I've asked this question before but I wanted to open the thread up again for new answers.... I live in the middle of nowhere with the only internet option being satellite (no, we don't have cell service), which is horrible for gaming. (1,000 + ping). Recently they have started construction on a "Fixed Wireless" tower, which is less than half a mile from my house. Supposedly on their website they claim it is the "newest technology" and has "low latency", but i haven't found anything on the internet about how it is for gaming. Does anyone know how good fixed wireless is? Ill be looking to mostly play CSGO, GTA, etc. so ill need decent speed. Any answers are appreciated, thanks.
What is fixed Wireless internet Like for Gaming/Streaming?
- Thread starter khavens
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Solandri
Illustrious
- Jan 4, 2012
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Fixed wireless can range from great to terrible. It all depends on how good their equipment is and how much they oversubscribe their service. Basically, it's the same thing as a home WiFi router, except they use directional antennas (on both the tower and the customer site) to extend the range.
When it works, its about as good as home WiFi, maybe even slightly better (in terms of reliability) since the equipment tends to be higher quality. Latency is about the same as home WiFi, since for the distances these are usually used (1-20 miles) the speed of light only adds 0.1 ms of ping. But the variability in ping times is higher since usually there are more clients using it simultaneously than on a home WiFi router. So (assuming you get enough bandwidth) streaming should be OK since it's buffered, but twitch games might suffer from the variable ping times.
The two things which kill it though are:
If they're just starting up and your only alternative is satellite, then it's definitely worth trying. Just don't make the mistake of signing like a 3 year contract, in case they oversubscribe after a year and the service turns horrible.
When it works, its about as good as home WiFi, maybe even slightly better (in terms of reliability) since the equipment tends to be higher quality. Latency is about the same as home WiFi, since for the distances these are usually used (1-20 miles) the speed of light only adds 0.1 ms of ping. But the variability in ping times is higher since usually there are more clients using it simultaneously than on a home WiFi router. So (assuming you get enough bandwidth) streaming should be OK since it's buffered, but twitch games might suffer from the variable ping times.
The two things which kill it though are:
■Weather. The 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands are both highly susceptible to rain, so performance will drop during inclement weather. How much depends on the equipment, distance to the tower, and how bad the weather is. Strong winds can also shift the directional antennas slightly causing signal strength to drop.
■Oversubscription. Since it's basically like a home WiFi hotspot, if too many people are connected at the same time, their attempts to communicate with the tower will stomp over each other, causing massive lag and bandwidth decreases. One of the companies I worked at was in the boonies and had to rely on fixed wireless Internet. It was great the first year, but as the wireless Internet company picked up more customers (we were their 8th customer) the service basically became useless during business hours. A lot of times I resorted to connecting my phone for Internet (this was back in the 2G days, so I would only get about 30-100 kbps from my phone, which gives you some idea how terrible the fixed wireless got).
If they're just starting up and your only alternative is satellite, then it's definitely worth trying. Just don't make the mistake of signing like a 3 year contract, in case they oversubscribe after a year and the service turns horrible.
It depends on the technology they use. If they use normal wifi it has many of the same issues as wifi since there is no control of the end device.
There are a couple of systems designed for this application motorola canopy is one of the more common ones. Although it uses most the same technology as wifi the key difference is the end radios are under control of the central unit. They must request a window to transmit much like a cable modem so there is much less interfering radio transmissions.
The very newest technology is using LTE like the cell phone vendors do on the unlicensed 2.4 and 5g bands. This gets the highest speeds and much more consistent latency. It also is still kinda expensive so not a lot of providers have changed to it but many are.
As long as it one of these specialized systems it will be ok for games, not great but at least the technology tries to keep consistent latency.
There are a couple of systems designed for this application motorola canopy is one of the more common ones. Although it uses most the same technology as wifi the key difference is the end radios are under control of the central unit. They must request a window to transmit much like a cable modem so there is much less interfering radio transmissions.
The very newest technology is using LTE like the cell phone vendors do on the unlicensed 2.4 and 5g bands. This gets the highest speeds and much more consistent latency. It also is still kinda expensive so not a lot of providers have changed to it but many are.
As long as it one of these specialized systems it will be ok for games, not great but at least the technology tries to keep consistent latency.
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