What can be done about the lack of affordable broadband in rural America?

[tonyp56]

First of all, because this is related to broadband, I've placed it in this forum, even though this forum doesn't get much traffic. Secondly, this is from someone that is very disgusted and tired of excuses from telco company about the lack of decent and affordable broadband for me.

To begin, I recently signed up for DSL for the very first time, and only after receiving equipment, found out that I am unable to get DSL. Kudos to the people over at dslreports.com for helping me along, and for giving me ideas, etc... Anyways, I live about a mile too far from DSL service, and I am left with my only other option for broadband, satellite. Which for the most part, I do not like. Well over priced, FAP, bad weather affects it, etc...

More or less, I've been wanting DSL and I've been very vocal about it--calling, e-mailing, using AT&T Direct over at DSLreports.com, etc.--AT&T must have thought, "well maybe he can get from where he is" and so added my number to their database. The reason I can't get it isn't because I'm too far away, field tech said that there was a splice/split in line about 400 feet away from me, that caused DSL signal not to get to me (line quality issue, though I am right on the edge of being too far away, though without above issue, I could have been on DSL). Field tech said only way to fix is to either run new line from me to hwy (about 1/4 of a mile) or run fiber up to hwy (install RT in other words). Neither of these two things will likely happen any time soon. (no work being done, at this moment)

I know that this is the way of things, but I was hoping for DSL, especially after AT&T said I could have it. So in researching around the net, I found the following:

1. By December 31, 2007, AT&T/BellSouth will offer broadband Internet access service (i.e., Internet access service at speeds in excess of 200 kbps in at least one direction) to 100 percent of the residential living units in the AT&TBellSouth in-region territory. 2 To meet this commitment, AT&T/BellSouth will offer broadband Internet access services to at least 85 percent of such living units using wireline technologies (the "Wireline Buildout Area"). AT&T/BellSouth will make available broadband Internet access service to the remaining living units using alternative technologies and operating arrangements, including but not limited to satellite and Wi-Max fixed wireless technologies . AT&TBellSouth further commits that at least 30 percent of the incremental deployment after the Merger Closing Date necessary to achieve the Wireline Buildout Area commitment wi11 be to rural areas or low income living units. 3

1 AT&TBellSouth refers to AT&T Inc., BellSouth Corporation, and their affiliates that provide domestic wireline or Wi-Max fixed wireless services .

2 As used herein, the "AT&TBellSouth in-region territory" means the areas in which an AT&T or BellSouth operating company is the incumbent local exchange carrier, as defined in 47 U.S.C. § 251(h)(1)(A) and (B)(i) . "AT&T in-region territory" means the area in which an AT&T operating
company is the incumbent local exchange carrier, as defined in 47 U.S.C. § 251(h)(1)(A) and (B)(i), and "BellSouth in-region territory" means the area in which a BellSouth operating company is the incumbent local exchange carrier, as defined in 47 U.S.C. § 251(h)(1)(A) and (B)(i) .

3 For purposes of this commitment, a low income living unit shall mean a living unit in AT&T/BellSouth's in-region territory with an average annual income of less than $35,000, determined consistent with Census Bureau data, see California Public Utilities Code section 58900)(2) (as added by AB 2987) (defining low income households as those with annual incomes below $35,000), and a rural area shall consist of the zones in AT&T/Bell South's in-region territory with the highest deaveraged UNE loop rates as established by the state commission consistent with the procedures set forth in section 51 .507 of the Commission's rules. 47 C.F.R. § 51 .507.[/QUOTE] http://www.fcc.gov/ATT_FINALMergerCommitments12-28.pdf (Pg. 2) ​

This document is in regards to AT&T's merger with BellSouth, in it, they've committed as a condition of their merger, they'll have broadband available to 100% of their footprint by this years end (including BellSouth's footprint). In that 100%, "at least" 85% will be served by wireline, the remaining will be served by "alternative technologies and operating arrangements," including wireless and satellite. Additionally, 30% of the wireline (DSL) buildout will include rural areas (that's me). ​

Wireless would be OK, if they offered at least 1Mbps down and 200Kbps up for around $39 a month. (though in their statement they define broadband as at least 200Kbps in at least one direction--i.e. up or down--so they wouldn't have to offer that). DSL of course would be great and ideal. Satellite, I've already got satellite, and I don't want it. Unless, they'll lower the price down to DSL prices and do away with FAP. NOTE: Before anyone says "why did you say $39 for WiFi?" I am realistic, I know WiFi will cost more, not to mention, WiFi lacks some of cons of broadband via satellite, especially latency. ​

