High speed internet connection

[Anonymous-0]

Read in Newsweek that Eastonia is better connected than the USA especially rural americans . DSL is not available where I live. I wonder how many of you who live in rural areas are able to get high speed. I'm guessing we won't be able to get it any time soon either unless the government forces it like they did with electrification.

 

[onefarmer]

As far as I know 100% of the 48 states can get highspeed. You just have to pay for it. Via Wildblue and Hughsnet. Just need clear line of sight to the bird.

 

[Jay (ND)]

I'm in rural NE North Dakota, in a county of 3000 people. I am 10 miles from any town and have a microwave dish on my house giving me DSL. $40 per month. Was cheaper than the 2nd phonelive + internet.

Jay

 

[fixerupper]

We've had high speed for several years now, with the receiver on the roof for line-of-sight, but now we changed companies and they came with a receiver that sits in the office and faces a window that isn't even in the direction of their tower. The installer said the signal will bounce off of things until it hits the receiver, so now there's no cable or receiver outside anymore. We haven't had it long enough to see what happens when it rains (haven't had any for a month)or snows. Does anyone else have this? Jim

 

[Anonymous-0]

Also read the article, thought it was the same old Newsweek bluster about nothing. Attempted to make an issue that without high speed than you couldn't use YouTube and couldn't stream other video. It is just unfathomable that you can't have a video conferences in some of the more rural areas. Seems to me that that people watch too much video anyway. Buried in the discussion was the acknowledgement that if DSL wasn't available, then one could pay more and get satellite. My wife would like to be able to attend Broadway shows but still reside in a rural area and thereby not live in a major city. Maybe Congress should mandate that all theater shows in the US must travel to the most remote areas at the same time they legislate broadband for everyone. If all areas don't have a playhouse then the government should build them. Bottom line is that more densely populated areas have some advantages, and sparsely populated have others such as lower housing costs and less intrusion. I don't have an issue with providing better healthcare facilities if currently unavailable in rural areas, but expecting the government to mandate better access to entertainment is quite a bit over the top. If broadband is that important to you, then make a few more dollars and get satellite.
Relative to Newsweek, I recently resubscribed against my better judgement. Although always abundant, it has become in my opinion more of a pulpit for women issues and a sounding board for minority groups and the more fringe elements such as the homosexuals. Not near enough articles are worth reading. Do enjoy reading Fareed Zakaria views on the Middle East and nnalert. But the women whom shares writting responsibilites with George Will for "The Last Word" typically has had me grinding my teeth before she is finished. More recently if she is featured, I just ignore her article, along with the other garbage.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Agreed about Newsweek. There was also a piece about global warming that said a .1 percent increase in the suns energy out put was nothing. Sounds like a lot more than nothing to me.

 

[Jay (ND)]

Nice post James. Dead on.

Stop by the OT board sometime for some good rib-pokin.

Jay

 

[onefarmer]

Sure that would work for wireless. But that is another local thing with limited range. But a satellite still needs line of sight to the bird. If I had a choice of sat or wireless I'd go wireless. I don't have wireless availible and sat costs too much, so I'm stuck with dialup at home. I just do my heavy work at the office.

 

[souNdguy]

I -JUST- got DSL service this month here in north central florida..

Soundguy

 

[RodinNS]

I'm out in the boonies.... and we have wireless now for the past month or so. I can't understand how we got along without it for so long. It got to the point here where we needed a second line for the 'puter, or go wireless to free up the line. This is sooooooooooo much faster and more reliable so far.
Really, it's coming to the point where you need high speed to just view some sites or download software patches and upgrades and the like.... and most of that stuff is just too big to do on dialup. Eventually, those areas that don't have some form of high speed will be left behind.

Rod

 

[N. TX Tim]

Believe it or not, there are people in the U.S. that live off the electrical grid as well. Some have all their life and prefer it that way. Do a search for "windmills" and you will find some interesting stuff on homemade windmills that folks who live off the grid use to generate power for basic electrical needs (including computers/internet etc).

I was quite amazed by this...something I had never suspected.

Tim

 

[Kelly C]

Right now its a numbers game. A remote DSL cabinet has 50 ports for subsribers. 45 of these need to be sold for the remote unit to break even. Most Rural cabinets are at 25% capacity.
So they are not paying for them selfs.

Now as soon as IP TV gets implemented in the big cities and they replace all the stinger cabinets with Fiber fed IP TV boxes. Then they will have a whole bunch of already paid for stingers to place in rural areas.

 

[Traditional Farmer]

Yea but the guys that live in town can't have a pig pen and don't have a nice clear stream running thru their back 40 either.Living in any area has its pluses and minuses.If you want city services then you need to move closer to one.

 

[Anonymous-0]

I ran into that trying to do my taxes. Downloading updates was required and took hours.