Right now I connect to the internet with an aircard plugged into my laptop or (like now) on my phone. Not totally unsatisfactory, but I’d like a faster connection, wifi in my house, and to be able to connect my TV and Wii to the internet. I’m way out in the country, about 30 miles from a major city and about five miles from a small town.
I have an AT&T land line, and I called them but internet is not available for my location. I have a DirecTV satellite and I called them, too, and they don’t have it for my location. I’ve heard that Hughes Net is less than satisfactory. What else is out there that’s good?
First of all, you won’t be able to get DSL due to your remoteness. DSL only works for a few miles from the phone company’s central office, and the speed drops off rapidly. What you want is an Internet connection (DSL is only one kind).
Have you talked to your local cellphone companies? In my area, they supply a $300 receiver/modem box and it works anywhere you can get a cellphone signal.
I’m afraid all of your options will be somewhat expensive compared to DSL or cable. That’s the drawback with living in the country.
I’m 45 miles West of St. Louis and 7 miles from a small town, but have good service from CenturyLink. Had Starband satellite service for two years until DSL became available. Starband worked OK, but the software on the PC that compressed and decompressed the data stream was kind of flaky.
a phone company can have high speed cable and place boxes throughout their service area. you need be within a mile or two from those box locations. you can be many miles from a phone company building.
the phone company will accurately tell you what service is available over their lines.
phone companies are extending their high speed lines as the market grows. if there are potential customers in your area or you are on a path to a cluster of customers then high speed could be coming to you. i see phone company expansion in rural areas constantly expanding their high speed network, they can offer a tv product (similar to cable tv offerings) for lest cost to them than a cable tv company (who won’t come out with a low density population). so you might be a year or two from high speed phone and shouldn’t invest lots in satellite services.
These are excellent answers. I guess my thread title should be “High Speed Internet for Rural Locations?” If a mod with time on his/her hands would like to change it, that would be great.
I haven’t looked these up yet, but I’m assuming Wild Blue, Earthlink, and Centurylink involve the installation of some kind of dish on the house (to go with my DirecTV dish)?
I’m resigned to paying an arm and a leg. What I’m interested in is a good connection.
Any satellite service will use a dish, nowdays a mini-dish about 18 inches in diameter. The cellphone services can benefit from an external antenna if you are not close enough to a tower, but the ones I’ve seen or installed are just a desk box, the size of a cable modem.
Unless you down or upload massive video files, the cost isn’t all that bad. If I didn’t have cable, I would probably pay thousands of dollars per month for other services, as I typically exceed 500GB/month.
Earthlink- when I clicked on the high speed internet option (after entering my zip code), it sent me to a page offering Hughes net.
WildBlue said they are available in my area, but the installation is over $100 with $80/mo. charge and the download speed is as **UP TO **1.5Mbps!! :eek: Hell, my aircard is faster than that. Do they think I’m a country bumpkin of some kind? *"Hey, little girl, look at this shiny thing in my pocket? Betcha’ve never seen one as big as **that *eh?"
There are some houses going in up in my area, so I guess it’s a matter of time until high speed internet makes its way here. But I’m not getting any younger…
All suggestions will be enthusiastically researched.
ETA: Found this article. But it’s always more fun to ask the SDMB.
How close is the nearest cable connection? Cable companies can be bought or persuaded. I have experience with doing this, and was able to twist Charter’s arm about 15 years ago to cover my area. It took a poll of the neighbors and the building of a 32-unit condo complex not far. The condos were going to set up a community satellite system for TV, but at my urging, contacted Charter and said, “How would you like 32 new upscale customers all at once in one building?” and Charter couldn’t resist.
So you might be able to use the new construction in your area as a lever, and if not a cable company, perhaps a DSL supplier would consider adding a node or two. Companies should realize that if they don’t get the customer signed up while the construction is going on, they will probably not gain this customer later, as he will have already been connected to someone else and reluctant to change.
It’s been my experience that large companies are often clueless about changing local conditions and just need a little push. Offering to help pay for the installation doesn’t hurt, either, and might be affordable over time.
ETA: Check out your local computer stores. Sometimes very small local ISPs offer WiFi, the same kind you might have at home, but with much greater coverage. Directional antennas can carry this kind of signal for miles.
I’m out in the middle of nowhere–NE AZ. We have our own well, septic, and solar electricity.
We subscribe to HughesNet. We bought the equipment (can’t recall exact cost now, but it wasn’t that bad) and only pay for monthly service.
I haven’t had enough coffee yet, so I can’t tell you what features our package has. It’s a little slower than what I’d like, but I was looking for reasonable. I can wait. The problem is, folks have gotten so SPOILED to high speed EVERYTHING these days.
I don’t do any video streaming and I don’t download massive amounts of data. If these are your requirements, expect to pay more. It costs me $75 a month with HughesNet.
~VOW
OK, that’s a very large area. But I’ve visited co-workers in the North Dallas/Plano area who used WiMAX so I know it’s available somewhere in the state.
If you have cable in the area, I can’t imagine anything beating that. Hughesnet’s website says 2.0 Mbps is $99 for 3 months* (apparently that is with a $10 mail in rebate for those 3 months). My cable is advertised as 100 Mbps for $59… Shoot, time for me to upgrade. I currently have 30 Mbps for $30.
