Internet service in rural areas

[mpemburn]

My wife and I have lived in a rural area notrth of Baltimore (Maryland, US) for most of the last 20 years. We are well off the road—too far for and land-based internet service (copper, cable, or fiber), so we are constrained to using either cell-based or satellite, and we use both at the moment for working at home. The service is slow, expensive, and comes with a monthly cap, despite being referred to as “unlimited” by the lying scoundrels who provide these things. Our great hope is that the SpaceX Starlink service will become available early next year—it was promised for late this year but that didn’t happen.

So, if you live in a rural area, what are your choices (if any) and how well does it work?

 

[SpokeyDokey]

B4RN - Broadband For the Rural North (of England).

Professionally designed, local community installed fibre to house installation.

Came with some Government funding per house.

1Gb at the router and only £30 pm.

Dedicated fibre for each house so no bandwidth variations at peak times. Very stable unlike the woeful service we had from BT in the past.

Future proofed for some time as even our fastest piece of equipment (laptop) only operates at a maximum 170Mbps.

 

[mpemburn]

B4RN - Broadband For the Rural North (of England).

Professionally designed, local community installed fibre to house installation.

Wow! That’s amazing! I wonder if they would run fiber to a house situated the way ours is—1/2 mile (.8 km) from the road through woods and a brook crossing?

For reference we pay close to $300 (~£220) per month combined for cell and cable services.

 

[alicat]

The service is slow, expensive, and comes with a monthly cap, despite being referred to as “unlimited” by the lying scoundrels who provide these things.

Hi @mpemburn what's your evidence for calling your internet provider 'scoundrels'? I understand you are unhappy with the service they are providing but in what way are they scoundrels?

And if the service is slow, expensive and capped, why are you posting your question on a UK-based cycling forum?

 

[welsh dragon]

I live in the sticks and wilds of Wales. I'm with EE at the moment and we get around 25 mbs. A company has asked if we want fibre broadband. They are being given grants to put it in if enough people respond. I have put my name down for it so we shall see.

 

[ColinJ]

what's your evidence for calling your internet provider 'scoundrels'

I think charging a lot of money for a service described as 'unlimited' but then limiting it IS the work of 'scoundrels'!

It is certainly more polite than calling them 'thieving b*st*rds'!

For reference we pay close to $300 (~£220) per month combined for cell and cable services.

I pay £20/month for truly unlimited broadband. Well, I use hundreds of GB a month and there is no problem with that - I imagine that it it became tens of TB it might raise a few eyebrows, but I only have a 16 Mb connection so even if it were running flat out 24/7 I could only use about 5 TB worth. My mobile (cell) phone costs me £6/month. For that I get unlimited SMS and calls, but only 1 GB of data. I could get a better deal on mobile data but I barely use 0.1 GB a month so there isn't much point.

 

[mpemburn]

Hi @mpemburn what's your evidence for calling your internet provider 'scoundrels'? I understand you are unhappy with the service they are providing but in what way are they scoundrels?

And if the service is slow, expensive and capped, why are you posting your question on a UK-based cycling forum?

They are scoundrels because they promise the world and deliver dirt. We have had to switch services many, many times as the prices rise and the performance degrades.

As for why here? a) I’m a cyclist and b) here, I can talk to people outside of the United States to get a different perspective than is usually available to me. Is this okay? Don’t mean to offend.

 

[ColinJ]

As for why here? a) I’m a cyclist and b) here, I can talk to people outside of the United States to get a different perspective than is usually available to me. Is this okay? Don’t mean to offend.

I think you come across as another of our friendly US members! That aren't that many Americans on here but those that are here seem nice people and I like to read about what you get up to. Most of what we normally get to hear about the USA is the crazier side of US politics, mass shootings etc.!

 

[tyred]

I've upgraded to a 56k modem now

 

[mpemburn]

I think you come across as another of our friendly US members! That aren't that many Americans on here but those that are here seem nice people and I like to read about what you get up to. Most of what we normally get to hear about the USA is the crazier side of US politics, mass shootings etc.!

Thank you!

Yeah, we do have crazy politics, to be sure. During the worst of the last regime, we were yearning to live in Europe. Too committed to our house and land, as well as our community to leave, though.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

I think you come across as another of our friendly US members! That aren't that many Americans on here but those that are here seem nice people and I like to read about what you get up to. Most of what we normally get to hear about the USA is the crazier side of US politics, mass shootings etc.!

Its nice to hear about the more normal side of the US, rather than the headlines, but that is true with any country we hear about on here, when Andy in Germany was posting we got to hear a bit more about Germany which was interesting.

 

[ColinJ]

I've upgraded to a 56k modem now

I was thinking back to those days when taking part in the 'oldies dating' thread. I was still on dial-up when using a dating site and I managed to run up a £100 phone bill on that site in just one week!

 

[Alex321]

Well I now live in a fairly small village, so not really rural, and I get speeds of around 67Mb. But up until December 2019, I lived in a rural house, about 3 miles from the roadside connection box. I used to get around 2.5-3Mb at best there, and not particularly reliable in bad weather, as the last few hundred yards to out house were overhead cables.
But it was a usable service (over copper wires), and at some point they were intending connecting us up to fibre, either with a new roadside box much closer, or even with fibre to the premises. But I don't know when that would have happened.
I'm glad we moved before the pandemic, as that speed would not really have been viable for working from home.

 

[welsh dragon]

They are scoundrels because they promise the world and deliver dirt. We have had to switch services many, many times as the prices rise and the performance degrades.

As for why here? a) I’m a cyclist and b) here, I can talk to people outside of the United States to get a different perspective than is usually available to me. Is this okay? Don’t mean to offend.

We take anyone on this forum.

 

[cougie uk]

Wow! That’s amazing! I wonder if they would run fiber to a house situated the way ours is—1/2 mile (.8 km) from the road through woods and a brook crossing?

For reference we pay close to $300 (~£220) per month combined for cell and cable services.

Blimey that's expensive but at least you save money on your Petrol bills compared to the UK.