rural internet

[farmbif]

for you folks in the know
how does the internet speed compare between services like frontier though the phone line and Hughes satellite and fiber optic.
I was just informed that fiber optic lines are being put up and in 2 or 3 months I can get hooked up to it thanks to the local power coop.
is fiber optic faster than Hughes satellite, what are the pros and cons

[ryanmattes]

Satellite will vary with weather. If you get a lot of severe weather, heavy snow, etc, satellite will be hit or miss.

Fiber is absolutely the superior, reliable solution if you can get it. It's not available in most rural areas, so if it's an option, I'd jump on it.

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

[Hossfly]

Our co-op was bidding on fiber lines and a co. Outbid them, now that co. Will run the lines on their poles for a fee that will be passed on to consumer.

We’re on ATT fixed wireless and its 100 times faster than the old Dsl we had for years. And weather doesn’t seem to affect it any. But you have to be a reasonable distance and availability.

We should get the fiber optics within 5 years, to 95% of the area. Then will cut satellite tv and just have that and cell phones maybe VOIP.

After all the political people get their pieces of the pie, we will get to play.

I would say if you can get fiber that would be the way to go.

[farmbif]

not for nothing but every aspect of this fiber optic is being done by the folks at local power coop, part of the original TVA program, real good people. they are doing it all from putting up lines to hooking people up to running the whole show, no sub contractors whatsoever from what I understand. They are a fantastic outfit and as result of how the coop is run we have probably about the lowest cost power in the country.

[GregLaROCHE]

Today you shouldn’t look at any satellite service except Starlink. My new Starlink is ten times faster than my old satellite service and it’s unlimited. The only drawback is the price of a hundred bucks a month. It all depends how much the internet is worth to you. Now that I am retired I spend a lot of time on it and it’s worth it to me. From what I’ve heard it’s not as fast as fiber, but as fast if not faster than most DSL. Also you can’t have high trees or other objects too close.

[ryanmattes]

Also with satellite your upload speed will be waaaay slower than your download speed. For most people that's fine, but I work on the internet, and do the majority of my meetings on video calls, so if you're in that situation, satellite can be a real problem. For browsing, or posting to the forum, it might not be noticeable. Depends on your usage.

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

[MrWolf]

I have Frontier dsl bonded copper and get around a whopping 18 download and about 1 to 1 1/2 upload. As a company, they were in bankruptcy but haven't heard anything lately. I cannot wait to dump them for Starlink. That being said, fiber optic is far superior to satellite which always has weather related issues and is much faster. I had fiber with Verizon in NJ before I moved out here and loved it.

[pworley1]

We went from AT&T to the power company fiber, and the speed went from 3m to 200m both up and down. It was also only half the price of AT&T.

[Winger Ed.]

Getting away from Hughes would be my first priority.

Around here, tin cans and a string is better than anything Hughes provides.

[Handloader109]

I'm NWA area, under a coop power company. The coop started fiber installation about 3 years ago, one of the first co ops to do it. We got ours in their first section near the end of that install in late 2018. Almost 3 years. I pay for their fastest, 100 gigabit service. And it does pretty close to that most of the time. We actually pay for their TV programming which really never fails. We have a random reset of the boxed every now and then, So far no real failures. The local station may fail, but everything else works.
Looking back about 6 months ago they had software issues from an upgrade at their site an had issues for about a month. They figured it out and no issues since, and that was TV. Internet is fast. zero comparison to DSL or satellite. None. And NO limits to the use. I've got 3 tvs connected, all can stream with Roku, and two desktops that are on most of the time working. A couple of ipads, and phones. Nothing slows down except for wifi INSIDE the house in areas that don't have good connectivity like my basement. You'll have to fix those issues if you have them. Get it, it works.

[Froogal]

I live in a very rural area. Local company installed fiber-optic a few years ago. NOTHING can compare. We even are able to stream Netflix, Hulu, etc., etc. using a Roku. Never misses a beat except when the power goes out.

We have the standard, basic speed. No need to upgrade to anything faster.

[ryanmattes]

Yep. The cheapest package on fiber is likely to be twice as fast and reliable as any other option you have.

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

[GregLaROCHE]

I just ran a test on my Starlink. 120 Mbps down, 28 up. It does vary and I have some obstructions from trees. They say it is going to get even better.

