# Internet out in the country. What are my options?



## Dutchofsc (Feb 23, 2014)

There is no DSL or cable internet available where my homestead is going to be. What options are people using? 

I saw satellite internet but those plans have small data packages.

There were 3G cell tower internet plans, but is that fast enough?

We use a LOT of data, so I'm on the hunt for a plan that would suite our needs. It's mostly Netflix, Hulu, YouTube and other browsing. I understand that we will need to ADJUST, but technology is moving quickly and others may have a solution I have not heard of. Lots of brilliant minds on this site. Thanks. 


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## billinwv (Sep 27, 2013)

I tried everything and ended up with Hughes net. If you request "recovery act" pricing you can get basic for 39.99 per month with no equipment fees, contract or installation fee. You can buy extra time, but it is expensive. Tokens.


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## Dutchofsc (Feb 23, 2014)

Recovery act, what is that and what does it do? How much data does your plan have? Thanks. 


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## Bellyman (Jul 6, 2013)

Cell based internet is getting better and they are offering more and more data. It is still going to be expensive if you need to watch "TV" over the internet.

Any way you could move the bulk of the TV needs to a satellite service and keep the data for more important stuff? 

I had a friend that mentioned some kind of a microwave setup that he had at a remote site in Utah. But I know little more than that.

Good luck!


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## Dutchofsc (Feb 23, 2014)

We have not had cable or satellite tv for over 6 years, the internet provided for all of our needs. This will take some getting used to, obviously. We may consider getting satellite tv for that very reason. 

I'll look into call based providers, any recommendations?


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## billinwv (Sep 27, 2013)

The recovery act has to do with rural access. It is a government program. I'm not sure of the amount of data, but it was low. I just moved and now have dsl About 1 hr. of YouTube would use your allowable usage for day. 5$ for a restore token. Night time downloads were free. It did beat 600$ equipment cost plus installation and 2 year contract. Support was good.


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## Gray Wolf (Jan 25, 2013)

I'll be interested in the responses. We've pretty much resigned ourselves to Hughesnet and LTE. Slow and LOW data plans. It's just the way it is....I think.


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## Bellyman (Jul 6, 2013)

Dutch, it's pretty much just finding out what will actually work well in your area and comparing the plans that they have available.

Right now, I'm on a Verizon plan with 30Gig/mo of data plus all the talk and text we want (which isn't really much). Verizon isn't usually the cheapest way to go but for where we are, it's what WORKS most of the time. I can't say that for other carriers. Your situation may be quite a bit different since you are probably talking about a permanent setup at your home vs something that has to move every so often (like us). 

They're all a little different. I'm seeing advertisements that someone is now carrying over unused data from one month to the next. I'm seeing data plans in the 50GB and 100GB area being much more "normal" than they used to be, that used to be HUGE. (A few years ago, I was using a 5GB/mo air card that was pretty much doing what I needed it to do. Not anymore. I can blow through a GB a day with some very basic browsing anymore.)

I'll assume that you've already looked into DSL. I've seen that in places I wouldn't have thought it would be. Even a fairly slow but steady DSL line is way better than trying to do it all with a smartphone.

I have noticed that there are a LOT of websites out there that have become real data hogs. Evidently, there is no real need for most people to care how much data they blow through and those little applets and Java programs and motion graphics and a host of other goodies just keep piling on the data needed to view the sites.

One thing that I did notice, and I don't know by how much, is that when I'm using a mobile platform such as a tablet or my smartphone, the data I burn through doesn't seem to be quite as high as when I'm on a computer. And these days, for just browsing, I am finding that I am wanting a tablet way more than my laptop. Not sure if it's the way things are headed or not but just something I've been noticing. 

Hey, I feel for ya. I've been in a few places where internet has been a challenge. I've even been in situations where I had to do most of what I wanted to do offline and then take a trip to town where someone had free wifi in order to do what I needed to do online. Not ideal, but usually possible. 

Good luck!


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## Teej (Jan 14, 2012)

No DSL or cable for us either. For years we stuck with dial-up and now have Hughes Net. 10 GB a month allowance and we never use it up. Hubby watches a lot of how to videos and I'll occasionally watch a favorite TV program I missed and they don't seem to eat up much of our allowance. I know a lot of people don't like satellite but it's a huge improvement for us and since we've never had the good stuff available we don't know better. LOL


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## beowoulf90 (Jan 13, 2004)

Dutchofsc said:


> There is no DSL or cable internet available where my homestead is going to be. What options are people using?
> 
> I saw satellite internet but those plans have small data packages.
> 
> ...



We are using Wildblue (sat provider). It is our only option.
We have a 15gb per month plan which runs us about $80+ a month (I'm guessing here, since I don't do the bills, I just earn the money.) For the 2 of us it seems to be enough most times, and we've only used up all of the bandwidth once or twice. They do have smaller packages, but they are driven off of you zip code.
Most times it is reliable, but if bad weather is coming in from the southwest you can and will loss connection. It also seems that the Airport has changed it's routing and every now and again planes coming from the southwest or heading that way block the signal for a few minutes..
Sat internet isn't perfect or cheap, but if it is the only thing you have, it is nice to have it..


