You don't have a high speed Internet connection??

TheMan419 · Mar 28, 2016

Only DSL out here where I live (or satellite of course). 5 mbs down and 1.5 or so up. Not too bad. Can stream video. Large files take a bit to download. If I know i have anything large to do it gets done at work over the business class speeds. Just part of rural life.

RedNeckGeek · Mar 28, 2016

At my home, I'm too far from the DSLM to have DSL, cable is unavailable, and cell reception is iffy at best. I tried HughesNet, switched to Wild Blue, then again to Exede (which is aptly named with respect to its data caps). I've been staying at a rural home for the past few weeks that has no Internet service, only a standard phone line that has been disconnected. I switched my iPhone back to Verizon (which allows tethering) and now have 3G (all this iPhone supports) to the Internet. There's no latency, but even downloading large photos on TBN is slower than on the Exede satellite service at home. And the bandwidth cap with the Verizon plan is 6Gb/month, four less than the satellite. But with Verizon I can purchase 3Gb for $20, way less than the 1Gb for $10 from Exede. I can purchase as much extra a month as is needed, and it doesn't expire for 90 days (the Exede data expires at the end of the billing cycle). Exede does offer a "free zone" when the data caps are lifted, but on my plan they start at midnight and end at 5AM. Trying to use them turns me into a zombie. So I'm leaning toward using the Verizon plan at home and eliminating the satellite, but cell coverage is intermittent at best. But it might be better with 4G service, and Apple just came out with a new smaller iPhone that I'm thinking about that does have 4G capability. but had I to do it all over again, I would probably not have purchased a rural property that didn't have at least DSL. You have to experience satellite Internet first hand to really appreciate how Draconian the data caps are and how truly bad the service people are. In the larger scheme of things, though, I'm much happier out in the sticks than I ever was in the city, and the Internet problem isn't bad enough to have me looking to move to another rural location with better Internet.

txdon · Mar 28, 2016

jymbee said:
But things do seem to be improving with more and more initiatives to expand broadband. Given the demographic here is largely rural, I'm wondering how many still don't' have a viable broadband option?

There is no initiative to expand Broadband to the rural areas, only to offer it for $9.95 a month to low income where it is avalible now.

jymbee · Mar 28, 2016

txdon said:
There is no initiative to expand Broadband to the rural areas, only to offer it for $9.95 a month to low income where it is avalible now.

On the contrary-- there are many such initiatives. We live in a very rural area and in the past year there's been significant funds provided to expand Internet access to areas that I never would have thought had a chance of getting broadband. Of course still a long way to go, but progress is being made:

initiatives expand broadband rural areas - Google Search

txdon · Mar 28, 2016

jymbee said:
On the contrary-- there are many such initiatives. We live in a very rural area and in the past year there's been significant funds provided to expand Internet access to areas that I never would have thought had a chance of getting broadband. Of course still a long way to go, but progress is being made:

initiatives expand broadband rural areas - Google Search

Well it's dead out here in central Texas and the link the OP sited said nothing about rural areas. I Called AT&T and Verizon and there are no plans to provide broadband so where are the initiatives?

dmccarty · Mar 28, 2016

jymbee said:
On the contrary-- there are many such initiatives. We live in a very rural area and in the past year there's been significant funds provided to expand Internet access to areas that I never would have thought had a chance of getting broadband. Of course still a long way to go, but progress is being made:

initiatives expand broadband rural areas - Google Search

We have 2-3 fiber runs on the road in front of us but none of it runs to a residential house. One runs a cell tower though. It is like showing a thirsty man a glass of ice water but keeping the glass out of reach....

No cable for us either even though we have a dense cluster of housing and DSL will not upgrade higher than 1.5 mbs. There does seem to be tax payer fund going to bring faster service to cattle. Only two homes on the particular property, not other homes around, just cattle. I guess the cattle have MooTooth.

Even worse, is that homes south and west of us have 10 mbs service. These are on rural rounds with very little housing density. I am glad these home have the access but the phone company will not upgrade our access. The house nearest to us, the only house I can see from our house, has 10 mbs while we have 1.5. He is on the newer network.

The large company DSL and cable providers are happy with the situation even though people have been complaining for years...

Ironically, there is a small phone Coop that serves another county and they are now bringing in fiber service into the western part of our county. :confused3: Apparently, the small Coop can find the money to supply access that the big boys can't. Things that make you go hmmmm....

The western part of the county was scat out of luck for fast Internet access but now they have some of the fastest speeds in the county. All because of this smaller company. It will take them years to get to us. If they ever get to us, I would think the big companies that have ignored so many, for so long, will loose large number of accounts.

Later,
Dan

Xfaxman · Mar 28, 2016

IMHO this is the best internet speed test site: TestMy.net Broadband Internet Speed Test

Larry Caldwell · Mar 28, 2016

k0ua said:
T1 is an old but extremely reliable technology from the 1960's. A symmetrical (same up and down speed) 1.544 Meg connection T-1's can be bonded together usually up to 8 T-1s for a 12 Meg symmetrical connection. Extremely reliable, and somewhat expensive by home consumer standards.

DSL or (Digital Subscriber Line) is offered by your phone company over copper based facilities. (the DSLAM'S Digital Subscriber Line Acces Multiplexer may be fiber fed) DSL can go as fast as 100 Meg Asymmetrical connections. but that is extremely short distances from the DSLAM. 25 or 50 meg down with up to 8 Meg up are realistic speeds, although for long distances from the DSLAM, the speeds are often not much over 3Meg or even 1.5 meg down and some smaller number upload speed. The further away you are from the DSLAM the slower you will get. Why not just build a nice DSLAM just outside your door? Sure man, just for you.. be happy to. just give me a million dollars and I will build one inside your house. All you need to do is pay for that 1 million dollars of equipment. Oh, you say you have a neighbor or 2 within range.. sure they can help pay for it.:laughing:

Hey I got a big ole fiber real close to my house!. OK. I have a big ole gasoline pipeline going by my house.. I guess I will just "tap in" to that. Uh, huh. Having a fiber going by you front yard means squat about giving you service. Just like having an 750KV power line going by your house means squat. I can assure you that a big point to point fiber going by a big business that was to buy a ton of broadband does not mean squat either. Even there the money is not there to get the fiber cut, and all of the expensive equipment that would be required to break out service even for them from a 10GIG DWDM (Dense Wave Division Multiplex) fiber circuit. Talk about drinking from a firehose..

Now if you want a 10Gig Ethernet connection over fiber, well I used to sell those. I could make you a deal on that. You got $10,000 a month? I could fix you right up. Well not anymore. I don't work for the phone company now. But I know who to call if you need that 10Gig connection.

So anyway I hope these tidbits of info helped a bit. I have 25Meg down 5Meg up here from the local cable company. I could have 75Meg for an additional $10 per month. but I cant find any use for more than the 25Meg I have now.

So how much will it cost me to get cable? I have a neighbor just 2/3 of a mile away, so we could share costs...

Larry Caldwell · Mar 28, 2016

TheMan419 said:
Only DSL out here where I live (or satellite of course). 5 mbs down and 1.5 or so up. Not too bad. Can stream video. Large files take a bit to download. If I know i have anything large to do it gets done at work over the business class speeds. Just part of rural life.

My DSL is 1 mb on a good day, sometimes as low as 850kb, and I get random drop-outs. The one time I tried downloading a movie from Amazon (standard def) it took so long that Amazon refunded my money and apologized without even being asked.