You don't have a high speed Internet connection??

jymbee · Mar 10, 2016

I think too many people just assume that *everyone* has a high speed Internet connection (especially my urban friends~)-- not realizing that for many that's just not an option. Of course satellite has gone a long way to reach rural folks but satellites come with other issues such as high latency and cost, and in general are not as desirable as cable or DSL.

We're lucky here in that there was big build out some years back assuming a local resort would be developed more, but even though that did not materialize the cable did get much nearer to our house that it would have normally. Just not a big incentive to cable companies to target us living in rural areas.

But things do seem to be improving with more and more initiatives to expand broadband. Given the demographic here is largely rural, I'm wondering how many still don't' have a viable broadband option?

Trkrd · Mar 10, 2016

None here. AT&T actually abandoned the land line coming to my area. Got tore up by the county road graders so much that the few people that live out here switched to cell only. Even when it worked, all that was available was dial-up. Nearest DSL was about 12 miles away.

kcflhrc · Mar 10, 2016

You can always go the local library and get on line.

EddieWalker · Mar 10, 2016

I went from Hughsnet satilite, which was horrible, to Verizon, which was great, then made the HUGE mistake of changing to the Verizon wifi. That sucked up data from every computer, laptop, ipad and phone in my home. It didn't matter if we turned them off and unlugged the wifi, as soon as we turned them on, they updated, backed up and did whatever possible to used more data. My usage went up no matter what I did to just over what I was paying for. If I was a conspiracy type person, I would think that there is some sort of partnership with Verizon, Windows and Apple to do this.

Last months I changed over to Skynet. SkyNet Country There is no limit on data, and the speeds are what you pay for. Higher speed cost more money. It's basically an antenna that they install at your house that is pointed to the tower with the best signal in your area. I have several towers, but I'm right at the edge of there area. Speed is just as fast as Verizon, but the cost per month is a quarter of what I was paying for Verizon. I could pay a lot less if I wanted to, but when both my wife and I are online and one of us is downloading a big file, the other notices the slowdown. This happened when I upgraded to Windows 10.

RobS · Mar 10, 2016

We are on Hughesnet now as it's the only viable choice. It's miserable, but at least it's expensive :laughing: Our power company is putting in fiber and we're slated for hookup in the next few weeks. Can't come soon enough!

TSO · Mar 10, 2016

We had tried HughesNet originally and hated it...

Only other viable option for us is "WildBlue /Excede" and it actually isn't terrible. We pay $65/mo total, 10gb bandwidth at "full speed" (which is up to 15 Mbs) and unlimited bandwidth "less than full speed" (1-5 Mbs). You get used to it.

Our landline is thru "Frontier" but no DSL on our ancient lines, and cable is about 1/2 mile away, so no option there either.

PSEbowhunter · Mar 10, 2016

No option other than satellite for us. Cable and dsl all around us but too far away for them to run our stretch of roadway.

bcp · Mar 10, 2016

If you can get a county official to build a McMansion farther out, you will soon have upgraded power lines, cable, and a repaved road.

Bruce

aeblank · Mar 10, 2016

I have a miserably capped AT&T 4G connection. It is a SIM a professional grade router (bandrich), which makes a huge difference. The router was leftover from my previous 4G provider that was awesome (and closed its doors). I have maintained unlimited data on my phone, so I download files with that. Bleah.