Internet in the boondocks

[ard]

Well, there have been a lot of road bumps, but looks like things are finally coming together. We are scheduled to close on a 5 acre property with a 42'x90' bunk barn and short 2 car garage on it (6' walls), on the 31st. We have multiple offers on the sale of our house that we will be reviewing tonight!

Still trying to brainstorm how to convert part of the barn into usable garage space.

Anyway, trying to find an internet source. Only cable company I can find to service the address is Frontier and they told me they only offer 1mbps to the address...for $48/month! I find it hard to believe they can't get a fast connection to me, since they already have cable running to the property?

I have been living off my cell phone data for the last couple months and use about 12GB/month on that- without (much) video streaming. I need internet access for my business, so most of my usage is for that.

Any opinions on Satellite internet? I see most of them also have a data cap, then speeds are slower.

From the coverage maps of local cell phone carriers, it looks like I'll be lucky to have a voice connection everywhere on the property. Data coverage looks like it will be very poor at best.

You need to look into WISP. (Wireless internet service providers).

Looking at 'the big boys' (i.e. Cable, Cell) will be pointless- as you have found.

There is a niche, in the Internet game, and YOU are in it- small companies, deploying WIFI tech (not the stuff in home, but 1mile to 25 mile range stuff).

Many (many) years ago I was suffering through 19k connestions- no DSL (even though I can see the state capital from my house)... A very chance meeting at an airport with a wifi guy led me to start a co-op. 10 neighbors, one T1 line....antennas on each home. Sharing 1.5mp. We thought this was great, and for the time it was...but data needs increased. Finally, after 9 years, I found a company with a repeater on a ridge 4 miles away. I dropped the T1 (at $650 a month) and now pay $400 for 20-95MB. I share that with 4 homes ($100 a month Internet). It is very very stable (I use all Ubiquiti equbment, AirFiber backhaul, little nano antennas for the members)

Point is that NONE of this shows up when you call the big boys.

I think someone linked to a WISP finder....use that. Talk to neighbors. Find any local ISPs in your area, even if they are 20 miles away. Start the conversations. A local company here will give you free access if your home is high and they can use you to service 4+ homes.

 

[hoonjr]

We have a t mobile tower close.
Does your router allow Auxillary items like boosters and TV and thermostats to hook up?
We have Verizon a and the last I checked their router we have will not allow boosters or my garage door openers to connect.

The MOFI 4500 has 4 LAN ports and I have an Xbox cabled to it directly which works great. I've not tried connecting a WAP (wireless access point) but I can't figure out a way where an ISP would care what you do with the bandwidth at the LAN level.

I and my neighbors have banded together and worked with CenturyLink to subsidize a new switch. CenturyLink is using CAF federal funding to replace their existing feed to fiber which will dramatically improve our internet from 0-3Mbps to 15-80Mbps depending on how away from the switch the house is. Final cutover is scheduled for the end of this month so my Tmobile days are waning. However I will say my experience using a T mobile unlimited data plan has been nothing about positive. This is a business not personal data plan which is a key distinction.

 

[monte977]

When we went back to country living we decided on Directv which uses another company for internet service by the name of Excede. It all ***** pretty bad, we have neighbors coming around asking us what we're using (been here six months), it seems no one is real happy with their service. Excede is slow at times (slower than the old dial-up if ya asked me), but it does work most of the time. Good luck!

 

[davejo]

use this site: http://www.antennasearch.com/sitest...=towerreview&pagenum=1&cmdrequest=pagehandler

find what towers are nearby your place. get a parabolic antenna like this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003CFATOW/?tag=atomicindus08-20

build a tower and get as high as you can, use a compass and aim that antenna line of site to the nearest tower. they you'll have to hack whatever wifi signal is there... if you have cell service, you've got a tower within 5 miles to try and hit. if you don't want to hack then you'll have to use one of the cell internet service providers but it will still be pretty slow. you'll alos need a range extender/bridge to push the signal from the tower to your house...it can be done. legality is questionable...

I've tried that website and it's useful but the closest thing to me is a water tower with what looks like cell phone antennae hanging off it. Doesnt show up on antennasearch for some reason.

I have a yagi antenna pointed at a tower? somewhere pulling Sprint LTE cell data into a netgear receiver/router to yield 2 to 12 Mps. I think the router will allow 100 devices to hook into it.