For starters, DSL Basic, offers speeds of 768Kbps down and 128Kbps up for $14.99 a month, or Direcway's Home 700Kbps down and 128Kbps up for $59.99. That is a 4X difference in price for same speed. Not to mention, satellite has latency and a FAP, which chokes it down to nothing but fast dial-up. Before anyone says DSL has a FAP, with my DSL modem came a coupon for a free month with Vongo. If AT&T sends a free month with a movie download site, I think they want you to use your download capabilities (one movie is 2-3GB just for SD movies). Not to mention, modem was going to cost me $0 after mail-in rebate. I just got done paying $40 a month extra for 15 months to pay for my Hughesnet equipment (or I could have fronted the $600). ​

OK, so what can be done to insure AT&T (and other telcos, even cable companies) keep rural America in mind, and start including us in DSL service areas--or at least better alternatives than satellite via fast WiFi or perhaps cable. Before someone says it, according to posters at dslreports, RT's (remote terminals) can cost upwards of 1 million dollars each (consensus there that I saw was about $750,000 each) So I know it is very expensive for telco's to build out a DSL area to include areas were they will likely only pick up a few subscribers. That aside, if AT&T wants U-Verse to succeed, then they'll have to get it into 100% of their customers homes. Think, until cheap DVD players were everywhere, DVD's sat on the shelves with VHS tapes. ​

Broadband today to me is the same as electric was a 100 years ago. Only the most populated areas have it. Some of you folks here are talking about your 20Mbps and higher broadband, and I don't even have 1Mbps broadband. The kicker is, you are likely paying the same or less than what I pay. How is that fair? Would I not benefit from this 21st century luxury too? I would be happy with 1.5Mbps down and 386Kbps up for about $20 a month. Oh, wait, that is AT&T's Express package, lol, that would be perfect. But, I can't get it, because I've been deemed not important enough to be included in their DSL area. ​

If one reads that statement from AT&T about the merger, things sound like they might be getting better (at least for us in the AT&T and BellSouth footprint). But nothing there says they have to give DSL, or even provide a WiFi alternative. It says operational agreements, that could be simply them teaming up with Hughesnet, and offering satellite internet on their (AT&T's) web-page through Hughesnet. Like they do with Dish Network.​

Finally, what do others think can be done? I've heard others say, no amount of writing, protesting, etc. will ever make a difference. But somehow, AT&T and other telco's need to serve all of their customers with affordable and viable broadband internet. Because WiFi and satellite are either not offering good speeds (1Mbps down and 200Kbps up at least), not offering service in an area, or not offering cheap service for anyone.​

Thanks,​

I'd like to hear what others think​

 

[Jared Twomey]

Looks like you just found yourself a new business idea. Start yourself a WISP. See if you can make any money at it, or if you go bankrupt. Is there enough people in your area to justify spending the money on setting up the system, maintaining it, and providing the bandwidth.

Most telco's and cable providers aren't going to spend a ton of money to setup the infastructure to provide services to a handful of people in a rural area.

There are also still a lot of areas where cable is not available... why, because the cable companies look at what it costs to run lines, boosters, ect to a particular area... then look at how much they can potentially make in an area, and if there is no chance for profit, they are not going to do it.

I know, it sucks.... i personally just moved into town... but before that I had no dsl or cable available. I went with Sprint EVDO because the speeds were good and latency way better than satellite. I also pay $60 bucks a month. Is it fair that my internet access is more than 5 times what most people are paying for dsl... not really, but I couldn't expect SBC to run dsl out to my house out in the country... i'm sure they would have done it, but on my nickle... and honestly, I don't blame em. No business should have to do anythin that is going to lose them money... that just raises the rates for the rest of the customers

 

[curttucker]

I feel and understand your frustration! I have been in the same situation for many, many years myself. This past December Sprint turned on their cell towers in my area for mobile broadband. The cost isn't cheap like both you and I would like it to be but, the speed is a breath of fresh air when you have had dial up for so long! It costs $60 a month and I get about 1mbps down and 200kbps up. Sprint doesn't have a FAP like satellite (or Verizon) and the latency is far better than satellite.

I messed around with my local telco for a long time and they kept promising DSL and yet have never delivered. The only satisfaction I have had dealing with my local telco is that I finally cut off my landline service. I believe dollars and cents is the only way they will get the message!

