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.