Internet providers

Without the option of cable TV in a given area, what options does a fella have for getting internet?

It can be provided by satellite dish, right? Just how good is the strength of the signal? How does it compare to cable tv signal strength?

 

We don't live in the boondocks, but there is a little section of this road that has no cable access...and we are in it...we could get internet via the landline phone company, but opt to use our cell phones for internet (hotspot) that works good for us, but if you want to watch movies and do other data intense things, might get a lil spendy?

 

I get my internet thru the phone company. I have DSL. No cable where I live.

 

How is the performance of it?

 

For what I use it for it is OK. I don't do a lot of streaming of movies or am into fancy games. Good enough for being on FHC, checking e-mail, and personal business. I haven't mastered Zoom yet. A teenager might not like it but there are none in the house.

 

Your gonna need one of these yoops.

 

I live about 45 miles from a large city, so cable is out of the question. I use my mobile phone company (AT&T) for my internet, they sell a router that is placed in my house and used as a "hot spot". The system works well except in bad weather and high internet traffic times.

 

We had DSL, it was not fast enough to stream. Downloading pics onto FHC was slow. Uploading pics was painfully slow.

My mom has Hughes net satellite internet. That service is pretty decent, for speed. I think it's well over 20 mb a second which would make streaming even 4k or HDR possible. Regular HD only needs about 5-8 MB/ second

 

No access to cable or high-speed internet where we're at so we've always used a mobile hot spot through our cell provider. It's fast enough to stream occasionally but uses up data FAST! It's been fine for what we need it for but since the mrs has been working from home and little piney's remote learning it just doesn't cut it.

They've been going to her sisters every day to use her cable internet.

Our neighbors had Hughes net (dish) for a while and said the speed was great but they also ran out of gigs fast. Just wasn't worth the cost for the gig limits

 

Where we live, cell service isn't available. Isn't satellite service for internet rather expensive?

 

Having used directTv for many years, and Hughes satellite internet, I can say that the claims of signal loss due to weather is way exaggerated. It's rare, and brief when it happens, but once the crazy storm clouds pass, then you are back in business.

Back in the day, DirectTV would sell a a self install kit. If you didn't do your homework, or follow the directions well enough, you wouldn't get the best signal. I know many that had it and installed it themselves and figured it was good enough because it worked. Well, when it's not blue sky weather, you need every bit of signal you can get by having it aimed properly.

So after they got a bad rap from poor installs, they stopped selling kits to allow you to self install, and had service techs do the installation of the dish. Guess what, they cleared up the "bad reception" misconception issue really quickly.

What was funny was when I had DirectTV, I had better reception 99.9% of the time than the cableHD TV could provide. Even a cheap tv antenna gives a better picture than the old cable TV we had. Since then, the cable co upgraded the actual cables that are run underground vs the aereal lines they had for decades, so I'd hope that the picture got even better now, but I don't have cable TV to be able to tell.

Mind you, these are small picture quality details that you would only notice on a decent hdTV.

 

We tether to our phone on an unlimited plan. It works.

But we just got accepted to join the beta with Starlink, I am looking forward to that. Currently waiting for it to ship.

 

Post up on our when you get it. I'm very interested. The kit price seems a bit high, and so does monthly rate, but it's another option. For some, it might be the only option

 

Shipped yesterday, ETA next week. I won't get it installed until nearly April, depending on the snow load, but I will let you know.

The equipment price is about the same as Hughes, but the monthly is indeed more. Hughes is a non-starter for me for me, for many reasons, including the onerous contract.

Been tethering for 6 years from 3G/4G phones, and am quite tired of that game. I had been hoping for 5G, but I think Elon may have what I need via Starlink.

Edit: if you have any interest, get on the beta waiting list. I have been on it a year, and just got the offer. When they offer, you have 24 hours to respond and sign up. You can always decline.

 

Their rates would have to drastically drop. I get cable internet 200 Mbps ( claimed by spectrum) for just under $80 / month.
While that's too much $ when I can see the att fiber hub right down the right of way in my neighbor's back yard, $80 is less than the $99/ month that starlink shows on their site. Att fiber is at around 100 Mbps for around half as much $ as I'm paying for internet now, plus there's bundling discounts since I have att cell service. I'm still working on this, but it might take time.

I'm pretty sure that after the beta testing is done, starlink will reduce rates.


I also can pretty much guarantee that since we have another option, that we would not be eligible for starlink at this time. They are trying to beta test on people that can't get other options beside other satellite options.

 

I work at home and have a couple LTE connections. One is with AT&T and the other is T-Mobile Home Internet. When one craps the bed I can run off the other. Neither are terribly fast, and the AT&T connection is capped, but T-Mobile is all you can eat.

Frontier is the incumbent provider who has perfected the ‘take government broadband funding money and run’ business methodology. I dropped them when the time I spent on the phone dealing with outages exceeded the uptime of the service.

I signed up for the Starlink beta last July. I follow a couple sites and I’m now surrounded by people who got into the beta program. I’ll send Elon Musk my money as soon as he’s willing to take it. I already took out a couple trees that were going to be in the way. Can’t come soon enough for me.

The latest FCC RDOF auction shows that the local electric co-op was awarded money for a fiber build. Knowing the population density of my area I’m not sure how that will work out for them, but it would in other areas of their territory. Based off some numbers I saw a couple years ago when they started discussing fiber to the home, I’d be looking at about $4000 to get it brought to my house. They only cover the first 100 feet from the main road. If Starlink works as it should, I’d have no need for fiber. 50-100 MB service would be more than adequate for me, especially since I’m used to 10-20.

 

Only people that live in Wooster think they are not in the Boondocks

 

Good thing that's not where I live...