So in summary, I paid $60 for the service but saved $35 by disconnecting my landline + $10 discontinuing dial up ISP = $15 more out of my pocket for broadband. This isn't an advertisement but http://www.evdoinfo.com/ is a great source of information and place to buy.

 

[Stargazer]

I have the same dilema. No DSL, cable here only has 20 some channels and I dont see them upgrading this system anytime soon, if anything quit providing service here since almost everyone has satellites here, thats how sucky the cable is here, so no cable internet here either. Satellite broadband has FAP and expensive to install and not good for VoIP and gaming. The best route would be wireless but it takes getting enough people in your area willing to pay the money for it and most people pay around $50 if it is available for around 1 MB speed. Its basically a T1 line cost split up among the people and the people pay you to install the system at a cost of the hardware and the business keeps ownership of the hardware in case they dont want it anymore. They have most people sign a 1 or 2 year contract so that they know that they are serious about wanting it and can be guaranteed to recoup the investment in the costs and hardware of getting the service to them. I was going to do that here but have little knowledge on networking and do not know what all it would involve to get it going and keep it going. T1's here cost $750 per month.

I tried to partner/buy out another guy that is providing the service about 12-15 miles from me in the county that wants to expand in which is having a lack of funding to getting it expanded but greed prevents it from happening. I told him with someone else coming in (as I found out a few weeks back) I didnt want to wait a long time to get the money returned and we did have a deal but the broadband provider that was going to give us a lot of bandwidth for pretty cheap had in his contract that he would own the customers and home premise equipment if we took the bandwidth and that they would have the right to quit selling the service to us if it didnt seem economical or other reasons which to me is the same thing as signing the company over to him.

We decided that we would just go with the phone company to get more bandwidth for the time being but he decided not to do the deal because he felt like he was just giving the company to me with the agreement that we had even though I was going to put a lot of money into it and give him up to 3,500 of profits per month until he got 25,000 then he would get 25% of profits for keeping the system going (since he got college degree on it and knows all about that stuff) and he wanted 3,500 upfront for himself to boot and I would pay for all expansion costs until he got his 25,000 and I would own the business. So that deal was terminated because he didnt want to do it because he felt like he was just giving the company to me due to the fact that he was going to have to do the work included for that 3,500 per month and we decided on 50/50 and I would pay $15,000 to expand it. He mentioned this before I had that last idea but now mentions he wants the 3,500 upfront for himself with this deal too when before he didnt say he wanted that and he said that was the final negotiation. I called back and told him sorry cant pay you 3,500 upfront and never heard back from him for three days. That 3,500 is 2-3 months worth of profits and I want to be able to at least break even before the other company comes in and starts doing this. The other company has towers up around the county and state already and is currently doing testing and they told me that it would be at least 6 months before activating service for the first customer but it would be a while before they got to where I live. I believe me and this guy I am trying to work out a deal with can have several customers on by then as he already has a deal to almost all the water towers in the county and already has 70 customers online.

So basically I am trying to figure out how to go about this. I didn't want to do it myself as I do not have the experience needed to do this sort of thing but he does and its shown with what he has done so far. I figure if I cannot get the right deal with him though that I would take a risk of losing money seeing that someone else is coming in. I wish there were other people / options to talk to and to go about this. Since he is already in the area I'd rather do it with him but I also dont want to get burnt in the process.

 

[tonyp56]

Sorry haven't posted back here in a while, been busy.

Stargazer, I can understand what you mean, and I've thought it through too. It is very expensive to be able to do anything like that. Even if you partner with someone, the expense is still great. Too bad we weren't all rich, lol.

Curttucker, yeah, that sounds a lot better than satellite, especially with no FAP. Though, EVDO from Sprint is not available where I am at (nor is Cingular's 3G or whatever it is called--my current cell phone company, and I don't even get voice coverage at my house for Verizon) So that option is out.

Birddoggy, starting my own WISP, is well, out of the question, no way that I could afford it. Would there be enough customers, yes, but I'd still have to take that initial bite. I understand that it is expensive, especially for telco's, but eventually, telco's and other companies will have no choice but to expand into rural areas, especially after all other areas are up and going.

