THE ONGOING frustration with internet services in the country is well known, with daily reports of intermittent service, pre-historic download speeds and paltry data allowances all hindering rural users.
And many are pessimistic of an improvement in the near-term in spite of the roll out of the National Broadband Network, saying they fear being left behind due to their geographic isolation.
However, one communication and information technology specialist said there were a number of steps rural residents could take themselves to ensure they get the most of out of what internet coverage they have.
Ian Ware, of APA Sound, based in Cooma in NSW’s Monaro region, said there were a number of steps people could use to boost speeds from their fixed wireless connections.
“Maximising your coverage is very important, the good news is there is a lot you can do by yourself to improve it.”
Speaking at the Grain Growers Innovation Generation conference in Adelaide earlier in the month, he said people within 14 kilometres of a transmitter with a direct line of sight could access fixed wireless services.
“You’ll be able to get either a 12/1 (megabits a second download and upload speed) or a 25/5 connection and it is not a bad system if it works.”
He said people looking to make decision on internet providers could first check on this website to check what towers were nearest to them.
“You’ll be able to find out what towers are the closest and who is transmitting from the tower and this may mean you consider changing providers to be with the one with services closest to you.”
In terms of getting access to NBN, Mr Ware said farmers needed to think outside the square.
“If your house is not within the 14 kilometres or it is not in the line of site, check out if you have a wool shed or machinery shed that is.”
He said he had just completed a project in the Young district in NSW where through using a wool shed as a repeater he was able to get NBN connection for around 20 farms in a valley.
“The NBN stipulates you cannot water down a signal, if we bring a signal in it is only to that farm with no other hangers-on, so what we did was bring in multiple NBN signals and sent down to farms further on.
“It is not that difficult providing the farms are in line of sight, you can go out to 90 kilometres as the connection is 450Mb/s, screaming along compared with the 25/5Mb/s connections offered by NBN.
“You have your NBN panel coming in where the connection comes in at 25/5Mb/s and goes out the 450Mb/s connection and it can be sent to the office, the shearing shed or wherever.”
He said each antenna that re-transmits the NBN in the shearing shed to the satellite locations is done so using a 120 degree sector antenna, so the one transmitter can be used by multiple receivers within the 120 degrees, and at each transmission and receiving location you can get WiFi access.”
“It shows that a shed on a hill, with power, can be a very valuable asset.”
“You can afford to bounce it around and dilute the signal a little as it is running at 400Mb/s.”
“Using relays and mobile hot spots are very feasible options, there are good free services there in terms of getting it from point A to point B, with software analyzing the height of the towers and the terrain.”
Mr Ware said over the past 18 months he had helped provide internet services to 80 different properties.
“We try not to go to an individual property but to work in a district, that way the fire shed and little preschool can both get the NBN where they normally wouldn’t be able to.”
Mr Ware said NBN Co had been excellent to deal with in getting the networks up and running.
In terms of reliability of service, he said a simple check where the signal comes from was a useful process.
“If your tower has fibre to the base you will have a good connection, where we find issues is where the signal is bounced from tower to tower.”
“Should one tower falls over the whole system goes down, so keep that in mind when choosing an ISP, look for one that has multiple connections in multiple places.”