What do you use? Our current internet speed is SLOW. Supposedly the company is going to run new lines, but they need permits from the city and that might take a year or longer.
Any luck with Satellite internet? And what does that cost per month?
Rural area internet access is an issue for lots of us. AT&T has been promising improvements for the last 20 years; so has Verizon. We con’t have cable TV on our road so no help there. Have used satellite twice. The “consumer grade” units are iffy. Our second system was a low end commercial version. It was WAY faster and MUCH LESS sensitive to loss in heavy rain but still was affected.
Good luck. Maybe you won’t have to wait 20 years for action.
G.
Supposedly the company is going to run new lines, but they need permits from the city and that might take a year or longer.
sounds more like a marketing poly rather than true intent, I think some of the provider’s management is showing off their MBAs
Might want to trot over to the city permit office to ask if the provider has even applied or ask your city manager as most city have a franchise for use of city right of way for utilities
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I have no access to any hard lines, if only. I use a Verizon jetpack. It works pretty well, it’s reliable, but of course data has limits, so no streaming video (well, I can so small amounts) since the entire stupid world thinks everyone lives in a city with unlimited broadband & nothing is available that isn’t HD anymore, ugh. It is cheaper than my old cable internet when I lived in town, so at least there’s that. I won’t touch satellite with a 10 foot pole, I’ve never hear any good experiences & I’ve done a lot of research.
I’ve had AT&T for ten years or so- Air Card- just plugs in a USB port. Unlimited Data- has NEVER gone down. Works
great during real hurricanes and serious thunderstorms. $140./mo.
Check your area- many AT&T customer service people don’t even know it’s available or what I’m talking about when I mention it.
I am super happy with my new internet that I’ve had since last July. Prior to that, I had satellite, and it was expensive and towards the end, was very unreliable (maybe my dish needed re-focusing). Anyway, in July, I went with a local company that provides “fixed wireless” service. You can google that phrase for your area and see if it’s there. It seems most are small companies.
The main drawback is that you need an actual line of sight to one of their antennas. They tend to mount them on grain elevators, cell towers, and other high points. It is NOT a cell signal, despite being mounted on a cell tower. For me, the nearest one is on a cell tower about 1/2 mile away. I did not have line of sight from the house because of trees, but my backyard fence, 75 feet from the house did. They mounted my receiving antenna on a pole attached to the fence. They made it high enough to clear the corn that was growing on the other side of the fence. The antenna itself is about 4"x12".
There are two speeds of service, costing $45 or $75 per month, both with no data limits like I had with satellite. I opted to start with the slower speed and see how it goes. It’s the fastest internet I’ve ever had here! I can stream video successfully for the first time ever. I’m thrilled with it, and it’s given steady service since July.
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Search for Wisp (Wireless ISP) in your area. They are usually private “some guy” type companies though ATT does have Wisp in some areas.
They need to put an antenna on your house for it to work. Latency is low unlike satellite and the speeds are usually pretty good depending on your company. They usually don’t have data caps either. Price is usually in the $50/month range. Never had issues using it in high wind, rain, or snow like satellite.
I am rural, single person. I only use my iPad with a Sprint wireless account for $20/month. If you have a large family, maybe that will not work. Also, if you live in a “hollow” around here, it will not work. But as a single person I have plenty of data to watch as much video as I want
In Bubba County where I live satellite is the only option except for dial up. I was having problems with mine ( I think largely due to old equipment) so I cancelled and signed back up. I am on a new satellite now plus new equipment and I have very little outage due to storms. Faster too and no more " you have used up all your data for the month" slowdowns. It does cost a bit more but I think it is worth it. Still it is not cheap.
My Verizon signal is AWFUL and AT&T is worse so no going that route.
Anybody ever try Earthlink? They claim to offer DSL service in many places.
G.
We use a verizon jetpack, when it hits its limit you still have internet and I can play videos on my tablet but loading Facebook takes 10 minutes. It’s better than satellite though.
A friend of mine is using this company: https://myboip.com
She lives in a rural area that has no ATT cellular service and spotty Verizon service. She had been using DTV wifi, but that wasn’t the best. She started with this service recently and stated that her son was streaming something, her DIL was streaming something, her husband was streaming something and she was able to stream or FB or whatever all at the same time. It’s $150 a month unlimited data and no slowing you down once you get to a certain data usage.
Tried satellite for a month and cancelled. It worked okay, but was expensive ($150/month) and had a data limit which we hit about halfway through the month which slowed our speeds so much it was almost useless.
Went to AT&T and bought a Wireless Home Phone system…if your cell service is okay in your house this would work for you too. We get speeds around 20mbs and it’s only $40/month. Never would have known it even existed if a friend who worked in one of their retail stores hadn’t told us about it. It can be used for a landline or for internet. We’ve been able to stream Netflix with no issues and our internet is working great. We only get one bar on our cell phones, so I’d guess if you have a better signal you’ll get faster speeds.
