What's the best way to have internet in the country?

[flybeech]

I'm moving to the country and am looking for opinions of the various ways to connect to the internet. Among my choices are Pioneer Telephone Cooperative, various satellite companies and tethering my AT&T iPhone.

Pioneer tells me that I should be able to get up to 10mbps download and 756kbps upload where I'm at for about $110 per month, including the required and unwanted land-line telephone. ($80+$30). I imagine the benefits are super reliability and unlimited data transfer.

I can get about 8mbps download and 2mbps upload out of my AT&T iPhone 4s in 4g and a little more when the 4gLTE light is on, and tether to a home network for $10 per gigabyte. The plan required for tethering is $50 for a 5gb per month, with each gigabyte over 5 costing $10 per gig. Currently, I burn through about 30 to 60gb per month with Cox, so unless I use less, Pioneer appears to be my best solution. I like to stream video, Pandora music, iTunes, YouTube and of course Alex Jones every day.

Then there is satellite, which I know nothing about. I hear good and bad things, but would like to consider all options. WildBlue offers up to 12 mbps download and about 2mbps upload and 10gb per month for about $64. It throttles back to 1mbps if you go over and unlimited between midnight and 5am. I understand there is some latency and weather-related issues with satellite internet.

I'm spoiled with Cox. I get 10 to 20mbps download and 2 to 3mbps upload for about $60 and internet standalone. I have no interest in television and cut the propaganda machine years ago. Life is so much better without being addicted to the idiot box, anymore. I haven't lived in the country since Kingfisher had party lines, so I'm hoping my country cousins will share their experience with a city boy.

 

[chuter]

I tried Pioneer fixed wireless first; it was terrible. Usually we got less than 1Mb download. It may have just been our location, and it's been about 3 years since we quit them, so you may get better performance.
Then we tried Nutel fixed wireless; a little better but not much.
Now we use Verizon with a USB modem in our laptop. Usually it's very good. Anywhere from 6-15Mb download speed. Occassionally we have trouble getting connected, but 90-95% of the time it's good.

With sattelite internet you'd have the same problem you do with sattelite tv service; stormy/rainy times can affect reception. I'm not sure what kind of download speeds people are actually getting from it.

Verizon is ok, but if I could get U-Verse or Cox I'd switch in a heartbeat.

 

[Erickmelo]

its bit difficult to say about it as all the network are just horrible these days...

 

[ki4ppg]

i have had wildblue for 5 monthhs now and its ok have not lost signal yet ...but have been offline for upgrades ......pricewise its ok

 

[Cusingeorge]

I've got Pioneer internet, and their land line. I've looked at several options because I really don't like Pioneer (a story for another thread), satellite has too much latency for good streaming and I use a VoIp phone for work at my house which wouldn't work with satellite. So I'm stuck with Pioneer, but on the bright side, Pioneer allegedly is going to have a system upgrade sometime late this summer that will allow you to kill the land line and keep your internet service. I found this out the hard way. The minute they get this done, I'm going to an AT&T wireless connection and have them port my land line number over. Adding this to my existing service will cost me another $10.00 per month (far better than the $60.00 + Pioneer is charging).

 

[gmar]

Would any of the above options be enough to support playing PS3 online?

 

[Neanderthal]

Millenicom.com (my sons plays ps3 online with no prob).

 

[flybeech]

I've got Pioneer internet, and their land line. I've looked at several options because I really don't like Pioneer (a story for another thread), satellite has too much latency for good streaming and I use a VoIp phone for work at my house which wouldn't work with satellite. So I'm stuck with Pioneer, but on the bright side, Pioneer allegedly is going to have a system upgrade sometime late this summer that will allow you to kill the land line and keep your internet service. I found this out the hard way. The minute they get this done, I'm going to an AT&T wireless connection and have them port my land line number over. Adding this to my existing service will cost me another $10.00 per month (far better than the $60.00 + Pioneer is charging).

I wonder what else Pioneer will upgrade this summer? I'm glad to hear there is a possibility of internet-only service, since I've been off the land-line for several years now. Where I'm moving, Pioneer says 10mbps is the best they can do for $80, but there are no limits on data transfer. Looking at my Cox data usage history, I use between 30 and 65 gb per month, so that blows the $10 per gigabyte idea, same with the satellite, since they charge about $100 to $130 for a plan that offers no more than 25gb per month. I've been trying to find reviews of Pioneer internet, but I can't find a thing newer than several years old.

I guess Pioneer will get the nod, though I'm sure going to miss my Cox internet. It's fast, reasonable and is always on.

 

[flybeech]

Millenicom.com (my sons plays ps3 online with no prob).

What are the specs of Millinicon? I don't see any specs on their website for down/upload speeds. Have you ever done a speedtest.net check on it?

 

[CCF]

I have a LOT of experience with this living outside of DSL range for 10+ years. WildBlue is decent, but the thing that kills you is the usage limits (forgot what they were offhand). If you have kids or use it a lot, it's a HUGE hassle to stay under the limit. Weather can also be troublesome with satellites. Latency is a BIG problem if anybody wants to do any any streaming or gaming, as well.

I've moved now, but the last year or so we were there, we used a small company out of Mounds called AirLink. Found their flyer in our mailbox one day. I was estatic, LOL. In simple terms, they use a radio signal from their tower to your house. It's the way to go if you live in the country. It's much faster with a lot less latency, cheaper, no limits, & rarely affected by weather.

I know they do the Sapulpa area, but may have more towers by now. It definitely would be worth getting in touch with them. Or maybe they know of a similar service in your area. The website is airlinkinternet.net (contact info on site).