Broadband in the Sticks... at last

[jymbee]

Folks, if there is such an option in your worlds, all I can say is that it's been life-changing. At least for the last 12 hours.

Congratulations! I can well relate as about 10 years ago I finally got broadband at my house after several years of using various satellite systems. Sats worked ok, but the latency issue was a killer.

The only reason I was able to get the cable was because back in the building boom they started running cable to what was supposed to be a new development on the side of a mountain up the valley from me. Then the bust came and the project was scrapped, and the cable stopped about a mile from my house. Cost me a ton to have them run new wire up the road to my place, but given I've been able to work at home ever since, that seemed like a bargain. Plus, over the years I've received rebates as new customers within "my mile" have come online.

Enjoy your broadband. It will take a while for the novelty to wear off.

 

[k0ua]

Well you had to work for it, but welcome to the broadband world. How soon we forget our slow speed brethren with slow links, or even (gasp) dialup. I have had broadband for many years here as soon as the cable company could provide it here. And have increased the speed over the years. You get used to streaming movies, and setting up VPN's for phones or other purposes.. Sometimes I forget how many devices are on my LAN and what all they are doing. Every once in a while you see someone complain about the size of photo's or reposting a quote with the same photo in it, because they are on dialup. OMG. I remember those days. but they seem so long ago. We are kinda divided into those that have ( broadband) and the have-not's (dialup or slow speed links). It is not fair, but it is what it is. Netflix and You-tube can be fun.

James K0UA

 

[crazyal]

For people that are using cell towers I like to tell them about Millenicom but I only tell people not near my tower.

I was a Hugesnet user until a few months ago when I switched to Millenicom. The only tower I have is a 4g Verizon tower but I get 16 Mbps download and 6+ Mbps upload and a 50 ms ping time with a 20gb monthly cap and no contract. Plus it's cheaper than Huges. I have no line of sight wireless options.

 

[hawkeye08]

I too have the Motorola Canopy with 5.8Ghz and about 11.3 miles line of sight from the tower. I only get about 2.5Mbs down (at burst rate) and 700Kbs upload. Sustained I am supposed to get 512Kbs. They are overloaded on the access points and the tower I connect to is at ~6000ft and when the temps are around freezing, we get icing problems on the tower, often they have to climb the tower and clear the ice.(https://www.facebook.com/wiredorwireless

 

[creekbend]

Congratulations.

 

[daveshoot]

I too have the Motorola Canopy with 5.8Ghz [...] often they have to climb the tower and clear the ice.

Great pic... that guy is definitely not getting paid enough! Sorry to hear they've oversubscribed the system.

I found that our provider has mostly switched out the Canopy equipment to Ubiquiti, so that's what I have. It's about 10 miles to the tower, but less populated than your area.

 

[jinman]

Dish Network has just started an internet plan. For $50 a month when you bundle with their satellite TV, you get 10 Mbps speed and 10 GB data anytime and another 10 GB data between 2 AM and 8 AM for big downloads. For $20 more, you can raise that to 15 GB/15 GB. It's a lot better than the 5 GB brick wall the cellphone plans have.

 

[cletus99]

Dish Network has just started an internet plan. For $50 a month when you bundle with their satellite TV, you get 10 Mbps speed and 10 GB data anytime and another 10 GB data between 2 AM and 8 AM for big downloads. For $20 more, you can raise that to 15 GB/15 GB. It's a lot better than the 5 GB brick wall the cellphone plans have.

They use the Exede service and it sucks. I had it a while back and I hated it. Every time I turned around I had to unplug and plug in the modem to reset it. For some reason a lot of web pages wouldnt come up too. I'm using Verizon 4G with my hotspot on my phone now. Works pretty good other than the data caps. We're on the 16 gig plan which works out to about the same difference we paid for Exede. I think this month will be the first time we will go over on our data. I think I've got about a gig left and it rolls over on the 14th. It'll cost me $10 for another gig if I do.

 

[daveshoot]

We have Dish for TV and I am ok with it. Really, other than cost, it's been flawless, although without internet we haven't really tapped any of the PPV or VOD features.

They pitched us on the Exede, but in looking into it I found a bunch of horror stories and little satisfaction. It's basically an accelerated Hughesnet thing (take technical issue if you will) with a two-year commitment and only incremental improvements over standard satellite net. Once you're hooked there is no getting off, it seems.

Cletus, you done good getting a 16 Gb plan on 4G, nothing like that here from the cell monsters.

 

[cletus99]

Cletus, you done good getting a 16 Gb plan on 4G, nothing like that here from the cell monsters.

You don't have Verizon in your area? Verizon doesn't advertise the 16 gig plan. You have to ask for it. I believe they even have a 20 gig plan.