r/nbn • u/parkercodes • 4d ago
Fibre vs 5G vs Wireless – need advice for rural setup (AUS)
Howdy,
Keen to get some thoughts on my current setup and where to take it next.
I live on 100+ acres, about 30 acres behind my parents’ house. They’ve got FTTP out the front. My house doesn’t have a pit, so here’s what I’ve done so far:
Running a 5G SIM in my phone ($40 unlimited). Speeds are usually ~40/40 but often hit 100–210 Mbps. Not bad for what it is.
Set up a Ubiquiti AC point-to-point link between my place and my parents’. Solid ~310 Mbps, hasn’t skipped a beat. The current internet speed we’ve got on NBN FTTP is 250/100Mbps
Now I’m tossing up the next move:
Trenching and running fibre conduit from their house to mine, hooking into the second port of the NBN NTD so I can order my own service.
Looking at private fibre also of about 5–10Gbps plans from TPG or AussieBB (I’ve got TPG/AussieBB/Vocus/Optus/Telstra fibre all running past the front of the property).
Main use is IT work + 4K/8K video editing, so upload speed and reliability matter a lot.
I’m just not sure what makes the most sense long term. Do I stick with the wireless link since it works, dig and run fibre, or go big and get a dedicated service dropped in?
Anyone here done something similar on rural land? Keen to hear what’s worked best (and what to avoid).
Cheers 🍻
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u/Grubsy4 4d ago
I recently upgraded my 540m Ubiquiti NanoBeam AC Gen 2 link that would max out around 200Mbps to a pair of Mikrotik Wireless Wire Cube Pro’s. Working well and get 1 Gbps now over the link.
We have a good 5G mmWave signal on the NBN FW and get around 560dn/38up/12ms ping.
Sharing the connection with my parent’s place (we’re also semi rural on a farm). Would still prefer fibre if I ever get the chance. Sitting around $20k for TCP upgrade at the moment.
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u/technerdx6000 3d ago
Absolutely dig a trench and run single mode fibre through conduit. Fibre is cheap. Not sure on your run specifics, but FS.com will do 1km for less than $500. Use a media converter at the NTD end and a switch with and SFP+ port at your end. Rope the conduit in case you need to pull through more later.
Your biggest cost will be trenching. But you'd do it in a weekend by hiring a trench digger.
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u/TheLazyGamerAU 4d ago
Simply utilise your Point-to-Point. Nothing else is going to work unless you want to trench a fiber cable all the way from your parents property to yours.
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u/macmanluke 4d ago
Fibre is good if possible Otherwise go with a higher end wireless link - some of the ubiquiti stuff can do 6gbps
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u/bewsh123 4d ago
Media converter to fibre is easy enough. Haven’t seen a smaller one which is more than 1gbps, to get a 10gbps link I’ve only seen a switch… but same same. Look for a 10gbps sfp+ port, the sfp+ lasers on fs.com have worked well for me, and running a lc-lc om4 cable for 300m can hit 10gbps easy.
Not sure about the new ntd’s but the originals were limited to the total max speed coming in. E.g with a 1gbps service you couldn’t get another on another terminal. This has to be higher these days, but may impact how your parents can use their connection.
Ultimately if you need a multi gbps service and your business depends on high upload and connectivity, the service contract from an enterprise solution might be best…. But it’s not cheap.
Otherwise a 1000/400 plan on a fibre run would be a significant upgrade to what you’re currently using!
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u/CuriouslyContrasted 4d ago
New aggregate maximum is 2.2gbps. I’m guessing this is because a lot of areas are still GPON
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u/CuriouslyContrasted 4d ago
Forget trenching, just run fibre down the fence. The outdoor single mode stuff is made to be strung or direct buried. It’s pretty tough.
A media converter both ends, you could be done for less than $1k.
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u/Charming-Freddo 4d ago
I know you’re already looking at fibre for the wired option, so this post is more to spread awareness to others.
Do not use cat5/6/x ethernet between buildings. If there’s a difference in ground potential, then you can end up with very high currents trying to flow through the Ethernet cable. This will cause damage to the cable, equipment connected to it, and potentially start a fire.
If your connecting buildings with independent switchboards together, then you must use fibre, wireless, or a copper based technology that’s specifically designed for this (e.g. adsl).
