Rural Broadband Options

[cprice12]

So, we just moved into our new place...not in a subdivision and a few minutes outside of town.
So that means, no Charter broadband and no DSL.

My options are:

- Satellite internet
- Dial-Up
- Wireless Broadband
- T1 line run to my house

- Satellite internet
$90 a month, not much faster than dial-up and I think you have to sign a contract.

- Dial-up
I get it free through the university if I want...but no thanks. This will only be used if our other options go down for a significant amount of time.

- Wireless Broadband
The local wireless broadband signal doesn't reach our house...so that's a no go.
We tried the Sprint MiFi card, which works great. Download speeds are decent...about 750kbs download, but upload sucks at about 150kbs. It's $60/mo...which isn't that bad considering what our options are. But the bummer is they cap the data transfer at 5 gigs per month and charge you .05 cents for every mb you go over. Ugh. We'll destroy the 5gb cap in a couple weeks easy.
We are currently trying Cricket wireless broadband, which works great. We get about 770kbs download and about 500kbs upload. Cricket also has a 5 gig cap, but when you go over, they don't charge you, they just reduce your speed to around dial-up speed. Ugh.

- T1 Line
I play hockey with a guy who owns a local ISP and has offered to run a T1 line to my house if I can get a few of my neighbors to go in on it. The neighbors would wirelessly connect to the antenna at my house. It would only be $50/mo (if I get four neighbors) and we'd get 1.5mb download and 1.5mb upload, with no caps. I'd like to do this...I just need to talk to a few of my neighbors to go in on it and split the $250 fee.

Pain in the ass...I tell ya.

Anyone have any other suggestions?

[Portland Blues]

The T1 really sounds like the way to go if you can wrangle your neighbors in on the deal.

[kodos]

Anyone have any other suggestions?

Move to civilization?

What do you need the internet for anyway? Keeping track of your chickens?

[cprice12]

Anyone have any other suggestions?

Move to civilization?

What do you need the internet for anyway? Keeping track of your chickens?

Goats actually. They are great lawnmowers.

[cprice12]

The T1 really sounds like the way to go if you can wrangle your neighbors in on the deal.

That's what I am hoping for. I was told it may take a month or so to get it set up after I talk to the neighbors.

[Philo]

So, we just moved into our new place...not in a subdivision and a few minutes outside of town.
So that means, no Charter broadband and no DSL.

My options are:

- Satellite internet
- Dial-Up
- Wireless Broadband
- T1 line run to my house

- Satellite internet
$90 a month, not much faster than dial-up and I think you have to sign a contract.

- Dial-up
I get it free through the university if I want...but no thanks. This will only be used if our other options go down for a significant amount of time.

- Wireless Broadband
The local wireless broadband signal doesn't reach our house...so that's a no go.
We tried the Sprint MiFi card, which works great. Download speeds are decent...about 750kbs download, but upload sucks at about 150kbs. It's $60/mo...which isn't that bad considering what our options are. But the bummer is they cap the data transfer at 5 gigs per month and charge you .05 cents for every mb you go over. Ugh. We'll destroy the 5gb cap in a couple weeks easy.
We are currently trying Cricket wireless broadband, which works great. We get about 770kbs download and about 500kbs upload. Cricket also has a 5 gig cap, but when you go over, they don't charge you, they just reduce your speed to around dial-up speed. Ugh.

- T1 Line
I play hockey with a guy who owns a local ISP and has offered to run a T1 line to my house if I can get a few of my neighbors to go in on it. The neighbors would wirelessly connect to the antenna at my house. It would only be $50/mo (if I get four neighbors) and we'd get 1.5mb download and 1.5mb upload, with no caps. I'd like to do this...I just need to talk to a few of my neighbors to go in on it and split the $250 fee.

Pain in the ass...I tell ya.

Anyone have any other suggestions?

Can you not get AT&T internet service? it comes over the phone line.

[cprice12]

So, we just moved into our new place...not in a subdivision and a few minutes outside of town.
So that means, no Charter broadband and no DSL.

My options are:

- Satellite internet
- Dial-Up
- Wireless Broadband
- T1 line run to my house

- Satellite internet
$90 a month, not much faster than dial-up and I think you have to sign a contract.

- Dial-up
I get it free through the university if I want...but no thanks. This will only be used if our other options go down for a significant amount of time.

- Wireless Broadband
The local wireless broadband signal doesn't reach our house...so that's a no go.
We tried the Sprint MiFi card, which works great. Download speeds are decent...about 750kbs download, but upload sucks at about 150kbs. It's $60/mo...which isn't that bad considering what our options are. But the bummer is they cap the data transfer at 5 gigs per month and charge you .05 cents for every mb you go over. Ugh. We'll destroy the 5gb cap in a couple weeks easy.
We are currently trying Cricket wireless broadband, which works great. We get about 770kbs download and about 500kbs upload. Cricket also has a 5 gig cap, but when you go over, they don't charge you, they just reduce your speed to around dial-up speed. Ugh.

- T1 Line
I play hockey with a guy who owns a local ISP and has offered to run a T1 line to my house if I can get a few of my neighbors to go in on it. The neighbors would wirelessly connect to the antenna at my house. It would only be $50/mo (if I get four neighbors) and we'd get 1.5mb download and 1.5mb upload, with no caps. I'd like to do this...I just need to talk to a few of my neighbors to go in on it and split the $250 fee.

Pain in the ass...I tell ya.

Anyone have any other suggestions?

Can you not get AT&T internet service? it comes over the phone line.

AT&T DSL is not available....yet.
They are doing some ditch work down the road and there are "Charter Buried Cable" and "AT&T" flags all along the road and even by my mailbox and by my house.
At first I thought this was where they were going to be putting lines, but then I realized it might just be them saying, "You can dig here...we have no lines here".
Edwardsville zoned a bunch of land for business and it is for sale right down the road. If that materializes they will get high speed over there...so hopefully it would get to us then. I'm not getting my hopes up though.