I just discovered that you can get satellite internet at £25 per month. Which is cheaper than any broadband I know of in CH. If it works half as well as they claim, this could be just what I need to replace our Swisscom landline. The connection quality may not be comparable, but we don't need a massively fast speeds. It have to be good enough for VoIP, though.

Anyone have any experience with this kind of satellite broadband setup?

Look into this before you go for it.

Satellite internet usually means that the data quota is download + upload combined, monthly data allowance is throttled back once you go over your package limit and satellite connections do not respond as fast as a dsl or cable connection, this is an important factor to think about if your giving up a land line phone. I would like to have a good play around with one of these. I did use a mobile data sat system in the sahara, it worked but slow. Bad weather can also slow things down too

Still very nice to have on the camper van if your going to travel around europe with no data roaming charge

This link should work http://www.bentley-walker.com/tooway/tooway_home.php

Christopher

Thanks GB-in-CH for correcting the dodgy link in my first post.

Here's another provider, which has an even cheaper option at £20/month, although the setup costs are a higher. This is including UK VAT at 20%, so the cost if you can avoid/reclaim VAT is only £16/month. Which is starting to look very attractive compared with the CHF75 we pay Swisscom each month for our landline broadband.

The satellite bandwidth is throttled once you exceed the monthly limit, as GB-in-CH correctly points out. But the limit is not tiny (eg 6 or 10GB/month), and you still get a usable bandwidth (eg 256kbs) even when the throttle kicks in. Maybe the relatively long ping times (700ms instead of 30ms) would make it more difficult for the kids to spend endless hours on World of Warcraft. And wouldn't that be a shame....

Not sure how the extra line delay would affect VoIP - as far as I know, VoIP has clever ways of coping this kind of problem. There's only one way to find out...

It might sound like a lot, but 10GB will disappear very quickly if you have teenagers. Especially if they play things like World of Warcraft - the patches alone will take a big chunk of the data cap. Even if your kids are not into playing games, they'll still like to use things like youtube, skype, etc.

We had satellite broadband years ago and besides the small download/upload limit the major problem was response time.

I would say it is a good solution if you are in a very remote place and broadband isn't available but otherwise it doesn't compare to standard broadband.

Here is a good link on the subject: http://www.ehow.com/list_6326558_adv...satellite.html

For 25chf per month you can ignore of the "expense" item on the list.

If you plan on playing online games then is is definitely not an option.

Thanks! Any more detail? How long ago? Can you remember what the limits were? The ehow link is also from a couple of years ago - maybe things have improved since then?

Honestly? The online games thing would be a bonus.

We had it about 10 years ago in Ireland so you probably get alot more bandwidth. I think that latency will always be an issue, there is only so much that can be done to speed up transmission over a distance of 22k miles.

The fact that it is around for so long and relatively unpopular says it all.

As with gaming, VOIP also performs terribly owing to latency.

http://www.isp-reviews.org/satellite-voip.htm

Ex-Gilat user

Yes, I was trying to remember the other problem we had and it was VOIP. At best there would be a delay and often times it would simply not work at all.

Again, the technology(both Skype and Satellite BB) might have improved here but I think physics will always be against you!

Check out comparis and you can get broadband from as little as 34chf per month. This is only slightly more expensive than £25 for satellite and most likely doesn't have as high a setup fee.

http://www.comparis.ch/telecom/adsl/...G_ADSLstandard

For streaming video and general surfing, the latency shouldn't be a huge problem, since there is little two-way traffic. VoIP has clever ways of bundling data packets together, although I guess that there's no way this can completely overcome the latency delay. But then again most international voice traffic is routed via satellite these days, so would it really be any worse than making an international call?

Altogether it sounds like you wouldn't recommend it, based on your experience?

But you presumably have to add the CHF25 connection charge on to that?

Unfortunately we're not in a Cablecom area, so are bound to either Swisscom or our Gemeinde's cable provider, which are both relatively expensive.

No I wouldn't recommend it unless you are in a situation where regular broadband isn't available. If you look at my previous reply you'll see the savings you make are probably not enough to justify it.

It is interesting to see how much the prices come down over time, back then we paid something close to €1k to install and around €100 per month. In rural Ireland, there was simply no other option(and still isn't in some areas )

Yes I guess you would have to add line rental on top of that.

Another option would be to use a 3G dongle from the likes of Orange. I have a prepay orange sim and if I top up by 30chf, I get unlimited internet for 4 weeks on my mobile phone. I use it on my smartphone but you could just as easily put this sim in a dongle and connect directly to your laptop/computer.

Here is a link to the pay as you go offer I use:
http://www1.orange.ch/en/mobile/prep...nge-me-prepay/

I pick the "Surf" bonus to get unlimited internet.

They also have a data only offer which comes with a 3G dongle(as far as I can tell):
http://www1.orange.ch/en/internet/on...et-everywhere/

Just to add to this, I have often used Skype on my smartphone through 3G and the call quality has been just as good as when sat at my laptop and using Broadband. This is obviously dependent on the coverage in your area but hopefully it is good and this could be a viable option for you.

I also have this, but I don't think the 3G would be enough for family use at home. I'm still tempted to try the satellite thing. Only trouble is, it would mean committing for a one or two years contract.

Yes if you have more than 1 or 2 users it is probably not practical. I guess the only way you will really find out about satellite BB is to try it out and see.

I hope it works for you and your family doesn't give you grief for the whole year!

the only things for which it would not be a problem would be streaming videos and email. You will notice a definite latency delay when surfing. VoIP is really not a viable option. And as far as I know, most international voice traffic is routed over undersea optic cables, not satellite - for precisely that reason.

Hmm. Doesn't sound like it will do quite what we want.

In their FAQ section they say there will be a 1 second delay on VOIP calls, the truth be told this is probably a best case scenario. The savings would really be replaced by frustration for your whole family.

http://www.bentley-walker.com/tooway/tooway_faqs.php

I have a 3g connection on my phone and also on my ipad and have to say its great, on the pad i have a 5 chf per month contract then i think i pay about 2.50 or 3chf for each day i use it, so if i dont use it on the pad at all in the month its only going to cost me 5 chf.

Speed is perfect for skype or apple face time and ive uesed both apps fom the pad many times, perfect video from face time ok from skype but then skype is a little poo anyway for video.

I would spend a little time to really work out how much you need too use the net if paying swisscom is getting too much. For me i would cut down on a few cigars a month and keep the home dsl connection.

Bugger now youve got me thinking aboutnhow much im spending

Christopher