Here is some good news . My local cable company is expanding cable coverage and they are installing cable internet. (funny, in other towns that have cable internet, most of them don't have digital cable) My guessing was right, lol. Though, I don't know how much longer it will be, because they are going about a mile past me as well, and are now working on getting that installed, along with stringing cable from where it used to end. (they are using arial until getting to my road, were they have buried and tunneled under HWY to my side and then back up telephone pole on the corner of my road and HWY, then running along telephone poles along HWY for about a 1/2 mile, where they are buring it again--no telephone poles in that area--for another 1/2 mile or so. From my house to corner of my road and HWY is about 1/4 of a mile, so I would think, I'll be getting this as soon as they are done--why else would they run it all the way out here only to say we can't go that 1/4 mile so we can sell our service. No word on their website at all about this, however, I stopped and asked one of the workers what they were doing, and they said "cable internet". Not to mention it had "Community Cablevision" on the side of vehicle. Looks like they've got everything ran in town, but new cables are not hooked up yet. They've ran all the wire that they will hang cable on and all burial stuff up too me done. Past me, they've barely started on, not to mention it has rained the last two days.

They have two packages on their website, Residential and Buisness (1.5Mbps down and 128Kbps up; 3.0Mbps down and 384Kbps up) for $34.95 and $59.95. http://www.communitycablevision.com/cccexpress.htm Much better
Anyways, looks like I'll finally have a alternative to satellite.

 

[Stargazer]

I finally got a deal and am partnered up now. We just got hardware in today and supposed to do testing tomorrow weather permitting. It's very hard when you have rought terrain and trying to make deals with land owners. They get greedy trying to say that cell phone companies pay big bucks like $500 a month to put their tower on their property. We are just a small company and that would eat up the profit in a small area leaving no hope for some areas not counting the hardware and tower costs. No power to the site is a huge cost if you do find a tall hill to prevent from having a high tower. Software helps greatly on finding sites that will work.

 

[tonyp56]

Stargazer,

Congrats, glad to hear you were able to find a partner and start buisness.

Yeah, cell phone companies do pay big bucks for land. What you ought to offer is free net. If someone came to me and said we want to put this tower on your property (yes I own my own) and if you let us we'll give you our 1.5Mbps (ish) package for free as payment, I'd say "what you standing around asking me for?" LOL

Of course, some land owners won't go for that, but I'm willing to bet at least a few will. The others, maybe give em something extra to let you do it ($200 a month plus internet ?? maybe or something along those lines). Got to keep the word "NIMBY" in mind, most everyone wants a lot of stuff, but when it comes time to install it, most don't want it around them.

One thing to keep in mind, with the right conditions and right equipment, signal can travel up to and likely beyond 10 miles (consumer stuff advertises 10 mile coverage, so surely WISP equipment would be even better). Of course, I understand you've got hills, trees, buildings, etc. in the way of that. When I was installing for a WISP here, there was times that we'd be installing less than 2 miles from tower and we would extend hot pole twenty feet in the air on top of house, and still not able to pull in signal--though at the time, WISP was only installing antennas on top of water towers and other already standing antenna towers that were 50 feet or less.

 

[KE4EST]

I have thought about this many times Tony, but I am in the same boat that is why I have WB. There is no cable out here and DSL stops a mile down the road.

 

[Jared Twomey]

I finally got a deal and am partnered up now. We just got hardware in today and supposed to do testing tomorrow weather permitting. It's very hard when you have rought terrain and trying to make deals with land owners. They get greedy trying to say that cell phone companies pay big bucks like $500 a month to put their tower on their property. We are just a small company and that would eat up the profit in a small area leaving no hope for some areas not counting the hardware and tower costs. No power to the site is a huge cost if you do find a tall hill to prevent from having a high tower. Software helps greatly on finding sites that will work.

A guy that used to install for me started his own wisp business here with his business partener, and they found the same problem with finding land. This is a very hilly area, but all the landowners are holding out for the different cell providers to put up a tower.
They ended up just renting space on a couple of existing towers. Their main tower is one that is owned by the state, i'm not sure what all they have on it... but it ended up being a lot cheaper than having to rent land and building their own tower.

 

[raulgod]

Skyfx is the way to go if your lookin at high speed interent. Speeds were around 800kbs which is good for satellite internet and for only 39.95 a mth. Am selling my entire satellite equipment if interested let me no and Ill tell you what all I have.

