Wifi in Village Hall

[PaulineDallington]

Thanks for quick reply. But I don’t think so - my devices don’t see any nearby networks when I’m in the hall. And I think we want to use it more than would be reasonable piggybacking off someone’s home network. I was googling to see what other halls had done and came across your post so hoped you might have got a sensible response from Openreach/BT by now. I don’t mind paying to install a line if we must but we’re so short of funds that I hoped to find a cheap simple solution.

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

The only really cheap and simple solution is to piggy-back off an existing broadband connection, using WiFi links. You'd have to buy some modest WiFi "bridge" antennas to make it work, but they'd be less than £100 for a short connection distance of few hundred metres or less.

Unfortunately if you want to use the BT copper line for broadband into the hall then you will need to pay for line rental. There is no way around it.

Other alternative "BT line (rental) free" options for broadband are:

• Virgin Media broadband using their own network. However I don't believe they have a network in your area
• Wireless ISP's. This uses WiFi type technology, with dedicated radios providing broadband speed up to around 100Mb/s up and down. As a guide I was recently quoted by a local WISP here between £15 and £49 per month, depending on data volumes for a 15 Mb/s up/down service. The install charge was £175
• 4G broadband. Typically EE or Vodafone. However you need reasonably strong 4G phone service to make it happen. Anywhere between £22 and £90 per month depending on data volumes.
• Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) on Demand (FTTPoD). However the lead times are long, 3 to 6 months and the installation prices can range from the sublime to the ridiculous, especially if you're are a long way away from a fibre aggregation node. I think it would be way out of budget but mention it for completeness.
• Satellite. Expensive and slow. Not recommended.

Other than getting your broadband down a BT land line, I think your only other realistic options are Wireless ISP or 4G broadband (both signal dependant).

 

[upnortheast]

You say you have a good service "just up the road" in your own house.
Have a chat to the support boys at https://www.solwise.co.uk/ and explain your situation.
They should be able to offer some options to get a service from your house. Assuming you are happy to do that

 

[Wooly]

Hi Frank did you solve your Wi-fi problem? I’m treasurer of another East Sussex village hall and also want to install broadband in the hall w/o paying for a phone line. We finally have a fibre cabinet in the street and I now have fast broadband at home just up the road from the hall (but too far to use my connection) Be grateful for any advice you can offer

We gave up with BT internet as they never delivered more than 0.2 speed. We have now got VFast sat. broadband and so far it has been excellent.

https://www.vfast.co.uk/

No cables, no going through stacks of useless call centres and they have a can do attitude. Once our BT contract runs out shortly, we will also move our phone with them.

 

[joe soapy]

If you have a 30 metre run to a high speed broadband cabinet, your broadband speed will be most excellent!

However if there is not already a landline in place, you will need a landline installed to the cabinet on behalf of your broadband supplier by Openreach.

There is no other way of accessing that service - unless as said - there is already a (residential or business) broadband service nearby that you can tap into using either WiFi, ethernet cable or your own fibre back to the router or network switch at that house or business, just like extending your own existing broadband connection to another building.

in theory you should log all users incase somebody is being naughty on the net

 

[milkloss]

We gave up with BT internet as they never delivered more than 0.2 speed. We have now got VFast sat. broadband and so far it has been excellent.

https://www.vfast.co.uk/

No cables, no going through stacks of useless call centres and they have a can do attitude. Once our BT contract runs out shortly, we will also move our phone with them.

I doubt they have the best reliability where hills and trees are concerned. I appreciate you don’t have that problem!

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

Hi Frank did you solve your Wi-fi problem? I’m treasurer of another East Sussex village hall and also want to install broadband in the hall w/o paying for a phone line. We finally have a fibre cabinet in the street and I now have fast broadband at home just up the road from the hall (but too far to use my connection) Be grateful for any advice you can offer

The answer is no. After many hours of frustrated calls I came up against a brick wall.
You have to have the Copper phone line even though they say you can have fibre to the premises!! You have to have a telephone line even if you do not want to make any calls.
Then after all this the cheapest price I could get to do it was then £40.00 per month which is not good value. We have the same problem with not having a property nearby to piggy back off. The Church I am sure has good connections but no internet!!

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

You have to have the Copper phone line even though they say you can have fibre to the premises!! You have to have a telephone line even if you do not want to make any calls.

If you order FTTP through BT (retail) then they will bundle a phone service with it. It will be delivered down the fibre like any other data and will be “split out” at the ONT device where the fibre is terminated in your home/office. It’s basically a VoIP phone service. There is no copper involved, except for the bits in your own premises.

If you order FTTPoD (on demand) from another third party ISP (like FluidOne or Cerberus) then it’s just a data service, you don’t have a voice service bundled with it. But of course you can run your own “phone” as a VoIP service over the fibre.

 

[ollie989898]

Ye Gods, there must be some muppets working for BT. How hard is it, the box is 30m from the premises, just install a fibre line!!