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## Dusky Beauty (Jan 4, 2012)

A couple months old, but an important topic-- 
There's 4 possibilities for rural internet that need to be investigated on a case by case basis for each piece of land. 
1.) (the best case Scenario) Your property you are looking at might be near a school or indian reservation that benefited from the earlier mentioned "recovery act" and has a rare pocket of high speed DSL that you can become an add on customer of. It's not likely, but it does happen. 

2.)Wireless broadband service with a company like Airbeam. In this situation, an internet provider has an antenna on a mountain, and if your home is within sight of the antenna, they can serve you as a customer via a satellite dish style receiver. Speeds are generally decent at 1.5 or so up and down speeds or better. It's usually not data capped or metered. My service did not come with a contract or install fee, but the competitor I used last for a similar service did. 

3.)Verizon's Mifi or smart phone tether. This is contingent on 2 things- a strong 4g signal in your home, and a data plan large enough to accommodate all your use. We used this as a main internet for several months on computers only when we had an unlimited data plan, but I don't think any providers are currently offering unlimited data. At least not the big coverage players that are actually likely to provide a steady strong signal in rural america. I have had friends that play several hours of MMOrpg games a week, and 5 GB of monthly data was enough for the one adult and his standard heavy use--- but if you're running gaming, and streaming a lot of stuff, I suspect you'd need more like 20 GB.

4.) Ugh. Satellite. I had wildblue for a while. Then my teenage sister that was staying with us decided that if she was really careful about not getting caught streaming 3 seasons of a TV show, she could just go ahead and do it. This put us in a "usage debt" system. They throttled our internet down to "barely connected" speed to punish us, and kept it there for 2 months till we "paid back" all the data we used. We upgraded our package. Still didn't get what we paid for. We switched our personal internet to the tethering I mentioned last, and STOPPED USING THE SATELLITE completely for two more months, and they were LYING on our usage saying we were still "so close to our cap we should upgrade packages." I reported them to BBB and made them come get all of their equipment, and managed to not only break the contract with the complaint resolution they cut me a check for the months of service they scammed me on. 
oh, and as far as satellite internet functions... it's ok for browsing and emails and forums. Bad for streaming, and impossible for gaming because the down speed is one thing, but the up speed to communicate back to a server is abysmal.


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## gundog10 (Dec 9, 2014)

You may want to take a look at the new DISH internet option. I do not believe you are ever going to be able to stream videos (could be wrong) as the satellite gigs are not even close. Hughes is good but read the fine print, 20 gigs but only 10 gigs during usable hours.


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## obleo+6 (Jul 21, 2008)

We are way out in the country in the Ozarks, we use Exede, covers long distance, phone, internet for 60.00 for 10 gigs a month. Using satellite/internet it is best to disable automatic updates for everything as it'll eat up your band width. There's a free zone between midnight and 5 a.m. that you can update anything you need for free.

This is the best we can do out where we're at and it seems to be okay for us and there's three of us on the one line. We just don't watch alot of youtube or videos and download stuff for later on.


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## Nimrod (Jun 8, 2010)

The phone company ran fiber-optic to every house they serve for free. I pay $63 a month, taxes included, for unlimited internet access at 5Mb/sec and a land line phone. I don't know what they would charge to run it to a new place.

My new piece of land is totally off grid. It would cost a fortune to run electricity, internet, and phone. The cell signal is good so I think I could get internet through that.


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## Cygnet (Sep 13, 2004)

See if anyone is offering microwave internet in your area. It's becoming more and more common in rural areas, and if available, it tends to be very fast and reliable. Microwave is often run by small mom n' pop businesses, too. (We get our internet from a microwave tower ten miles away. We can stream multiple TV shows simultaneously without lag. The company's owned and operated by one man, and when we have a problem, which is rare, we have his cell phone #. If something's busted, the owner himself usually fixes it personally -- and does it right the first time. Can't beat that for customer service.) 

We also have 3G/4G internet. It's much slower, there's very limited data, and it's unreliable. It does come in handy when I'm away from home, however. I use the maps function fairly often to find stores, and I look prices of stuff up on eBay. (I sell dolls on eBay, so if I find a doll at a thrift/antique store/yard sale, I will sometimes check eBay to determine a value.)


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## Growing_Greene (Mar 23, 2015)

We have unlimited cell data, throttled back after 2.5GB of high speed useage. We don't typically do any video streaming, but it works fine for everything we need. 

Family of ours have tried satellite internet, it was always a pain, now that they have cellular they've stopped using it.


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## Vikestand (Feb 27, 2015)

Dish user here. We hardly have a cell signal here.


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## Woolieface (Feb 17, 2015)

We have Frontier. Our only option. I wouldn't wish them on my worst enemy.


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