Any suggestions for rural Internet?

[sxmfan2018]

I sent him a couple of fixed wireless companies which claim to serve his area. Turns out the LEC is Verizon and not Frontier for some reason, but they do not offer service at his address.

i would run like hell from frontier i would run like my hair was on fire from them. the only thing they offer out here is a crappy 12 mbps connection for 39.99 a month. and the sales rep told me me that he could do more on his 12 mbps connection that i could do on my 400 mbps connection well that gave me a good chuckle. and waiting time to get installed was 4 months for me. i won't even go into how i had to get the bank to go after em to get my money back either

 

[ncted]

i would run like hell from frontier i would run like my hair was on fire from them. the only thing they offer out here is a crappy 12 mbps connection for 39.99 a month. and the sales rep told me me that he could do more on his 12 mbps connection that i could do on my 400 mbps connection well that gave me a good chuckle. and waiting time to get installed was 4 months for me. i won't even go into how i had to get the bank to go after em to get my money back either

I had Frontier for years in Durham with no issues. My parents used to have them as well. They only switched to Spectrum after a couple of month-long outages due to fiber cuts. That said, they are a terrible company run by terrible people.

 

[EarDemon]

For HughesNet, performance will depend on how full the beam that covers your brothers area. Gen 5 plans are all rated for 25 x 3, and you pay based on how much data you think you’ll use. If he goes over the allotment, he won’t get charged extra, his speeds are just slowed down unless ‘tokens’ are purchased. All HughesNet plans include 50 GB of data inbetween 2am and 8am that doesn’t count toward the bucket. People have come up with creative ways to download content in the middle of the night for later viewing.

My example won’t provide you much useful information as I am far away from Cooperstown, in between Buffalo and Rochester, and there is no chance I am on the same beam, and it wouldn’t matter anyway since I’m on Gen 4 (EchoStar XVII) and all new installs are Gen 5 (EchoStar XIX). But on the 15 x 1 plan during primetime I am lucky to see 2 or 3 megs down and an upload speed that barely registers. Latency is in between 600 and 900 ms no matter the time of day, which is actually quite good for satellite. The beam I am on covers three Indian Reservations, which have no other options, and a good chunk of the rural southern tier. So I imagine it's packed. Viasat actually quit selling their service in my area due to capacity issues.

If pricing is a concern, HughesNet is not your friend. Gen 5 starts out at $60 for 10 GB per month, 20 GB is $70 per month and there is the $15 per month modem rental fee if you opt not to pay the $400+ for the hardware.

It works okay with low rez YouTube, I never had the patience to see about Netflix. This is only my backup internet connection, so I don’t use it often, but when I play around on satellite it’s painfully obvious. Anything that is latency sensitive like VOIP or remote desktop services will not work well, if they even work at all. Also if smart speakers are ever purchased expect to wait forever for responses from Google Assistant, Cortana or Alexa.

Be aware of T-Mobiles maps. They have me as ‘Fair’ as well, but I cannot get a signal until I drive about a mile north of where I live.

 

[harshness]

My brother just moved to a new (to him) house in the country near Cooperstown, NY. He wants to go with Sling or maybe Hulu Live, but he needs decent Internet service of some kind to make that work

Your brother probably needs to choose another mode for getting his TV fix.

Hindsight is 20-20 but he should have scoped the options before he moved.

 

[ncted]

Your brother probably needs to choose another mode for getting his TV fix.

Hindsight is 20-20 but he should have scoped the options before he moved.

Well, even if he went with Dish or DirecTV for television which I am not sure are possible due to the terrain and canopy around his house, he'd still want decent Internet. I am certain the low rent goes along with these challenges.

 

[harshness]

I am certain the low rent goes along with these challenges.

You absolutely have to add the cost of getting services most take for granted when you're trying to save money.

A coworker of mine recently found a really inexpensive rental some distance away but the cost of commuting ended up being more than the rent so the net savings was negative.

 

[mdram]

You absolutely have to add the cost of getting services most take for granted when you're trying to save money.

