The Frustrations Of Rural Internet AND Netflix

[poncho62]

Half way between Markdale and Durham as the crow flies. They (EhTel) approached me to use my tower. There was some back and forth, and then I never heard from them again. They wanted access forever without a good contract. I suggested I give them six months notice if the place was sold, and suggested probably a new owner would be on board anyway. I guess they didn't like that.

I would be curious about their level of service in all regards.

Sometimes I think, they all give you Massive bandwidth and priority for the first few weeks, so you have this mindset of, oh how much better this is.

Their tower is just over the hill, about 2km away. They promised 10 mbs, unlimited data for $79/month.......So far, it has been that, always around 10.....One day it was quite low, but that only lasted a few hours. I guess they were having some tech problem. I have never had to call them yet with any issues.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I was just alluding to the fact that advertised claims often have to be taken with a grain of salt. My commercial Motorola VHF Walkie Talkies are lucky to get a mile or two, on a good day, set to set.

I have been a HAM since the 80s so I know a bit about radios.

In fact, this tower of mine had UHF repeater VE3MPR, a frequency agile 2 Meter link and a 6 meter FM simplex radio with DC remote at the house. Cool, when that remote sprang to life in an opening.

All pretty much GE ex Police equipment. All of this stuff just lost it's appeal with the popularity of the Internet and Cell Phones.

 

[Alien]

I was just alluding to the fact that advertised claims often have to be taken with a grain of salt. My commercial Motorola VHF Walkie Talkies are lucky to get a mile or two, on a good day, set to set.

I have been a HAM since the 80s so I know a bit about radios.

In fact, this tower of mine had UHF repeater VE3MPR, a frequency agile 2 Meter link and a 6 meter FM simplex radio with DC remote at the house. Cool, when that remote sprang to life in an opening.

All pretty much GE ex Police equipment. All of this stuff just lost it's appeal with the popularity of the Internet and Cell Phones.

I used to install lots of VHF and UHF radios in emergency vehicles. Also had to re-program them etc so I am aware of their limitations. A small handheld UHF can transmit for 100 klms if it is from the top of a mountain or 3 klms in the bush. I still have a heap of gear but it is pretty much untouched now since cellphones became popular like you said. Even my homebase is no longer used since I closed my business down. Just rotting away....

 

[Industrial Toys]

Homebase?

 

[k0ua]

Homebase?

The base station radio installation at his home. No longer needed because he has closed his business,

 

[Industrial Toys]

He was dispatching emergency services or are you talking about a CB radio base station type of thing. It interests me.

I have been watching wonderful full color documentaries much of the evening, out here in the middle of nowhere, where a short time ago we had only multi, party line phone service. Now, I have several lines just for me.

I did not have a TV until age 4 and never color until in my late teens. It was a tube TV that someone had dropped, that I repaired.

If you wanted a song you bought the 45 or waited "on standby" with a cassette recorder to capture it, off the air. Now, with youtube, any song I can think of is at my fingertips. AMAZING!

So, the evolution of communications interests me. But as much as this modern technology is fantastic, for me, it doesn't have the magic, that those smaller steps of the past had.

 

[Alien]

Yes I had a UHF radio Homebase station for my business that I ran from Home. It was seperate to the work I did for Emergency Services.

I didn't see B&W TV until I started working. I got my first colour TV in 1975. It was a Phillips K9. In my courting days I owned a portable 45 record player that cost me a new needle every Saturday night. I bought a 240 volt tape recorder when I was in my teens and sold it when I heard of the new cassette tape players that had just been released otherwise I would never have been able to sell it. Thank goodness for the advances in technology. I still try and keep up with some interesting stuff. But thats another story.

 

[Industrial Toys]

The technology of communications often had a direct co-relation to the importance of those using it. That is not the case any more. A ten year old with a cell phone has so much more power in communications today than we ever had with our hard earned amateur systems. OMG, we could control stuff by DTMF! lol

 

[TheMan419]

For those of you who live where Sprint has good service....

FMCA Tech Connect+

 

[TheMan419]

Welcome | Unlimitedville

Well I called them. Sadly they use T-Mobile as their towers. We have really bad T-Mobile service in our area so no go. Thanks for the link though. May be going to Satellite. That will be like $150/mo, but I can ditch the $80/mo bill to AT&T for land line and DSL at that point so some savings.