Rural UK kills the iPad!

[Jophster]

Hi all!
Just got my iPad and have been testing it out for the past couple of days and my biggest complaint is the fact that it is just simply designed for fast broadband connections.
The truth of the matter is that I live in rural Wales and even by paying top whack the best the monsters at BT can give us is 1.5mb!
Add to the equation that most of my subscriptions on YouTube are owners of HD cameras it takes an absolute age to watch any kind of video.
Anyone know of any way to get round this, by down-res'ing the video or using a different app?
Because using YouTube is one of my biggest past times this problem is rendering it pretty useless!

Any suggestions welcome (aside from moving house!)
Thanks, Joe.

 

[DenniZ]

YouTube wise, I have a fairly ok broadband connection about 11mbs, I have poor speeds using the YouTube app. Try navigating YouTube on safari, this usually gives better performance as the videos load faster than the standard app.

 

[Lordillingworth]

Hello, I am roughly from that region (oswestry, on the welsh border) in town we have solid Internet connections but I know a few people out and about the local hills who don't have Internet at their homes at all because the speed is so slow.

It is an odd choice not to let us choose the quality of the video when using YouTube, especially when it is such a simple option and key feature on the website itself.

 

[kaelell]

Hello, I am roughly from that region (oswestry, on the welsh border) in town we have solid Internet connections but I know a few people out and about the local hills who don't have Internet at their homes at all because the speed is so slow.

It is an odd choice not to let us choose the quality of the video when using YouTube, especially when it is such a simple option and key feature on the website itself.

I was under the impression (or rather I have read) the iPad alows for variable bitrate on video depending on your connection. whether or not Youtube uses this im not sure, but its more the site/app allowing it rather then the hardware I guess.

 

[Jophster]

Hello, I am roughly from that region (oswestry, on the welsh border) in town we have solid Internet connections but I know a few people out and about the local hills who don't have Internet at their homes at all because the speed is so slow.

It is an odd choice not to let us choose the quality of the video when using YouTube, especially when it is such a simple option and key feature on the website itself.

I agree. Until that happens it really does make my YouTube app useless which is a great shame! I mean don't get me wrong I wish i was able to stream HD YouTube but to be able to play them at all would be great!
I suppose it depends on which comes first, faster broadband or a hack/Apple update that allows you to change these settings!

I was under the impression (or rather I have read) the iPad alows for variable bitrate on video depending on your connection. whether or not Youtube uses this im not sure, but its more the site/app allowing it rather then the hardware I guess.

You are right. But with my poor excuse for broadband, the quality when YouTube streams over 3G would be ideal for my iPhone and perhaps a similar quality for my iPad! I would rather it played at all in terrible quality than wait 20 mins for 3 mins of content!

It won't be long before a remedy rears it's head!

 

[Nevasleep]

I'm in Wales, but in a city
You might just be having trouble with the App itself, which seems to slow down sometimes.

try using youtube through Safari.

Ps. Ring Openreach and ask for an estimate for laying fibre to your house

 

[hsotnicam8002]

I live about just 4 miles from York (UK) but it's like living in the outback as far as most services are concerned. This is just the typical way for the UK - a complete lack of infrastructure of most kinds and disrespectful disregard for those living in rural areas (not an insignificant % of the population).

I'm on extended reach with BT and have 1.2 Mb/s maximum on their most expensive plan. I subscribe to the most expensive in order to receive 'unlimited' usage. I think this is an abuse of their position and that people who receive such a bad speed should be offered a reduced price.

Recently I went over my allowed usage and they told me that my speed would be reduced to 1Mb/s for a period. What a joke! What I did find out, is that 'unlimited' means 100Gb. We are encouraged to upload and download HD video, stream music and video, watch TV online etc etc and yet most ISP plans are severely restricted. This is even worse with mobile internet plans. What is going on? Why do we let these companies rip us off so badly? In the UK we obviously like being kicked in the goolies and then whimper away without a sound! Anyway, back to playing my banjo and planning the next raid on the townies. Hic, spit!

 

[Streethawk]

It's quite scary how bad rural broadband speeds are. Really there should be a lotmmore pressure on BT and Virgin to roll-out to these areas. I'm pretty lucky to be in the area where Cable & Wireless/NTL/Virgin use for their testing, we always get the fastest UK speeds first.

Even now though, I cant justify the 50mb connection, 20mb is fine for most things.

1.2mb, it must be faster to use 3G a lot of the time? But I guess coverage of that can be patchy.

The weekend I got my iPad I was camping in the Yorkshire Dales, there was no signal at all. Still, as I had planned it, I loaded loads of content on release day morning before heading off innthe afternoon. 80 apps, 3 movies, 2 books and 300 songs, more than enough to keep me entertained in my tent each evening

It'd be nice if we had someway to download YouTube videos, for a weeks use then they automatically delete, like the desktop iPlayer. In fact, we should have that option for iPlayer and TVcatchup.com too.