 

[Stacy A]

About two years ago I was really considering trying to break into the WISP business. I was so put out with no one really seeming to care about the people in the rural areas that really want broadband. My telephone co-op doesn't care. My electric co-op doesn't care. There is a small wireless company in the small town about 20 miles away and I contacted that guy about getting some service but there is a hill in the way between me and the closest tower. He told me I needed a 70 foot tower on my property, which to me was not a problem but he didn't seem to want to work with me on how to get everything installed, even though there are three other homes nearby that want it and setting up a hotspot would make him some money. When I got to checking on setting up a WISP I found I really didn't have the money to get into it, but even if I had, I would have to bust a hump for the first couple of years working it and my regular job, until some profit started coming in. It just wasn't worth it to me.

The one angle I haven't heard anyone consider is setting up a co-op for broadband. We have a co-operative for our electricity and one for our water. Why not set one up for wireless broadband, or even cable? All it would take is to get the community behind it and get the thing funded. The federal government has programs and laws to encourage development of broadband coverage into rural areas, but for some reason no one gives a rat's ass and tries to get it to people like us in this situation. Of course doing so would require a lot of legal leg work and a couple of years of fund-raising and saving and in the mean time keeping the community behind it for support. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Stargazer]

There should be some grants that should be had. My new broadband provider is helping me with getting grants as they know people. When it comes to access points there has to be enough people in the area to make it worth putting one up unless you want the service bad yourself.

For line of sight I have seen it for around $300 for the dual radios (Point to Point radio 5.8 GHZ and access point radio 2.4 GHZ). You have to have it high enough to where it can see the tower that their access point is on to clear the trees. This is in addition to what the CPE would cost at the customer's end in which I have seen prices range between $109 to $200 depending on the dbi rating you need (distance determines what you need). Those are Line of Sight hardware. 900 MHZ can be used for Near Line of Sight for going through trees but they run around $350 each and nothing goes through dirt. 900 MHZ can be used as an access point or CPE at the customer's end. That is the last route you want to take due to expense and less bandwidth that can pass through.

Basically people would have the cost of the CPE on their end plus their share of the access point cost which would be split amongst those that want the internet service. The more people that will use the access point (AP) the less the cost per person.

 

[Stacy A]

And once you add that up, most people don't have that for out-of-pocket initial start-up. Therefore you have to subsidize or lease or allow them to pay it out. One of the guys I talked to that was a consultant for WISP startups said you have to make a profit within 6 months on a customer and, depending on residential customers for your profit is "the kiss of death". He said all your profitability comes from business customers.

Putting together a co-op would mean each member would have to pay for their equipment up-front, plus the costs of setting up the infrastructure and quipment costs associated with that. After it was set up and running, then new customers could buy in, basically paying for their own equipment and paying their monthly fee.

 

[riffjim4069]

I live in a suburban area and there are three Super Wal-Marts within 7-miles of our home (north, south and east)...however, the only broadcast provider in my neighborhood is Adelphia/Comcast. I have been on the DSL waiting list since September 2000. FiOS rolled in to town last October, but it is three miles and three years away from my neighborhood.

I cannot image how bad the broadband outlook must be for rural America.

 

[Stargazer]

I would have to agree on a lot of the profit coming from business. We have businesses and people working from home begging me for the service very desperate for it calling me constantly to get it. Some are willing to pay the huge upfront costs of getting it to them whereas a normal residentual customer would not be willing to pay that cost. These are people that have no other choice for broadband.

What I am hoping is that there would be a business or two in many of these areas willing to pay the huge upfront costs or a lot of it to bring it to the area to make it more affordable for the residentual customers that would not be able to afford or be able to otherwise get it into their area. What we tell people and businesses is that we try to spread the cost out by getting as many users as we can off of one access point. The fewer the users the greater the cost per person for the hardware. The monthly costs for broadband at this point will not be affected since we are going from a 1.5 MB T-1 line to a 10+ MB pipe starting out from a different provider. We will have plenty of bandwidth for a while unless we get some big businesses demanding lots of bandwidth. Of course at that point we will have more than enough from them to upgrade our bandwidth while they will be able to get more speed for less than the cost of a T-1 in our area. Our bandwidth provider has better than OC-3's coming in with fiber than transmitted wireless from there.

When your in the wisp business you got to make sure you have backup AP's and CPE's in case you have some go out. You dont want to wait until one goes out before ordering one because they could be on backorder for a while as they had been lately then you will have no service for a while. That can be more costly than the backup hardware itself.

 

[tonyp56]

Stargazer,

Back when I was installing for WISP here, (about 5 years ago) it cost $999 for the equipment and install. Additionally, it was $90 a month for 1Mbps down and 256Kbps up. For a good year we were signing up at least 1 if not 2 customers a week, then COX (then it just changed from PEAK, now it is Suddenlink) started offering digital cable and cable internet, and those numbers dropped off. Customers started cancelling, etc...