[B R Shooter]

If fiber will be available, hold out and get it. Cable is OK of they offer it where you are. I would like more info on the fixed from Hossfly, what does it take for fixed wireless? I have Viasat satellite, it is hands down better than Hughes, much less outages. I would rather have better, but I aint paying 100 bucks a month.

[DougGuy]

Gigabit internet is faster than most hard drives can write to disk so if you have gigabit fiber and you download something, the bottleneck will likely be your internal hard drive.

[Jsm180]

No fiber here, best I can get is 2.8m down with Frontier copper DSL. I'm signed up for Starlink. Neighbors have tried Hughes net but FL storms do a number on it, hoping Starlink does better.

[labradigger1]

Yeah, frontier is the worst! .05 download and .23 upload here with dsl.



I have Frontier dsl bonded copper and get around a whopping 18 download and about 1 to 1 1/2 upload. As a company, they were in bankruptcy but haven't heard anything lately. I cannot wait to dump them for Starlink. That being said, fiber optic is far superior to satellite which always has weather related issues and is much faster. I had fiber with Verizon in NJ before I moved out here and loved it.

[Hossfly]

If fiber will be available, hold out and get it. Cable is OK of they offer it where you are. I would like more info on the fixed from Hossfly, what does it take for fixed wireless? I have Viasat satellite, it is hands down better than Hughes, much less outages. I would rather have better, but I aint paying 100 bucks a month.

Cost about $50 per month, serves our purpose with speed of between 15-20 MBPS download and 1.5 MBPS upload or thereabouts. Some times will slow down when lots of people on it, but doesn’t last long. Have to be i think within 4-5 miles from tower. They put a small rectangular receiver on top of porch and it is aimed at tower thru trees and leaves or forest doesn’t seem to affect it any.

[B R Shooter]

Cost about $50 per month, serves our purpose with speed of between 15-20 MBPS download and 1.5 MBPS upload or thereabouts. Some times will slow down when lots of people on it, but doesn’t last long. Have to be i think within 4-5 miles from tower. They put a small rectangular receiver on top of porch and it is aimed at tower thru trees and leaves or forest doesn’t seem to affect it any.

I have checked on ATT and Comcast websites to see if fixed wireless is available to me, and both say no. I guess I'm farther than the 5 miles. There is another IP here that uses line-of-sight off of towers, and the distance for me isn't the problem for them, it's trees.

[NyFirefighter357]

I have Verizon fiber optic, I'm cutting the cord on cable TV & going full internet with a speed upgrade as well.
Right now my speed test showed Latency 96 ms, Download 61.4 Mbps, Upload 81.85 Mbps.
We rarely if ever loose service even if power is out or lines go down, I run a generator. As long as you provide power the fiber optic is reliable.

[Budzilla 19]

We got the fixed wireless from AT&T here. Ditched Hughesnet, thank goodness, this wireless is blazing speed. But, I only live .4 miles from the tower. So, that might make a difference also. I like it, and have turned all my friends on to it also. Good luck.

[dverna]

Just checked and Starlink is running 180 down and 18 up with 43 ms latency.

It varies but is always at least 50 download.

I have had it for about three 3 weeks and get the occasional "hiccup", but I am partially obstructed. Far better than Dish and the Jetpack I had before.

[MT Gianni]

20 + years ago my employer allowed fiber to be ran on their poles for one of the fibers. IIRC, it was 8 fibers per line. At that time they had not built a pulse generator that could over run a single fiber. The limiting factor to a single strand was the light repeater and the line was moving data across the nation E to W. Any time you can get on fiber, go for it.

[ruger1980]

They finally got fiber out here in rural NY thanks to the states broadband for everyone program. Not a fan of these programs but I will take advantage of this one.
We run from 150M down at the lowest so far to over 500M at times and up load is just behind it. They guarantee 100x100 in their marketing material and cost is $79.95@month.

Working from home I notice the difference as with the Frontier DSL we were lucky to get 8M down and .6 up.

[444ttd]

i love comcast. i love comcast. comcast is great.


if you believe that, i's got a bridge thats fer sale.

[MrWolf]

i love comcast. i love comcast. comcast is great.


if you believe that, i's got a bridge thats fer sale.

They revamped their entire business and spent countless dollars on training, customer service, etc. Oh wait, all they did was change the name to Xfinity. Could not stand Comcast and would never get them again if I could help it.