 

[Jophster]

I'm in Wales, but in a city
You might just be having trouble with the App itself, which seems to slow down sometimes.

try using youtube through Safari.

Ps. Ring Openreach and ask for an estimate for laying fibre to your house

Have already put my name down for that and have just got off the phone to Ofcom for half an hour! Now to play the waiting game!

I live about just 4 miles from York (UK) but it's like living in the outback as far as most services are concerned. This is just the typical way for the UK - a complete lack of infrastructure of most kinds and disrespectful disregard for those living in rural areas (not an insignificant % of the population).

I'm on extended reach with BT and have 1.2 Mb/s maximum on their most expensive plan. I subscribe to the most expensive in order to receive 'unlimited' usage. I think this is an abuse of their position and that people who receive such a bad speed should be offered a reduced price.

Recently I went over my allowed usage and they told me that my speed would be reduced to 1Mb/s for a period. What a joke! What I did find out, is that 'unlimited' means 100Gb. We are encouraged to upload and download HD video, stream music and video, watch TV online etc etc and yet most ISP plans are severely restricted. This is even worse with mobile internet plans. What is going on? Why do we let these companies rip us off so badly? In the UK we obviously like being kicked in the goolies and then whimper away without a sound! Anyway, back to playing my banjo and planning the next raid on the townies. Hic, spit!

Reassured that someone else feels the same way and put it so eloquently, my view is exactly the same except when i talk about I develop into an foaming monster. The fact that i can't even pay any more money (even if i wanted to) to improve my broadband is so annoying.

Just can't wait for BT Infinity to come to my area!

Although why, when so many like us feel the same way do BT still fail to do anything!?
Sigh, I won't get into it all, I don't want to raise my blood pressure too much!

 

[Jophster]

It's quite scary how bad rural broadband speeds are. Really there should be a lotmmore pressure on BT and Virgin to roll-out to these areas. I'm pretty lucky to be in the area where Cable & Wireless/NTL/Virgin use for their testing, we always get the fastest UK speeds first.

Even now though, I cant justify the 50mb connection, 20mb is fine for most things.

1.2mb, it must be faster to use 3G a lot of the time? But I guess coverage of that can be patchy.

The weekend I got my iPad I was camping in the Yorkshire Dales, there was no signal at all. Still, as I had planned it, I loaded loads of content on release day morning before heading off innthe afternoon. 80 apps, 3 movies, 2 books and 300 songs, more than enough to keep me entertained in my tent each evening

It'd be nice if we had someway to download YouTube videos, for a weeks use then they automatically delete, like the desktop iPlayer. In fact, we should have that option for iPlayer and TVcatchup.com too.

Oh believe me, after having put up with 1.5mb for 3 years I can't even dream of 50!

 

[Streethawk]

It's quite scary how bad rural broadband speeds are. Really there should be a lotmmore pressure on BT and Virgin to roll-out to these areas. I'm pretty lucky to be in the area where Cable & Wireless/NTL/Virgin use for their testing, we always get the fastest UK speeds first.

Even now though, I cant justify the 50mb connection, 20mb is fine for most things.

1.2mb, it must be faster to use 3G a lot of the time? But I guess coverage of that can be patchy.

The weekend I got my iPad I was camping in the Yorkshire Dales, there was no signal at all. Still, as I had planned it, I loaded loads of content on release day morning before heading off innthe afternoon. 80 apps, 3 movies, 2 books and 300 songs, more than enough to keep me entertained in my tent each evening

It'd be nice if we had someway to download YouTube videos, for a weeks use then they automatically delete, like the desktop iPlayer. In fact, we should have that option for iPlayer and TVcatchup.com too.

Damn, iPadisms.

 

[topmounter]

Weird... we're always hearing that broadband in the US is the worst in the world and that everyone not in the US has a GigE pipe to the Interwebs

I guess 12 Mbps isn't so bad

 

[Streethawk]

Weird... we're always hearing that broadband in the US is the worst in the world and that everyone not in the US has a GigE pipe to the Interwebs

I guess 12 Mbps isn't so bad.

I think the average home broadband speed here is 10mb-ish.

Edit: Actually I've done a bit of research it's 7.69mb, which is apparently bang on the global average. Start of 2009 it was 3.5mb, so it's improving a lot.

 

[cyberheater]

Tell me about it. I'm a postie in deepest darkest Scotland and there is no 3G at all. Not even EDGE. I had dreams that I'd be able to post on my round listening to music being streamed to my newish iPhone 3gs but alas, no chance.

Ho hum...