High speed internet outside of metro areas

[loudshirt]

Like I have posted on another thread the wife and I are going to be moving soon. I am kind of curious about some of the high speed internet options. I know about cable and DSL. One of those is what I will get if I can. I am just wondering about some of the other options, satellite, and I am not sure what it is called but it is close to being on wifi. If you live out in the middle of nowhere who do you use for internet service?


Thanks

 

[willystruck]

We moved "outa town" a few months ago. No DSL, No cable so we went with HughesNet satellite. Seems to be reliable and as fast as the DSL we had in town. We went with the middle of the road package, so we have to watch our bandwidth usage. Had a storm come through that interupted service for about 15 min. That's a lot better than ATT saying they will have it fixed (DSL) in the next 24 - 48 hours. Overall happy with the choice.

 

[davek]

Satellite only as a last resort.
Check around the the area, there may be some wireless options. I used Atlas Computer's Internet connection for 10 years, 768Kb down, 256Kb up, $50/month, excellent service.
AT&T has been creeping outward too, I got U-Verse in June, 11 Mb down, 4Mb up and just in time for me to become a teleworker.
I live at the North end of Tulsa county in an unincorporated area.

 

[dowmace]

I tether using my sprint phone. much cheaper than what att wants for internet if you already have a sprint Android phone.

 

[soonersfan]

Find out which wireless carrier has the best service in your area and go with their air card. Get a cradle point router and turn your usb into a regular home network. It is way faster than satellite at about the same price. We are using Verizon at $50 a month. It is handy to take with you when you are on the road too.

 

[soonersfan]

I tether using my sprint phone. much cheaper than what att wants for internet if you already have a sprint Android phone.

Do you pay the $30/month fee or did you find a way around that?

 

[farmerbyron]

Find out which wireless carrier has the best service in your area and go with their air card. Get a cradle point router and turn your usb into a regular home network. It is way faster than satellite at about the same price. We are using Verizon at $50 a month. It is handy to take with you when you are on the road too.

My old man just got one of those 4g air cards. We are still outside of 4g for now but even the 3g is faster than the @link wi-fi he has been using. When the 4g network expands I see a lot of these wi-fi companies going belly up. The air card also doubles as a router. I think you can have 4 users on at a time with the card.

 

[plissken]

We have had satellite for 7 years out here in Logan County. I've been waiting on a better option. The expense for the speed plus the "bandwidth exceeded" nonsense of Hughesnet has driven me to recently purchase a Verizon Mifi mobile hot spot. So far, so good. As soon as I'm sure it's better (it's leaning that way), I'll dump satellite.

When we first purchased satellite we had to buy the dish, the provider of the monthly account was Earthlink. It worked okay, other than the high price. Hughesnet took over somehow, and now we have this ridonkulous "fair access policy granny mode" if you update an iPod, watch a video, etc. All that for $80 per month. I can't wait to be rid of them.

 

[Okie4570]

Not sure where you're moving to but in Garfield Co., NODA provides internet service that is routed off of the top of each rural towns grain elevator. $149 install, $39/month and I can't tell any difference in speed than with the DSL I use at work. Have had service for 3 years and have only been without service half a dozen times, usually after it storms. Usually back up and running the next day.

 

[dowmace]

Do you pay the $30/month fee or did you find a way around that?

I use an Evo 3D, I rooted it and run the wifi tether app from the google code repository.

I can root almost any current android phone and unlock/install a free tethering app.


I've been tethering this way for about 2 and a half years now, the wife and I were with tmobile but left them for sprint because the 3G network is much more broad. I also have edited the PRL files on the phones so that we can roam to verizon when Sprint 3G isn't available. There is almost never a time we don't have decent internet speeds anywhere we go.

For example my wife and I are in Pensacola Beach right now on our vacation we drove down here and the whole way we used my wifes Iconia tablet tethered to our phones for internet and I bet we had less than a half hour of no internet in the whole 12 hour drive.