WiFi on Scottish sites - shocking
Apologies for the slight nationalistic slight here, but club WiFi in Scotland generally sucks. Both in coverage of sites and bandwidth!.
In Kinlochewe this week and only way to get a good signal is to stand next to the hotspot at the washing m/c. Really, in today’s time is it that expensive to stick a few repeaters in.
Bandwidth drops like a stone when a couple of people log on. I have cctv at the house and have only been able to check it once in a week and that was midday on traditional change over day.
Balbirnie was the same last year and don’t think Brora has it.
These are sites where it’s difficult to get a mobile signal never mind 4g, so arguably it’s more important to these busy sites.
Time to step up the service!!
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Could it be that the terrain which impedes reception of mobi signals is the very same problem which hinders Wi-fi reception?
Until recently, many Scottish sites had no Wi-fi but it’s what I expect if I choose to holiday in the beautiful but remote areas of Scotland.
Incidentally, Scotland is not unique in having signal problems, both mobi and Wi-fi. There are areas of Wales and the Westcountry, for example, where the same situation exists. I’m just glad when I find a signal but gave up on the club's Wi-fi long ago and refuse to give them my hard earned.
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It's not just Scotland although I think it could be more difficult there because of the geography and outside of large cities a sparse population. We were at Henley on Thames last week which is supposed to be a Gold standard site but as it was virtually full all the time we were there it struggled at times. I assume you should be able to use your laptop inside the van? When I actually managed to do a speed test it came out at less than half a MB which is reminiscent of the early ADSL days!!! At certain times of day it was OK but I would like to understand what Gold Standard means as the connection came nowhere near what I imagined that would mean!!!
As an aside I have used a few sites that use Camping Connect as a WiFi supplier and the connections always seem reasonable. Do the Club and its supplier try to throttle the speed back too much?
David
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I was in River Breamish again recently...built into a forest with trees around every bay of 5/8 pitches. Guess what repeaters in virtually every section and speeds comparable with what I get at home.
If repeaters can be used there and the likes of Kendal(most bizarre layout ever) there’s no excuse for them not being deployed elsewhere!
Other than it’s someones decision not to do it...
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"Other than it’s someones decision not to do it..."
Which is probably based on cost balanced against likely return. As I understand it, the instalation and income is all down to Air Angel and the club doesn’t have much input to the running of the system.
As I said, there are other areas which are in the same boat and I even considered a Wi-fi booster but in the end turned my back on club Wi-fi altogether.
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It all depends on how far anywhere is from the nearest BT box and if that box has had fibre optic cable run to it,there are numerous places in the rest of the UK that have abismal internet,
We have some friends who live in a road with 5 houses ,BT have laid fibre less that 400yds from them ,but they are still on dial up speeds and to have fibre run to their houses it would cost 18months ago £6000 each!!!!,
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It does seem a little strange. I can understand the CC not wanting to provide full site coverage, as the investment would have to be recouped, and the site is small with limited opening. However, when I checked for the area of the site, BT offered me infinity with up to 80MB download and 19.5MB upload. The very package we have at home. So in a hotspot situation with only a few using it speeds should be very good indeed. Perhaps infinity has only recently become available and the club needs to upgrade. It might be worth an email to the club outlining your experience.
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You’re served far worse than we are, apparently, Brue. The local TV news frequently carries reports of villagers installing their own booster systems.
Scotland? Tis nothing unusual at all.
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We have some friends who live in a road with 5 houses ,BT have laid fibre less that 400yds from them ,but they are still on dial up speeds and to have fibre run to their houses it would cost 18months ago £6000 each!!!!,
I assume there must be some other reason as well, like the quality of the copper connection, or not enough connections in the box. We are 4 / 500 metres from our box and recently upgraded to infinity. We went from 17 download 1.5 upload, to 75 download 19.5 upload, although we did need the house phone wiring replacing, as we were getting very inconsistent speeds.
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Forgot to mention they are in Norfolk,and its a farm lane on the Broads,so well out of the way like very many cc sites,Notgrove has only just recently got a "hot spot" not good, and that is 4.5 miles from Bourton on the Water,and no nearby fibre
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I think you are also having to contend with those who are using the wifi for watching sport and films, even though they are asked not to monopolise the service in this way. We had similar problems on Club sites last year, even on gold sites where the occupancy was low.
Using our own 3 data sim this year instead, good results so far.
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Our son lives in deepest darkest Ayrshire, almost 20 miles south of Glasgow, his broadband speed has been abysmal since he moved there 8 years back. He often gets better results with a 3 data sim. So not only remote places have a poor service.
Now, however, Openreach have been installing superfast fibre and he is about to get fibre right into the house, making up to 300MB download speed possible.
He is planning to install Cat 7 (?) wiring in the house.
We here have fibre to the box, so are changing supplier soon and should then get better speeds, but nothing like his.
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As far as 3 / 4G are concerned. I have always assumed that was down to the fact when abroad you are roaming and have access to multiple suppliers, as it seems the same in France. Here, if I we use one of our 3 different network devices, we can also usually get a signal. Just not on the one device, as abroad.
Free wifi hotspots generally seem a lot better however. I have never had the 35 MB I was getting in the Intermarche cafe in Tescos.☹️ On a busy autoroute services it is still rubbish though, just like over here.😂
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Yes, you are lucky living up there TG, and over the years going to Scotland has accounted for more than two thirds of our trips, and when we do we realise that having an internet/mobile signal, indeed might not happen but who cares, well we don't.
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I'm so sorry to read you have had a bad experience with Wi-Fi in Scotland on Club Sites. I've forwarded this discussion to our sites team for their reference.
If you would like to learn more about Wi-Fi on Club Sites and what the Club is doing to improve Wi-Fi services please see here: Club Wi-Fi
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