year contract with no hardware cost.
I went for it.
I knew it was a gamble, but with what we’re paying to Farmside, any cheaper and better alternative was worth trying. Telecom give you seven days to try it out before you’re locked in.
The MF636 mobile broadband modem arrived this morning.
I plugged it into my system, installed the software and waited for it to sync up…
Nothing.
“No service.”
I walked to the front of the house, grabbed Becky’s laptop and tried the same thing.
“No service.”
I walked outside with the laptop. It started finding a signal, but it was switching between one bar and no service.
I was quivering with frustration: “It’s soooooo effing close to working.” I could practically taste it. I put on my gumboots and walked up our hill with the laptop. Our cows followed me.
It wasn’t long before I was getting decent speeds. At the top of the first rise, I had 1.2 megabits/second down and 1.3 megabits per second up. I wasn’t that far from the house. I could have thrown a rock—really hard—and hit the house. (Out of curiosity, I walked to the top of our property, but it wouldn’t go any faster.)
As I was standing there in the paddock, with the cows wondering what the hell was happening, I was accessing the Internet at—what are for me—damn fast speeds.
So there it was: plenty of speed, latency roughly an order of magnitude shorter than satellite, double the bandwidth cap for about half the price.
I made the decision to make it work for us—somehow. I wasn’t quite sure how. As I walked back down to the house, I had various thoughts about solar panels, wifi bridges, even hanging a cheap netbook up in the trees in some kind of waterproof container…
First things first.
Before trying to fire up my bigtop in the cow paddock, I wanted to see what I could do a bit closer to home.
Although the MF636 doesn’t have an external antenna input, I found that a company in Nelson sells an antenna kit that lists the MF636 as a compatible modem. I’m guessing that they provide some kind of sheath that slips over the modem and acts as a kind of wave guide. That kit looks really good, but I decided to try some of the old half ass wokfi tricks first, just to see how close I could get without having to spend more money.
I went into the kitchen and made off with a bunch of Becky’s baking sheets, frying pans, skillets and pots.
First of all, the modem would have to be near a window, since our (metal) house was obviously shielding the signal. There was actually a signal on the south side of the house, right at the windows. I was getting about 250 to 300 kbits/sec down and up even without wokfi methods. I started trying my luck with the kitchenware. Long story short: Using Becky’s largest stainless steel stock pot, pointed south/east and up a few degrees, I got it going 1.2 mbits down and 1.2 mbits up! Oh hallelujah!!!
I’ve ordered a 5 metre long USB cord and I’ll look at building an outdoor rig that will put the metal structure of the house between the modem and us.
Anyway, since some of you are reading this via Farmside connections, I thought I’d let you know about this Telecom XT situation. Maybe it’s an option for you. Even if you’re in a “limited” zone, go for it… Assuming your wife won’t get too pissed when you need that large stock pot.
first of all, i have to congratulate you on your native-level use of the word “wopwops”. after such a brief residency too. Owen must be a first-rate teacher of new zild.
oh, and the broadband. hallelujah. it’s a miracle. telecom are one of my favourite hates but if it works and it’s faster and cheaper…good result for you, i hope it takes some pressure off your monthly outgoings.
i used to live in a part of Japan with no xDSL access and it sucked. the wireless options back then sucked too. nowadays, in the wopwops in Japan there is more fibre coverage and more wireless broadband at realistic prices too.
I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve complained about Telecom on here. I actually looked at Vodafone, but their mobile broadband deal wasn’t as good. Apparently, their mobile network extends out into the wops a bit.
Re Owen: Several months ago, we were driving along and I said, “Aaaah yep” in response to something Becky said. (You should know that Becky doesn’t say aaah yep, sweet as, heaps, bro, choice etc.) I find it a bit disturbing that I’m saying “Aaaaahyep” without even realizing it.
Anyway, Owen barked out a very clear, “Aaaaaah yep!” from his car seat.
Bex and I looked and each other and she raised an eyebrow, as if to say, “You may think he’s not listening, but he is.”
Kiwi accent/idioms done as pisstake by Aussies:
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/beachedaz/
ah the joys of the country ! We are in mountainous land here. Satellite is hopeless, wi fi is amusing, at best.
as for the acquisition of language, as a former linguist, I might tell you it is inevitable, acclimation to sound is one of our most deeply held tribalisms, and one almost impossible to resist. as for me, I’m fixin’ to cover some of my gold positions, and that right shortly.
<>
this fact is also why I cannot move to OZ. mite.
– c
A few years ago, this county in eastern Oregon, USA by the Columbia river was able to install good Wifi.
http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/news/2005/10/69234
Where I currently am north of Los Angeles, I starts to imagine there is collusion to keep prices up. I was paying $15 for DSL in another city, but my landlord had me put all the utilities for our 5 unit building in my name, so I was scouting out cheaper alternatives. Standard cable internet is about $48, and DSL would be about $30.
oh yeah, they’re listening…and it all gets thrown back at you when you’re least expecting it. especially the embarrassing bits that you assume no one has noticed. enjoy!
(i’ll watch the abc skit later)