Just drive around your area looking for towers, they are up in the air in sight before the leaves sprout. Or rent a man lift, or climb your silo etc etc

 

[gungatim]

it doesn't show up because they are renting the water tower, it's not a registered antenna tower.

I talked with Freedomnet Friday based on someone's post of that WISP further back. Found they have a tower 7.5 miles from me but won't service anyone unless they are within 5 miles.

I asked what it would take to add a repeater to the tower I mentioned only 1.8 miles away and they said at least 10 people in my area need to request service.

I am drafting a letter to drop off to the people around the lake to see if I can get enough of them interested....

so that is another way to go about it...

 

[CN Spots]

The wife works from home and we use Exceed satellite internet. The kids use their iphones to watch video so the internet is limited to non video browsing only. Every so often we had to by extra sat data but it's rare.

ATT ran fiber in our community last year and said it would be up and running 6 months ago. Not likely. The store had no idea when it would be connected and I've heard that they are in some legal trouble from running fiber through people's back 40 without permission/ knowledge. No progress until that is resolved.

***** looking at a fiber box 50 feet from the front door that we can't connect to.

 

[My Old Tools]

While WISP technology is capable of great speeds, most WISP providers either don't deploy the latest technology (why would they when they are the only game in town) and most commonly sign up everyone within LOS (line of sight) with no regard to usable capacity. The result is unreliable internet and **** speeds.

 

[ghlkal]

For those of you in WI that have mentioned Bertramm wireless ... that's my current solution, and I wish it was a better solution. Their connection drops out fairly often and I can never get close to their advertised speed.

Yes, it's the price I pay for living in the country

WISP ... The result is unreliable internet and **** speeds.

unfortunately ...

 

[BellyUpFish]

Can you get T-Mobile? That's what we had to do..

 

[4x4_G30_Sportvan]

Thankfully I have DSL, $45/mo for I think 1MB

 

[My Old Tools]

All 3 major carriers have now announced unlimited data plans for LTE. Verizon and ATT both will throttle after 22Gb/mo. T-Mobile says have a good time, but they charge $25/mo extra for full HD streaming.

 

[Mongo68]

If you cant find a WISP, maybe you have enough users close to start your own and make some money on this? At least enough to cover the equipment...

 

[ishiboo]

All 3 major carriers have now announced unlimited data plans for LTE. Verizon and ATT both will throttle after 22Gb/mo. T-Mobile says have a good time, but they charge $25/mo extra for full HD streaming.

For your cellphone. With a broadband modem or tether, Verizon stops at 10GB before it goes to 3G. I have 12GB now for less than their unlimited plan. It's kind of a joke of an "unlimited" unless you can use massive amounts of data just on your phone without tethering.

 

[ard]

If you cant find a WISP, maybe you have enough users close to start your own and make some money on this? At least enough to cover the equipment...

Which is what I did, described a bit above.

The key is to determine if there is affordable internet from the legacy carriers in the area. I was able to get a T1 in 1999 for about $600 a month. 1.5Mb. By 2009 that was paltry. I was sharing the cost with 10 people so $65.

Then, I decided to upgrade, and trim my ranks. I was able to obtain an airfiber link that was 20Mb min, ranges to 80MB- and, this is important, ping times of 12-16ms. This was a 2k investment. Cost however is lower, 400 a month. Now split 4 ways.

Customer equipment- Ubiquiti- is about $100 per person. Probably 400 for router, base stations, etc, here at my place

The WIFI aspect of it is super easy- it is known, it is cheap, it will pencil out.... The KEY is what data you can get- commercial grade- at 10MB, 20MB or more. Fiber? Other? Some states require telcos to provide data to anyone that wants it. But you pay construction costs. I was quoted $40k to string 1.4 miles of fiber on existing telco posts. Hence the switch to air. To find this use internet service engines but NOT 'residential' service.

Sounds like OP is reaching out to neighbors, possibly to gain a critical mass to convince and existing WISP to deploy- probably the lowest effort path to service.

 

[Mongo68]

Ard has it dialed in- pun intended. Didnt I read you have a silo or something? All you need is something tall where there is backhaul...

