Cyprus-Forum.com

[aly]

Hi, new to the forum... looks great. Anyway, when I first moved to cyprus I got the standard cytanet dialup and it was VERY slow. So, I switched to cytanets adsl service and am still not satisfied. Consdidering im paying 30 pounds a month the service is not very good at all. Im considering getting something faster but I dont want to pay that much more. How much would a good dsl service or cable be? I was told spidernet offered a good dsl service. Thx in advance.

[cannedmoose]

Don't know the answer, but welcome to the forum anyway

[devil]

The problem is not Cytanet, it is Cyta. ADSL works fast only if you are <1 km of copper wire from a node, 3 km max. The further you are, the slower it is (same in all countries). As the only ADSL service is a telephone copper wire monopoly from Cyta, it will make no difference whether you use Cytanet or any other ISP. IOW, your physical ADSL connection will always be the same.

The only other methods available just now are
a) cable if you happen to be in a service are of a supplier (0.01% of the population, as a guess)
b) satellite unidirection: you can download fast but you still need a DUN for uploading and connecting. Count £1000 capital/£50 per month
c) satellite bidirection: fast both directions. Count £2000 capital/£150 per month, no DUN needed.

[aly]

so unless I want to pay 50 pounds a month im screwed

How about the spidernet dsl?

[devil]

Still uses the Cyta lines.

[erolz]

The problem is not Cytanet, it is Cyta. ADSL works fast only if you are <1 km of copper wire from a node, 3 km max. The further you are, the slower it is (same in all countries).

The limit on DSL based solution is more to do with the quality of the copper than the lenght per se though both factor. In the UK generaly 5-6km from exchange can support upto 2mbs downstream using ADSL (rather than other DSL variants) and upto 10km for 'rate adaptive' services (ie somewhere between 56kbs and 512kbs. Thes pof course are only guidelines as it depends on the quality of the copper pairs. It may be that Cyprus have very poor quality copper pairs and thus the distances and speeds achievable are lower than the UKs. I do not know if this is the case or not.

The only other methods available just now are
c) satellite bidirection: fast both directions. Count £2000 capital/£150 per month, no DUN needed.

I have such a two sat system here in the north (huges based system). The prices are not quite as high as you state. Actually I am an agent here in the North for a UK company called bentley walker http://www.bentleytelecom.co.uk/ (mainly because becomming an agent was the easiest / cheapest way of getting myself a connection and not as a business).

There cheapest two solution (and these are the 'agent' prices I get) is their 'star blazer' service. Captial cost of the equipment is £880 and monthly service charge for 512k down and 128k up is £53 per month. On top of this is the cost of shipping from UK to Cyprus and installation. To be honest this is a new service and I have not installed one of these to date.

The product I have is the Star 6000 at a service level of 512k down and 128k up. I paid about £1100 for the equipment and pay approx £110pm for the service.

There is another option for those who want BB and live in an area without such a service - namely to build your own network or a 'community' network. Using licsened free wifi products communites can and are building their own BB networks. This ranges for 3 or four people sharing the cost of a 2 way sat connection and distributing it out using wifi, to local communites buying leased lines / atm circuits (and equivalents) and usinf wifi to distribute it out to 100's and even 1000's of users localy. This kind of 'community' network approach is being used all over the UK and europe and indeed the world. I have been involved with and still am involved with several projects of this kind in the UK as well as in 'lobbying' efforts in the UK to try and get government to promote and encourage such efforts and remove any regulatory hurdles.

[Piratis]

Devil, at work we use both Cytanet and Spidernet, and at home I am using Netway. There aren't huge differences but they exist.

E.g. Cytanet is OK for web browsing, but its standard packages suck with P2P programs (Kazaa emule etc).
Spidernet is better with P2P but uses proxies which can be a pain with some applications.

Personally I find Netway to be the best most of the time.

I believe the company of Hazaa (a forum member) are currently installing fiber optics in Limassol and at some point they will offer high speed internet. However I guess this will be in the city centers first and it will take a while to get to the suburbs (and maybe never in villages).

[Hazza]

The main line is installed, tested and working very well. We are running the fibre off the main run, splicing the cable together (dedicated team). There is also a team in Nicosia doing the same thing, so we are moving at a good rate.

[devil]

Well, if anyone can get 1 Mbit/s download broadband working in Mosfiloti, I have 32 addresses of people saying they are interested at ADSL prices.

[erolz]

Well, if anyone can get 1 Mbit/s download broadband working in Mosfiloti, I have 32 addresses of people saying they are interested at ADSL prices.

If they are located such they are within 3-5km of each other and have linbe of site they could form a co operative and build a wifi based network for their local distribution and share a single external connection out to the rest of the internet - be that a wire based connection or sat based. Of course this is more work than just buying 32 seperate services from an existing provider, but then they will own and have ful control of their network. I am just pointing out that this is an option. Obviously such solutions are not for everyone but such solutions can and do work around the world. It's a thought anyway. If you think you may be interested in looking at the possibility of such an approach please do not hesitate to contact me if you thik I might be able to help. You do not have to wait / hope for the existing telcos to decide to provide service - there are other options.