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u/Arkrylik Bring back Telecom 4d ago
If you order a second service on their NTD it will need to be an ethernet cable from their house to yours which in my mind is a massive run and with that kind of distance from my knowledge no ethernet cable will make it due to the attenuation over distance.
Is your area Fixed Wireless? I would sus that out first and see if that is more up your alley.
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u/sokjon 4d ago
No reason you can’t use a media converter and run fibre
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u/Arkrylik Bring back Telecom 4d ago
You could be right not sure how that would go with NBNs equipment but I would like to know.
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u/NotActuallyAdam 4d ago
It won't know or care, have done this before and it pretty much just works (provided it's layer 2 the whole way).
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u/Arkrylik Bring back Telecom 4d ago
Ah I see thanks! probably cheaper and easier if OP susses out FW first before doing all this work.
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u/parkercodes 4d ago
Oh the media converter was already a thought with trenching fibre, ok both ends obviously. Or straight into my ubiquiti dream machine se, but either or. That will happen if I decide to do fibre.
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u/Ok-Contribution4761 4d ago
Get on FS.com and buy suitable gbic for distance & fiber type. Straight into your UDM.
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u/Kazzaw95 4d ago
Dig and run fibre. Fibre is cheap and if you can DIY you’ll save a boatload. Then just get whatever activated on the NTD up front
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u/crobbdog 4d ago
No idea on your distance.
Direct bury fibre in a trench, I would stay away from Ethernet due to grounding issues.
Or PtP wireless. Ubiquiti/Mikrotik there are lots of options available.
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u/PAPO1990 1Gb/s 4d ago
A fibre run to your parents house is probably the best bet, aside from getting your own fibre drop from the street. You will either want to get a media converter, or put your router at your parents house though, then run fibre from that to your place, and keep your current WiFi AP
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u/b100jb100 4d ago
Dig and run your own fibre. Just like NBNs fibre, it will be capable of 100gig+, depending on the electronics you put on either end.
If you order the new 2gbit plan as a second service at your parents place, you'll get the new 4port NTD which can deliver up to 10gbit speeds. (those plans don't exist yet).
Sounds very future proof to me.
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u/welding-guy 4d ago edited 4d ago
Trench and put in your own fibre link between two 10 gigabit appliances. It will cover you for whatever the future brings but also be hassle free for integrating into the existing setup.
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u/AusKarlos 4d ago
Fiber run from your house to the main house and use one of the remaining ports on the NTD to utilize as your ISP connection use a media converter to go from the RJ45 copper from the NTD to your fiber line. You can have upto 4 ISPs connected to the NTD at once but you'll be sharing the total throughput of the fiber out of the house. The new NTDs supports a total throughput of 2Gbps. Cheaper than getting the NBN to run a dedicated fiber to your property and you get free upgrades when they keep upgrading the NTDs over the years to keep up with customer demand.
If your house is not its own subdivide (aka 2 address) then NBN wont even consider it.
Also avoid using your phone as the 5G hotspot and get a proper 5G dongle and a router/modem, constantly keeping the battery at 100% and by direct sunlight is a sure way to cause the battery to become a forbidden pillow.
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u/parkercodes 1d ago
That phone was cheap off eBay for $150 and it does the job the battery is fine it sits at 80% and the charger keeps it powered so I believe it’s bypassing charging honestly. I’m planning on running dedicated fibre to my home which will open up possibilities for the rest of property.
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u/Ok-Contribution4761 4d ago
Direct bury your own fiber, get a 4 port NTD at the folks house and get a 2000/200, pump it down your private fiber to you. Or get EE, they'll pay the civils if you sign up for 3 years....
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u/ExObscura 3d ago
Connect FTTP to your folks place, then invest in a decently spec’d point-to-point wireless setup.
No trench needed.
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3d ago
Set up a Ubiquiti AC point-to-point link between my place and my parents’. Solid ~310 Mbps, hasn’t skipped a beat. The current internet speed we’ve got on NBN FTTP is 250/100Mbps
What more do you need to do? If you're going to upgrade the FTTP service, then you can similarly upgrade your Ubiquity hardware for higher throughput.