 

[minytrker]

I have Rise Broadband which is LTE internet. I get 50MB speeds with 350 gig data for $50/month.

 

[38Chevy454]

I am out in the county area, at least I have DSL from phone co as an option. Advertised as 7 MB, I am lucky to get1 MB and usually less. No cable at all, so that is not an option. There are some wireless, but the DSL is sufficient for what I need. Just no video, it will always stops and wait for loading. For even small video like youtube.

For OP, I think if you can, getting what is available through phone co maybe your best potential. It will be slow, but at least it tends to be reliably slow.

 

[My Old Tools]

I have Rise Broadband which is LTE internet. I get 50MB speeds with 350 gig data for $50/month.

No, it is not LTE. It is line of site RF data link, WIMAX or some other variant. It is not cellular service.

 

[ard]

Rise looks like they've been buying up smaller wifi systems... looks like standard wifi.

 

[Barkleyotis]

At my cabin near Richland Center we use WildBlue satellite for internet. It works well enough for video streaming such as youtube videos, etc.

 

[Vintage Veloce]

Bumped into this related article today.
https://arstechnica.com/information...me-internet-service-costs-5000-or-even-15000/

 

[reader2580]

I amazes me how many escape the city and then do their best to drag it our here to the country.

The horror that someone wants decent Internet out in the country! Internet is almost as important as electricity these days.

In rural Minnesota one of the major complaints is lack of high speed. I moved out near the edge of a metro area a few years ago. My two big requirements were high speed Internet along with natural gas service.

 

[ard]

Bumped into this related article today.
https://arstechnica.com/information...me-internet-service-costs-5000-or-even-15000/

Where I am, there is fiber less than one half a mile away. But 1.4 miles as the cable flies- existing poles, just string cable.

I was trying to upgrade to 20MB, ATT promised me a "$10,000 construction allowance". After 4 months of 'engineering', someone sent me the quote: $22k.

I was going to pay the 12k, which is the cost after the allowance. Id amortize the service cost over monthly co-op users.

ATT came back, said "oh not- its $22k. The way the allowance works is that if it is under 10k we pay, over 10k, you pay- that what we mean by allowance. (Lying bastards- they got caught in a lie, I was never supposed to see the raw construction quote. They never had planned on an allowance, they were just going to pad the build out cost with 10k, then take it 'off'.)

I gave up with wired. Went line of sight backhaul, seeing 50-80Mb virtually unaffected by weather- at half their price.


Reading the article, I was wondering why only two cable companies are their entire universe of choices....no wifi? no telco?

 

[ishiboo]

At my cabin near Richland Center we use WildBlue satellite for internet. It works well enough for video streaming such as youtube videos, etc.

Most of that area is covered with fiber by the Richland-Grant coop, no? It's amazing how much of that area with ZERO density is covered by FTTP thanks to rural broadband grants.

 

[My Old Tools]

The local WISP contacted me this week and said they had upgraded our tower and could now offer 3-6 Mb/s. We'll see if they really can.

 

[bgarrett]

If you get Verizon, they have a upside down flower pot antenna that works a mobile hot spot that works well. Again, video is going to eat up the data, and be costly.

Where do you find the flower pot antenna? Its not on verizon, ebay or amazon

 

[gungatim]

Most of that area is covered with fiber by the Richland-Grant coop, no? It's amazing how much of that area with ZERO density is covered by FTTP thanks to rural broadband grants.

not around here...must be a state by state thing...last time I checked the map, I was amazed that something like 60% of the country did not have any internets. obviously that is all rural/low density, but I live 3 miles outside of the city limits, and 20 miles from a major metropolitan area and nobody wants to do squat for us...

 

[Mike.VA]

Where do you find the flower pot antenna? Its not on verizon, ebay or amazon

bgarrett,
I found that at the Verizon Wireless Store, they offered it to supplement the HotSpot they were offering me instead of going with someone else, (Hughes Dish). I didn't take them up on their offer, my mistake.

I intend to drop Hughes and go to the Verizon HotSpot totally soon.

 

[mrobins297aaa]

I had hughes gen 4 it was so slow and the upload was almost non existent.
Last year I switched to Verizon's 4g lte home internet, I couldn't be happier it is night and day difference from hughes.
I have the 20 gb plan for $90 a month

 

[mrobins297aaa]

flower pot