Rural Internet suggestions

[Ryedale]

Hi all,
I'm looking for advice/suggestions to look into a new internet service provider.
Heres my current setup.

I'm rural, just far enough off the beaten path that I cannot get a cable modem, or DSL. Of course dial-up is available but I need/use/want more bandwidth than it can provide.

I'm currently using Wildblue Satellite Internet, and the cost is about $80 per month. The service is adequate, but we also have a land line (ATT) I have a company issued Cell for my day job which costs me nothing, but it has limited use and crappy reception (Yes a Nextel). My wife and older son have Verizon cell phones.

Needless to say it's quite expensive. I can write off some of this due to the sorter business, but would really like to get this pared down. I'm willing to pick up a smart phone contract but only if it is coupled with a media plan, such as it being able to become the internet service, such as it becoming a "wireless hotspot".

With my internet based business, shipping seems to be the biggest bottleneck, all the computerized shipping and "secure" sites such as PayPal, Fedex, USPS and especially my banking website. These all just bog down to a crawl.

The Wildblue internet broadcasts through a wireless router, and is available throughout the home/office.

The goal is to get smaller, pare down, and have good to excellent internet bandwidth. I'm willing to get rid of my land line, and the Wildblue, which will free up over $150 a month. This can go towards the Smart Phone, and wireless hotspot internet etc.

If any of you have suggestions or experiences that you are happy with, and specific companies and equipment please let me know so I can investigate.

I'm in the Southwest Michigan area. I think we have 3G available now from some companies, and 4G is coming from ATT and Verizon before long. I think we are on the cusp of having some more options here, but equipment combinations seem to be limited and confusing. Is there a stand alone wireless internet "hot spot" company that has high bandwidth and a pretty resonable amount of "data" that can be downloaded each month, I know some of the air-cards limit the amount of MB you can download per month.

Thanks for any help/suggestions.

[Irons]

I feel your pain, We finally got DSL 4 years ago and it's OK. Better since Frontier took it over from verizon, way better. No cable available and never will be since we

are on a dead end and the few folks on the road willing to pay for teevee already have a dish. With verizon we had to have telephone to get the DSL but maybe

frontier will let us cancel it, doubt it though.

Good luck and keep checking, they don't let you know when they flip a switch I had to call them to find out when DSL

was coming available after I saw them putting in the fiber optic lines.

BTW I'm in NW lower Michigan, 2 locations actually.

[Eat Beef]

I'm on a Verizon Mifi device, I forget the number. Basically, it can be used plugged in as an aircard, or untethered as a wifi hotspot, and run up to 4 computers. The downsides are, depending on your location, reception can be anywhere from great to non existent, plus you're limited to 5 mb per month. I'm on an old plan, and they have other options, basically the prices are falling all the time, but I'm paying 80ish bucks per month.

Before this I was on Hughesnet, and it stunk. Aside from a huge upfront cost (500 bucks back in 05), it was 80some buck per month, and slower than Verizon.

A word on wireless hotspots. If you are in a great spot, you can probably run multiple computers on it, but if you have so so connectivity, forget it. If one machine is relatively fast, two will be 1/4 the speed, and three will be slower than dialup.

[Irons]

Time to revive this thread!

I am on 100% cellular wirless internet now and I love it. I finally had had it with shlt DSL and having to have a phone line just to get that @ $73 a month.
We never used the land line, the only time it rang was telemarketers or republicans and cops begging for money. Eff them all.

So I got a AT&T mobile hotspot elevate 4G. Up here at the cabin I have pretty much dial up speed and sometimes quite a bit better than dial up. At home this is smoking fast at a steady 4G.

Anyway the plan is $50 for 5 gigs a month and $10 a gig if you go over. We are using around 7 gigs.

I plug it into my old desktop computers and my wife uses her laptop or idiotphone.

So far 5 stars, I like having my own secure internet I can take with me.

[Oldmansmith]

Cellphones don't work well here. We have broadband, but when the wind blows it doesn't work at all, so we have dial up as well.