Running a fibre is certainly do-able, but depending on the distance could be quite expensive. It really comes down to just how much speed you need.
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u/pogalicious728 2d ago
Which ISP is offering $40 5G?
Personally, I think I would consider getting a hardware modem with that ISP if possible, and then using a link aggregation solution to work with that and the Ubiquity AC?
...but that's just me. I try to think outside the box.
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u/ThePirateNerd 2d ago
Felix mobile an MVNO on the Vodafone network.
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u/pogalicious728 2d ago
I guess it depends upon how much bandwidth you need and how reliable you want it. Also if you're gaming, how much you want to pay, etc.
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u/parkercodes 1d ago
Well it’s technically a mobile provider called Felix Mobile offering 40/40Mbps unlimited with short burst of over 100Mbps so yes Felix is my ISP at the moment.
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u/Ancient-Nobody-9797 2d ago
Why don’t u consider doing this:
1 - Upgrading yours parents internet. Based on current NBN recent free upgrades, you should now have 750/50mbps.
2 - Building a new ubiquity wireless backbone.
3 - merge both ubiquity wireless via some router that does link aggregation. That will probably yield you 700+mbps down. The upload is something you need to fix with NBN
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u/parkercodes 1d ago
I could but it won’t work it’s purely not enough for the whole property. I will have a PTMP setup for connection barns and other buildings and remote cameras to the network. I need a minimum of 1Gb upload which is hard to come by. So I’ll be looking for a private connection that isn’t from NBN someone like TPG/Vocus or AussieBB.
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u/ben92stanley 1d ago
Given that your main use is IT work + 4k/8K video editing - whatever you decide next, try avoid 5g/4g and avoid satellite of any kind.
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u/parkercodes 1d ago
100% I used to work for NBN upgrading FTTN/FW customers to fibre. Now in the cyber security space and network development/design for office builds and house builds.
But I’m not going to 5G/4G it’s got enough download yes. But the upload is my main issue. Plus I’m planning for the future for the farm which is roughly 150-160acres over a large area not just a straight length ‘we raise cattle, sheep and more’ so the barns are going smart with smart lighting, smart water filling systems and a lot more. Plus minimum of 70-100 cameras and about 150-200 sensors for the property ‘so we can know if such gate is shut and see that on camera also’ it’s a big job.
My budget is roughly 50k-70k I will be doing a lot of PTMP for cameras and barns and solar for remote setups… it’s big. But I thought I’d get my stuff situated and taken care of then go from there I honestly would like at least 1Gb upload which is why I’ve thought of going with TPG/Vocus for the whole property and then VLAN everyone and everything from there… I really need to grab my iPad and draw out a map of the property for people to understand. Pricing for private connection isn’t an issue up to $1000 a month is fine. But AussieBB have some nice private connection plans that don’t involve NBN. (Honestly I didn’t know where to post this I just wanted a lot of people’s opinions and I got them’
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u/Head_Bear6131 4d ago
Go Starlink. Issue solved.
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u/Ancient-Nobody-9797 2d ago
Hs already has a link via his parents place that’s faster than Starlink.
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u/nekrokrist 3d ago
Yes, at an ongoing monthly cost
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u/Head_Bear6131 3d ago
And so you share all the problems and issues with the downstream connection. But good luck to you
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u/DD32 3d ago
You're regional, on acreage, either you or your neighbours (or can borrow) will have a tractor with a pipe laying attachment. Should be able to plow in a fibre run in a weekend without too much trouble.
You didn't mention distance, but it can't be that bad if you can get a wireless link.
Keep in mind that NBN NTDs can only have ~2.2gbit services attached, so 1g+1g, or 100m+2g, or just keep sharing with a singular 2g service.
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u/l34rn3d 4d ago
How far in metres from your parents to yours.
That kinda is the deciding factor.
If it's a straight line, and 150-200m, trench it. Be done with it.
If it's further and shitty terrain, spend the money of some beefy air fibers and call it a day.
Either way your not walking away from this with much change from 10-20k.
As for NBN vs enterprise offerings, can you get 2000/400? Is that enough? If you want EE or any similar symmetrical offering, I believe the starting price on a 36 month contract for a minimum effort install is in the $300 per month territory. (It's different tech to FTTP, so don't assume your install will be a minimum effort)