Airangel statement about their service!
Wish I had read the comments about the poor standard of WiFi from our club before purchasing the annual subscription of £30.
Thought this would help us whilst we are in semi-lockdown on site.
I complained to Airangel about the constant loss of signal, especially when viewing live footballn etc.and this was their reply:
“All guests at CAMC sites are limited to 1mb/0.25mb so the speeds will not be sufficient for streaming, we recommend only emails and light browsing.”
Question, Why are we not advised this by our club prior to payment?
Comments
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When I have used the club site wifi it has been adequate for it's intended use,
"Sharing a limited bandwidth with others may also vary the speed of service with some sites being a distance from the exchange. Our service is suitable for basic web surfing and emails but not updates or streaming e.g. BBC iPlayer, YouTube and Skype".
If you are downloading live football etc then you are part of the problem by making it worse for other members.
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I have also found it generally OK in the past. However, when there were problems it was normally at weekends when the sites were full. Ours ran out at the end of last year. Normally I would have renewed it at the start of our next tour. That is due in September and I am undecided wether to renew. Most of the sites we are visiting are already looking more popular mid week than other years. It is therefore likely that weekday use of the wifi will be greater and it may struggle. I will just have to make up my mind when I see numbers on site. Unfortunately due to the slow speed of the club web site, it won't be possible to use that as a guide.
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My goodness, Steve, you'll soon be agreeing with me😂😂😂
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As posted before ,if people will insist on trying to do the same as home broadband by streaming,(against what it has been installed for)it would cost a lot more than the £30 per year to give it that capacity,
I also understand it seems the reason this web site is so slow (slower than usually)is the amount of pressure the booking system is under,at this time
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To install something & then ask for restrictions on its use is naive at best. It's like putting a free bar on & then suggesting you're only able to have a single drink each .... first at the bar will get as much as possible.
CT has been stupidly slow for years ... way way before the booking system has been 'under pressure' ...and even if that was the case, it goes to show that either the IT staff need a kick up the harris or the Caravan Club needs to put their hand in their pocket do something about it.
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I am not altogether surprised by the OP's comment. Whilst many of us appreciate how the Club WiFi was set up all those years ago it is not really providing a service for modern times. When Club WiFi was first installed no one had hardly heard of streaming let alone Netflix!!! I somehow doubt that the Club will change or enhance the service because so many people use their own data via a phone or MiFi and that is probably the way forward for the OP?
David
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The Club have always stated that site WiFi is only for light use - not streaming. We specifically purchased 20GB per month from EE to cater for this limitation and on most sites we have visited in the last two years that has worked extremely well. However, we recently spent five nights at Stamford CAMC site and there was no usable EE or O2 signal. For the first time in two years we had to purchase Club WiFi at a cost of £11 to cover our period of stay as we needed to keep in touch with family members. It was almost unusable, except mid-afternoon and around dawn. One day we couldn’t get connected at all. I think it is the people thoughtlessly streaming football and TV programmes that completely wasted our £11.
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I agree. To be honest, I can’t believe folks who use internet while away are relying upon Club WiFi nowadays. There are just so many more reliable and cheaper options. To use a football analogy, Club WiFi is definitely Non League!
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With LVs being manufactured with built in Mifi units and booster aerials, I think fewer and fewer people will be relying on site wifi.
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I complained to Airangel about the constant loss of signal, especially when viewing live footballn etc.and this was their reply:
“All guests at CAMC sites are limited to 1mb/0.25mb so the speeds will not be sufficient for streaming, we recommend only emails and light browsing.
”Unless things have changed since the end of last year, (it's still mentioned in the Wifi section) Airangels statement is not correct. At gold and silver silver sites they operate a dynamic bandwidth system. This means at less busy times you get a bigger slice. I have recorded up to 14MB download / 4MB upload. As more folk join this reduces down to the 1MB/0.25 they mention.
This results in complaints, such as the OP's. If it was 1MB when they joined, they wouldn't be able to initiate streaming. However, if higher it initially works but soon goes off line as others connect.
Personally I think they should be more upfront about what it can be used for. Big bold text, make you tick a box ✔️to say you understand it's limitations before you can proceed. However, then of course less would pay up.🤔
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This club needs to come into the 21st century. You can get on a train/bus and get better speeds or even walk into a McDonalds and get better and all for free. restraunts/cafe's and shops are better. I stopped paying for this as love my footy and like to watch even when away but couldn't on club sites. I now have a mifi with 3 and such a better service. When everyone stops paying for this then the club will loose out.
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Mobile signals are much better in most parts of the country now. Rugged rural areas will probably still suffer but the chances are that if you can’t get a 3/4G mobile signal on a club site, the site wifi is likely to be poor as well.
The huge advantage of mifi, or just using your phone and tethering via your own mobile hotspot, is that it works on sites other than club sites.👍🏻
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I was going to complain about the WiFi at Edinburgh, it's supposed to be a Silver WiFi, we've had two excellent WiFi on two previous sites and Edinburgh is a disgrace but as we found out not unique. Strathclyde is the same and then Buxton was even worse, although ironically a bad thunderstorm improved it slightly.
There's a number of issues here but the main ones I see as, we've paid for a service we don't often get, to Log In can be a luxury, let alone use it.
The year is 2020, not 1820, we now rely so much on WiFi and whilst low usage would be great, we expect a lot more nowadays, especially when we pay for it.
During this time it's essential, we had a difficulty due to a lockdown and were stuck, as we couldn't bring up alternative sites, fortunately we got through on the phone to the Club HQ and they sorted it out. However, how could we have done that outside office hours or at a site like Buxton with little phone signal?
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The wardens would have sorted things for you as they always have.👍🏻
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Yes they would🤪
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