Stumbled onto reliable rural internet access

[drizler]

We got ours back in the day DSL via the local provider Westelcom. It always was plenty fast enough for us. They more or less forced us to put in Fiberoptic last year or pay as much or more not to have it. I got to dig a 200’ trench and pipe it which wasn’t fun as I had to air chisel through 20’ of shale head.
Long story short it works.. oh la la not a chance. There’s only me and the wife maybe watching different streaming and it jerks and slows occasionally still. Otherwise not much has changed for us since 1996

 

[Alan W.]

We go thru this company.

Nomad Internet | For Rural Homes, RVers, Communities & Businesses

Nomad Internet provides Rural and Travel High-Speed Wireless Internet Unlimited, Uncapped and Unthrottled Data Plans with Speeds up to 200mbps! There are No Credit Check, Free Same-Day Shipping, and a 7-Day Risk Free Trial! If it does not work, for any reason, send it back for a full refund!

nomadinternet.com

No data limits or slow downs when we signed up.
Wife works from home one day a week no problems.
Can easily stream movies or youtube.

 

[sixdogs]

One thing I have learned with the LTE Home Internet is that you have to unplug it, wait 30 seconds and plug its back in if it starts to slow down. It must build up a static charge or something but that works for me.

 

[civilian]

We have the ATT version of the home internet box. Signal comes From an ATT cell tower less than 10 miles as the crow flies. But there is some hills between us and the tower. The closest is less than a half mile and is about 200ft higher than our house and much taller than tower. (Topo maps) Cell phones only get one bar of service. So box is not very good either. WeBoost system was no improvement. Verizon cell phones don't receive a signal at our property. Not sure about T-mobile.

So yes we use it, our location is the problem. We have travelled it in the car with us and it works great. Land line phone number rings through the box. Jon

 

[ponytug]

I'm the O/P on this and wonder if the Verizon LTE Home Router for internet connection has worked out for others in rural areas? I see it advertised from time to time and have seen TV ads as well. Any updates? Has it spread the internet to the rural areas?

It's now also 5G but I'm not sure of the benefits of that or even what it is.

One important detail about cellular 5G; while it has the potential for being faster with higher bandwidth, the range is even shorter than 4G. That means that you need to be even closer to the cell tower for it to work. So, great for cities, not so great for anything other than urban environments. The old analog cell phones could manage sixteen miles or so under good conditions or an amplifier, while 5G ultrawide is as short as 1,500 feet or so. That means a cell tower or antenna every 3,000' or less to maintain coverage. Not so great for rural areas.

5G - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

How far does 5G reach?

Learn about the reach of Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband network as well as the 5G range with help from Verizon. See how this range of 5G will impact you and technology as a whole.

www.verizon.com

Most 5G cellular receiver can fallback to 4G that has better range, but check your contract for the details on data limits, as many have much smaller 4G data caps than the advertised 5G data caps.

All the best,

Peter

 

[ning]

There's two types of 5G; one (the very high speed) is under half a mile of range, while the mid-band has a similar range as 4G LTE (slightly less, but similar).

I use VZW's home internet over cellular; it gets the same speeds as my cell phone does - typically about 160Mbps.
I'm paying $35/mo for it; I had no alternatives other than starlink (DSL never got to my place, no cable, local wireless internet doesn't have line of sight into my little valley; in ancient days I had starband satellite and then a T1) and prior to using the home internet services I just hotspotted my phone for my computer internet use for the past seven years. It's nice being able to take my phone to the bathroom without having my computer connections drop now.

 

[arto98607]

We have a $50/mo Comcast internet service and use Wi-Fi for all our phone calls and it's working very good based on our experience.

It's the only wired internet option in our rural area and cell phones would be just about useless without their Wi-Fi service option due to hills.

Speed test:

Download 94.24 Mbps, upload 24.05 Mbps