The only bad thing about rural living, but it does make me spend less time on the web.

[Irons]

Cellphones don't work well here. We have broadband, but when the wind blows it doesn't work at all, so we have dial up as well.

The only bad thing about rural living, but it does make me spend less time on the web.

In this area some cell phones are strong, others are useless or just about. My wife supplies the cell phones and we have had sprint/nextel for years and they worked well. Last 2 years thier coverage has been dropping off until they are just about useless now.

Come to find out sprint is backing out of the area and AT&T is taking over and upgrading everything. This thingy I'm using for internet now was impossible 8 months ago.

At&t is bragging this stretch of woods will have blazing 4G internet by the end of August. Lucky 5 people and 2,000 deer!

I never had phone lines ran into this place when I had it built and only long distance dial up would be available anyway.

Keep checking whats available, you might be suprised. I'm about as un-techy as it gets and I found this!.

[CopperSilverGold]

Be careful with data plans that have caps like Verizon. Here's a handy calculator that can help you estimate how much data you may use monthly:

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/s...Calculator.jsp

[Sport]

I will second what CopperSilverGold said. I got whacked twice because of that. We just dumped our phone/DSL for the same reason. I was fortunate to have cable as an option. As 4G becomes more available I see cellular becoming a big player in the internet racket. We also have fixed wireless in our area as well. My friend has it and is really impressed. I live in a depression that requires a big antenna so the wife would not approve of it.

[Irons]

Be careful with data plans that have caps like Verizon. Here's a handy calculator that can help you estimate how much data you may use monthly:

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/s...Calculator.jsp

I will second what CopperSilverGold said. I got whacked twice because of that. We just dumped our phone/DSL for the same reason. I was fortunate to have cable as an option. As 4G becomes more available I see cellular becoming a big player in the internet racket. We also have fixed wireless in our area as well. My friend has it and is really impressed. I live in a depression that requires a big antenna so the wife would not approve of it.

Thanks guys those are good points I left out.

I did my DD before I signed up with AT&T. $10 per gig overage in writing and a 30 day no strings return option in case it didn't work out.

Virgin advertises unlimited but after 2.5 gig it slows down to unusable, verizon nails you dollars per second for going over.

Like anything else, watch it or you'll get screwed.

[CopperSilverGold]

Thanks guys those are good points I left out.

I did my DD before I signed up with AT&T. $10 per gig overage in writing and a 30 day no strings return option in case it didn't work out.

Virgin advertises unlimited but after 2.5 gig it slows down to unusable, verizon nails you dollars per second for going over.

Like anything else, watch it or you'll get screwed.

Yeah I think other providers will slow it down considerably as well. Most will just tack on the $10 per gig overage charge as far as I know but I have heard of a couple providers that slow it down like you mentioned.

I will second what CopperSilverGold said. I got whacked twice because of that. We just dumped our phone/DSL for the same reason. I was fortunate to have cable as an option. As 4G becomes more available I see cellular becoming a big player in the internet racket. We also have fixed wireless in our area as well. My friend has it and is really impressed. I live in a depression that requires a big antenna so the wife would not approve of it.

I have heard some horror stories where people switched and got crushed by the overage. I think Verizon only gives a short window to get out of the contract, and probably by the time you receive the first bill with the sticker shock showing the usage, it's too late. All of those little things that people do on their smartphones like texting, sending and receiving emails, watching videos, surfing the internet, etc can really add up in a hurry.

The convenience is nice as I like do picking type of activities at garage sales, thrift stores, flea markets and so on. Having a mobile way to look up the approximate value or rarity of something is nice. But I am purposely careful not to do much else on the phone data wise so that I don't get the nasty bill.

[Irons]

WHOOP

I just got up to my cabin and hit the internet box and the four G light came on

Unfreakingbelievable AT T didn't lie they said four G by the end of August and it is.

LOL now the number line on my keyboard ain't working but who cares?