My point is, when there is nothing else around, customers are willing to pay, heck I paid $600 for my crappy satellite (paid it off over 15 months, but still). I'd setup a tier, if it is a business customer, charge them a little extra for equipment, to subsidize those that can't afford it, or need to pay it over several months. That way it isn't you that is subsidizing, and cutting into your eventual profits. I wouldn't setup a general page for installs. Business customers pay more for DSL, pay more for other internet services (dial-up is $30 here while residential is $19.99), why would it be wrong to charge more for service through your WISP? Maybe offering a better package or better customer service (offering no more than 24 hours downtime or something) to your business customers, so they don't feel cheated or something.

Also, you could offer cheaper packages, with subsidized equipment, and then if the customer wanted faster net, they would have to pay for better equipment.

 

[tonyp56]

Local cable company here (www.communitycablevision.com) has been running fiber between my town and another town that they serve cable in. It is about 14 miles away, and the fiber run runs about 1/4 of a mile from me. Both towns are getting fiber ran throughout, and it looks like digital cable is on its way.

The only question I have, will they run cable down my road so that I can sign up or not. When I first saw them upgrading i asked, and was told it was for cable internet, however, don't know what their real plans are for me. (I live about 1 mile past their current cable offering, though now, becasue of fiber run, I'm about 1/4 of a mile from the new cable.)

I guess in another month or two I'll know if I'll have another internet service provider or not. Until then my e-mails have gone un-answered, and though I could call them too, I doubt I'd get any answers there either. So I guess I'll have to wait. LOL

 

[Stargazer]

If you are really close to a cable/DSL area and they will not run it to your house then find someone that is in the cable/DSL area and buy a few radios to transmit the high speed internet to your house. You would have to have someone set it up for you if you are not knowledgable with networking and wisp radio's.

The previous owner charged the same monthly fee and install fee to businesses as they did to residentual customers but I am going to charge 50% more to the businesses because we are their only source and it helps subsidize residentual subscribers. Businesses are also more demanding on getting service back up so we sometimes have to go out of our way to help them get service restored faster. Our residentual service has cheaper monthly and upfront costs than WildBlue and has better speeds for the price. Since satellite internet charges more for business then our rates and speeds would be better to the business as well. Only where cable/DSL is would we have problems competing but I find that there are some businesses that still take our service in those markets. We do have excellent upload speeds and this is with our T-1 line. Once we get the 10 MB pipeline this should improve a bit more. I hope to someday be able to go into the cable/DSL market for residentual customers and charge the same or less once hardware comes down in price and offer some sort of bundling deal with phone and internet for those that want to keep their satellite tv service. It goes hand in hand.

 

[tonyp56]

Stargazer,

Yeah, I am hopefull cable will be brought down my road (no reason for it not too, but I'm not 100% sure of what they will or won't do, LOL). I've know some people and if need be, I'll get them to sign up for DSL, and broadcast to my house via wireless (me paying the monthly premiums of course). If the cable company don't come down my road.

That sounds fair to me, if business customers demand better service, then it stands to reason they should pay more. Same as any other service out there.

 

[Janet Sims]

Hello... I am new to the forum and need help in deciding which system to purchase to use for a small home based business. You appear to have the knowledge I am looking for. We are moving from the Big City (San Diego- Cox Cable Land) to the 'burbs, no actually the "sticks" in Alabama- green trees, chirping birds, less traffic, but alas, no DSL or cable-- I have checked them all, even spoke with Bell South to get a T-1 and actually seriously considered it.

I will be running a small business from my home, actually a satellite office(pun intended) from my main office in California so I can work from my new home. I was hoping to use VPN, but it appears this is not supported or recommended by the sat companies.

My main question is: which company should I use? Hughesnet or Blue Sky ? I have read many of the threads about both, and really need some imput from techies who know and have used both systems. Both seem to offer residential and small business/medium business, etc. - different speeds, different dish size and different pricing.

What should I really expect to receive? Can we really believe their ads and claims?-

I will only be transmitting a small amounts of data to my server in California, just text into my client database, email and such. No downloading of music or large files. I will most likely be running two computers and create a mini network from home. I will be working on line about 8 hours per day and need the system open and available.

Any Ideas, suggestions or warnings before I sign on the dotted line?

Janet and Win in Alabama