A coworker of mine recently found a really inexpensive rental some distance away but the cost of commuting ended up being more than the rent so the net savings was negative.

rural life has its hurdles
but its worth it

 

[comfortably_numb]

rural life has its hurdles
but its worth it

Agreed.

 

[ncted]

rural life has its hurdles
but its worth it

I agree, although you'd think with the $500 million NY just spent on rural broadband, he'd be able to get something.

 

[comfortably_numb]

I agree, although you'd think with the $500 million NY just spent on rural broadband.

That's what happens when you let the gov't control a project. Oops... did I just use my outside voice?

 

[NYDutch]

NY has ordered Spectrum out of the state in part for not fulfilling their promises for rural coverage, although it does appear there may be a compromise in the works.

 

[ncted]

Spectrum/TWC has apparently been promising people on his road they'd get service for decades.

 

[harshness]

NY has ordered Spectrum out of the state in part for not fulfilling their promises for rural coverage, although it does appear there may be a compromise in the works.

Do they really think they're going to hold more sway with Comcast or Cox?

The gubmints still haven't figured out that if they don't enforce the agreements that they struck with companies as part of their support of assembling megacorporations, the desired results will never come. What you permit, you promote and you can't roll it back.

 

[NYDutch]

Do they really think they're going to hold more sway with Comcast or Cox?

The gubmints still haven't figured out that if they don't enforce the agreements that they struck with companies as part of their support of assembling megacorporations, the desired results will never come. What you permit, you promote and you can't roll it back.

I don't think we'll have any sort of answer until either a compromise is reached keeping Spectrum in place or they announce their plan to divest their NY holdings to another entity. I really don't want to see Comcast come in, and Cox wouldn't be a much better option. Maybe a spin off to a new company, maybe something along the lines of the Advance-Newhouse/TWE spin off deal that formed Bright House. Bright House has since been absorbed into Charter/Spectrum though.

 

[mdram]

did a google, ny clain 99.9% state coverage

 

[harshness]

did a google, ny clain 99.9% state coverage

Coverage claims have been suspect since the cell phone industry made their first claims.

Are the claiming coverage per capita or per square mile?

DBS used to do something like this. If they offer NYC and LA, they cover fully 11% of the US population. Once you get down to Baltimore (26), each new city brings less than 1% and the bottom half (from Reno on down) brings less than the top few in total but makes up many times the acreage.

 

[harshness]

Maybe a spin off to a new company, maybe something along the lines of the Advance-Newhouse/TWE spin off deal that formed Bright House. Bright House has since been absorbed into Charter/Spectrum though.

At some point, all spin-offs should be recognized as a preparatory step for the absorption into a larger player. It makes for less scrutiny than a direct sale.

 

[mdram]

Coverage claims have been suspect since the cell phone industry made their first claims.

Are the claiming coverage per capita or per square mile?

DBS used to do something like this. If they offer NYC and LA, they cover fully 11% of the US population. Once you get down to Baltimore (26), each new city brings less than 1% and the bottom half (from Reno on down) brings less than the top few in total but makes up many times the acreage.

99.9% of newyorkers
Broadband for All

In 2015, Governor Cuomo made the largest and most ambitious state broadband investment in the nation, $500 million, to achieve statewide broadband access by 2018. Governor Cuomo has now secured high-speed Internet upgrades for approximately 2.42 million locations statewide, which means 99.9 percent of New Yorkers will have access to broadband.

 

[harshness]

Let's not make the mistake of confusing gubmint investment with viable end product.

A substantial amount of gubmint money never seems to leave the hands of the agency responsible for disbursing it. I can think of one particular agency (the State of Oregon inheritance tax department) where 100% of the revenue goes to collecting the tax.

 

[ncted]

Apparently, a lot of those now covered (including my brother) are only covered by fixed wireless. I finally found the company who serves his area: Clarity Connect. They do no marketing. I really had to dig to find them. Anyway, I wanted to say thanks to everyone who responded. It was very helpful.