[444ttd]

comcast/xfinity has the market in this area.

[Shawlerbrook]

Frontier dsl here in rural Central NYS and it is slooooowww. Had Hughes and with snow or rain service was spotty and expensive. We are all hoping for fiber but it doesn’t seem to be happening soon. Rural electric coops seem to be the best bet.

[B R Shooter]

I wish there was a way to actually TALK to somebody familiar with your area, to see if something can be done, without relying on satellite maps.

When I was using a mobile hotspot, I was emailing with a fellow that was in the "business" of internet. I was looking for a roof mounted antenna for better reception. He strung me along, but did have access to towers. I was placing the hotspot modem on the north end of the house where I knew cell towers were, but he said there were receivers south of me closer. There was an unused water tower that had cell antennas on it and it gave better reception. So this fixed wireless intrigues me, but I have no idea of how to get through to someone who knows the area.

[Burnt Fingers]

We switched to wireless internet a few months back.

We had been limping along with Centurylink Legacy DSL.

On a good day we might get 5 mb.

Our current wireless is a strong 20mb, that's all we need. The best part is my upload speeds went up by 10X.

B R Shooter.

Just do a search for the companies that provide it in your area. They will send a tech out to see if you can receive their signal.

There are a couple of companies that provide it here. But we are blocked from at least one company by all the trees out back.

[B R Shooter]

I ran across another option today, and want to see if anyone is using it or know of it. T-Mobile has what they call 5G Home Internet. Evidently, T-Mobile is the only 5G provoder that is not depending on this "fixed" situation, and using their wireless network.

https://www.t-mobile.com/isp/plan?icid=HEIS_ISW_C_20HMEINTPL_4201BARY4O4BX5HPG2 3552

$60 per month, $50 if you do auto pay, no contract, no equipment fees, no data cap. I'm looking for a "but" somewhere and I'm not finding it. We have used these portable hotspots before, and while they do work, they are really intended to be carried around, and they run off of a battery. If you just leave it plugged in, like we did, eventually the battery will swell up and leak. This Gateway as T-Mobile calls it, is the modem/receiver/router all in one.

Tell me of a downside if you find one, for thos who can't get anything else but satellite.

[MrWolf]

I ran across another option today, and want to see if anyone is using it or know of it. T-Mobile has what they call 5G Home Internet. Evidently, T-Mobile is the only 5G provoder that is not depending on this "fixed" situation, and using their wireless network.

https://www.t-mobile.com/isp/plan?icid=HEIS_ISW_C_20HMEINTPL_4201BARY4O4BX5HPG2 3552

$60 per month, $50 if you do auto pay, no contract, no equipment fees, no data cap. I'm looking for a "but" somewhere and I'm not finding it. We have used these portable hotspots before, and while they do work, they are really intended to be carried around, and they run off of a battery. If you just leave it plugged in, like we did, eventually the battery will swell up and leak. This Gateway as T-Mobile calls it, is the modem/receiver/router all in one.

Tell me of a downside if you find one, for thos who can't get anything else but satellite.

It is based "depending on signal availability at your eligible address."(per their FAQ). Us rural folks don't have cell towers near us which is why satellite like Elon Musk's is our hopeful solution. I have Frontiers best dial up plan and get 18 down and .80 up. Yup.

[skeet1]

I tried Hughes, never again. When you get the chance to get a fiber-optic, jump on it

[Mal Paso]

We had a grant approved for a local neighborhood WiFi network and Verizon vetoed it because it might interfere with future business plans even though they have no plans to offer service here. Most 3rd world countries have better internet than we do. I responded to the FCC survey and have heard nothing back. I am struggling with Hughs. It isn't good enough to download audio books, I have to drive to town and do it on cell data. I need to take the computer to town soon to update software.

[B R Shooter]

It is based "depending on signal availability at your eligible address."(per their FAQ). Us rural folks don't have cell towers near us which is why satellite like Elon Musk's is our hopeful solution. I have Frontiers best dial up plan and get 18 down and .80 up. Yup.

I can get cell service fairly well, usually get half bars. I have used cellular hotspots in the past, they are just a pain because they don't have very good wi-fi distribution through the house, and they are battery powered. If you leave them plugged in, eventually the battery will swell and go bad. I have always wondered why nobody ever made a line voltage "hotspot", or one with an outside antenna.