Cyprus Broadband Forum

I've just been tying to learn about Broadband Internet Access in Cyprus. I will be retiring to CY in the autumn but visiting for eight weeks in the spring to get the house sorted out.

So I have to pay for the line (already do that), pay for the ADSL platform, and pay for the ISP. Is nothing simple!

I have been reading the reviews and most of them grumble about all of the providers. I suppose that's life. It does seem, however, that you can pay one bill to Cytanet, but you get a setup with many locks on it. Internet radio streaming will be a must - is that stable on Cytanet's own ISP?

In UK at the moment I have TV, Telephone and Internet by Virgin Cable, and that works quite well. I will be living on Chryseliousis in old Strovolos just a few tens of metres from the church, but the postcode search tells me I cannot get a cable connection - does anyone know if that is to change any time soon?

Of course I have a cable modem, and a wireless router which I am presently using; and I have a combined ADSL Modem-Wireless Router from a previous British Telecom installation. Will the hardware I used with British Telecom will work in Cyprus? Do is need micro filters on all Telephone points as in UK?

Is the self installation easy or fraught with difficulties?

I note a complete package from CYTANET has one advantage: I can suspend the ISP part of the fees when I am not in the country. I that correct.

I have not seen a TV package that includes much mainstream UK programming, so I will not be interested in Cable TV. I guess if I want UK TV it's still the 4 meter dish! Is that right?

Enough questions to begin with!

Nice to be on board!

 

Hello Labarum,


I am not sure about that. Maybe a current Cytanet user can answer that question better. However maybe you shouldn't limit yourself to Cytanet, paying one more bill is not such a big deal.

You will need to contact Cablenet for an answer to that. What I can tell you is that the areas they cover do not increase fast, so the answer is probably no, unless you are lucky.

The modem will be provided to you and it is included in the installation fee. You can still use your own wireless router.


This depends on the level of your knowledge. Probably is better to pay a bit more and let them worry about any problems that can come up.

Yes. And in the case of the ISPs that offer their services over i-choice (DSL Access), you can pay them per month and only for the months you need the service without yearly contract.

For the Platform part of the fees, with i-choice you can also pay a "Monthly Temporary Disconnection Fee" of €9,82 and then a "Reconnection Fee" for another €9,82, if you will be abroad for a few months and you don't want to cancel the service.


Right, but I am not sure about the size of the dish, I believe that depends on your location.

all right glad that someone else sort that out. As for the Sat dish 90cm diameter is the minimum required for the local DVB-S channels (Athina Sat, Nova) and one and a half meter to two and a half for the European channels.
 4 and up meters if you want to watch some HD channels .

Internet Radio these days is pretty stable so you will not have a problem with that. How stable will depend on what else you are doing at the time. If you're a heavy P2P user you may experience some issues ;-)

On the satellite front, in Nicosia you'll pick up some stuff on Astra 28.2 with a 2.4m and even more on a 3m, it depends on the transponder. Dishes are not cheap, so be prepared to budget for this. You will obviously need a Skybox and a subscription to do this. Be aware that any hint that you may be abroad and they are obliged to cut you off. Other options are various card sharing services.

BBC's IPlayer and Zatoo can be made to work here. You'll need access to a VPN connection in the UK in order for it to work. I've actually done this so I can verify it does work. As with any video streaming, it can have issues, though you also have the option to download the program in many cases.

i ve been a user of ADSL before moving to cablenet. over i choice platform the only ISP that i recommend is Wavespeed. Very stable and fast compared with all the others over i choice platform and the ISP that uses lesser/none filtering compared to all others and offers 4 mbits at 29.5 euros.

Thanks for various comments from a number of members.

My DECT phones in UK have just died, so I have bought a pair of hybrid DECT/VOIP phones

https://secure.sipgate.co.uk/voipshop/siemens/gigaset_c475ip

I have now mastered these impressive little boxes, and have them working with my landline, two virtual UK numbers from Sipgate and a http://www.tpad.com/at-home/ which should be cheap for outgoing international calls.

Now back to the port blocking issue with CYTA's Netrunner, and maybe with other ISPs.

Can anyone comment. Have anyone a working VOIP installation, and iff so with which ISP. I might as well get this right first time round, even if it takes a little longer.

i thing all ISPs implement Voip , that should not be a problem.
Althought i don't think that the same thing applies to SIP.

I am not that technical, but don't I need SIP to work for accounts at

http://www.sipgate.co.uk/user/index.php

and

http://www.tpad.com/at-home/

I am forwarding ports 5060 and 5004 on my router.

I use virtual UK numbers provided by Sipgate, but I have just found Tpad, which has very attractive prices, and a Nicosia dial-in when all else fails. Worth a look for Cyprus residents.

are those providers like |Skype Out credits?

Yes, but Skype is a closed system tied its own hardware and software.