Rural Internet Options

Wesoloski

Well in an interesting turn of events, I am now located in a rural area of North Florida, about an hour west of Tallahassee. I'm not even sure if the town itself, "Grand Ridge', has access to highspeed internet, and we are located pretty far out of city limits. Comcast website says are not in an area currently covered. Currently we are running 56k, but it is so frustrating when used to cable/dsl for the past 8 years or so.

Anyways, satellite is not an option right now, because of the large start up fees. I've been looking into using the cell networks as a provider(I use AT&T for my cell), but I'm having trouble locking down precise information about how it would work, pricing, and coverage. If anyone has had any experience with this or just has advice in general it would be greatly appreciated.

mcdermott

Wesoloski wrote: »

Well in an interesting turn of events, I am now located in a rural area of North Florida, about an hour west of Tallahassee. I'm not even sure if the town itself, "Grand Ridge', has access to highspeed internet, and we are located pretty far out of city limits. Comcast website says are not in an area currently covered. Currently we are running 56k, but it is so frustrating when used to cable/dsl for the past 8 years or so.

Anyways, satellite is not an option right now, because of the large start up fees. I've been looking into using the cell networks as a provider(I use AT&T for my cell), but I'm having trouble locking down precise information about how it would work, pricing, and coverage. If anyone has had any experience with this or just has advice in general it would be greatly appreciated.

Well, with cable and satellite knocked out, there go two of your biggest options. If you're thinking of using cellular for your primary access then from everything I've heard it is not going to be cheap. Aside from those two options, have you at least checked on DSL coverage in the area?

I only ask because my parents live in an area at least as rural, if not more so, as that (at least looking at google maps) and they have access to DSL (and not cable). There's a good chance you're boned, but it's worth checking. Keep in mind that you might not have access to the kind of speeds you're used to (for a while they could only get 512k/128k) but it's still a fuckload faster than dial-up and a dedicated connection (possibly even a good enough ping for gaming, which you'd never get with satellite).

Good luck!

Tofystedeth

Exactly how rural are you? Like, size of town wise? DSL seems to be available more and more places now. I think if you go to the website for your phone service provider and put in your phone number it should tell you if you are in DSL range.

wunderbar

using a cell provider is not ideal either. the most common carriers for mobile internet are sprint and Verizon, using EV-DO modems. usually it's a PC card or USB adapter that plugs into your computer, and you get speeds that are limited to how fast the EV-DO is in your area(usually no faster than 2Mbit/s). You also have a usage cap, with stiff penalties for going over that cap.

PeregrineFalcon

Your only "real" option for broadband is to hope that DSL is available in your area. As stated before, you might be limited to "DSL Lite" but it's still a pile better than anything else, since satellite will give you about a second of latency. Cellular has its own issues, and I'm guessing your rural town won't have 3G either.

Wesoloski

I should point out that this is not for gaming purposes, more for a browse the internet and stream youtube kinda deal.

The town we are in is tiny. heh. Wiki puts population at about ~800 and we are about 5ish miles outside what you would call the main drag...which amounts to the post office, school, town hall, and little else. Landline phones are through embarq, and going to the website shows dsl is not available.

The other day a neighbor was talking about how he just got wireless internet through alltel (I think) and that it as fast or at least comparable to what he's used to through work. But, I dont know anything about EV-DO or 3g besides what I've researched a bit yesterday and today. I looked to see what at&t provided and all I could see was 'laptop connect' which does not seem to help me at all.

----I've been sitting here quite a while waiting for broadband coverage maps to load--

Sprint and verizon coverage maps of the area seem to be fine, a bit pricey but doable.

PeregrineFalcon

Wesoloski wrote: »

I should point out that this is not for gaming purposes, more for a browse the internet and stream youtube kinda deal.

The town we are in is tiny. heh. Wiki puts population at about ~800 and we are about 5ish miles outside what you would call the main drag...which amounts to the post office, school, town hall, and little else. Landline phones are through embarq, and going to the website shows dsl is not available.

The other day a neighbor was talking about how he just got wireless internet through alltel (I think) and that it as fast or at least comparable to what he's used to through work. But, I dont know anything about EV-DO or 3g besides what I've researched a bit yesterday and today. I looked to see what at&t provided and all I could see was 'laptop connect' which does not seem to help me at all.

----I've been sitting here quite a while waiting for broadband coverage maps to load--

Sprint and verizon coverage maps of the area seem to be fine, a bit pricey but doable.

You might be in luck if you've got a Wireless ISP serving the area. Not sure what your local options are, but check to see if any of them offer WiMAX or another "wireless to fixed-location" service. It'll be a little pricier than DSL, and you may have to pony up for equipment rental/purchase, but it'll beat the shit out of your other options.