Rural Residents Without High-speed Internet Struggle to Keep Up

Your exterminator may have DSL service - that is way faster than dial-up, and can be had for under $20.00 per month. But you are unlikely to get that in a rural area since it relies on sending high speed signals over the existing copper phone wires and is limited to a fairly short distance from the phone company switching facility.

Check out www.dslreports.com under "find service" to see what broadband service is available near you. More typically you get a full bore cable or fiber build out - bringing you cable TV and digital phone service too. That ends up costing you around $100 per month.

Here is an example for central Florida advertised by Comcast. It sounds like a real deal but read the fine print -- you have to get cable TV or phone, and then after 6 months the price goes up:

$19.99 a month for 6 months <== The introductory rate

We deliver speeds way faster than DSL over our advanced fiber-optic network. Offer ends 6/30/09, and is limited to new residential customers with accounts in good standing. Not available in all areas. Offer limited to Performance High-Speed Internet and requires subscription to either Comcast Cable or phone service at regular rates. To qualify for offer, service must be ordered via www.comcast.com. AFTER THE 6 MONTH PROMOTIONAL PERIOD OR IF ANY SERVICE IS DOWNGRADED, COMCAST’S REGULAR CHARGES APPLY UNLESS SERVICE IS CANCELED. SERVICE MAY BE CANCELED BY CALLING 1-800-COMCAST. Comcast’s current monthly service charges for the advertised services range from $42.95 to $59.95, and may vary depending on your area and other Comcast services (if any) received. <=== The real price, plus you have to get cable tv or phone service too!!!

Of course if you are on a hill (rare in Florida, I know) and have a good line of sight to the town where your exterminator is, you could possibly set up a long point to point wireless link (Wi-Fi technology with high gain antennas). Then you get the low cost DSL link and find somebody with a high tower or tree in town you can park your antenna on. Google "Long Range WiFi" to learn about this solution.

I was in exactly the same situation in our rural town a few years ago - we finally got broadband and it is worth the money.

The main problem is the Bells and Cable companies aren't interested in expanding service anywhere they have to run new cables. I live in rural East Tennessee and COMCAST stopped a half mile from me over 3 years ago. That was about the same time researchers began working on possibly using the national power grid as part of the communications grid. AT&T who bought out Bellsouth where I live is down to bare bones maintenance and installation. One difference is if someone orders phone service AT&T must provide it.

With the communications grid in place now most anyone should be able to get broadband who can also get cell service. At first I though this was going to be the way service was going to go. It still may do so especially when the Bells land cables begin to have aging issues. 5GB a month which is what cell companies offer is not realistic nor practical for the cost.

Satellite such as Hughesnet has too many issues also. I know of no satisfied customers. For one thing in rough terrain you have to be facing south to southwest. Where I live ridges and mountains NE by SW and I'm on the north slope with a high ridge as by backyard.

DSL could be used in rural areas if Bell would upgrade their equipment. I live half mile from Bells SLICK Cabinet. That means thankfully I do get a consistent 49-50K connect speed on dial-up.

There's room fro Hi-Tech in rural areas. My phone exchange was among the first in the nation to go to Electronic Switching. But Ma Bell still left the paper insulated cables that went out after most rains for nearly another decade.

There's money to be make even in rural areas for hi speed Internet service and there is a demand especially in an age where people work from their home and many companies locate there as well for tax purposes. I'll give you an example. We can't get TV from town. The towers are about 12-15 air miles away. So people in the community bought C-Band dishes. We had great TV from around the nation. The networks soon began making deals with big cable and many channels were cut off but small dish came to the rescue. OK fine less maintenance etc and no more delay while the thing hunts the bird. Then again in steps network and Big Cable saying you can't pick up distant big 3 networks due to protect markets. Call you local station and get a waiver. Local station managers were too busy to bother but finally the two Dish companies cut a deal and we got local networks.

About the time that was happening Comcast comes speeding up the main road to establish territory. The went just far enough to get the contract for the area but left many others waiting, and waiting, and still waiting, while their sales department bombards us with calls and flyer's offering service they will not provide.

One Comcast telemarketer at one point promised me cable and Internet in three days. It was an unsolicited call but I said OK the cable stops a half mile away from me. He insisted I would have service in three days. I said do it then. Three days later? Nothing. I called Comcast and they knew nothing about expanding in my area.

I don't expect government to pay for getting internet into rural areas but someone should see it as a market of opportunity. I live off the main road on a dead in road. About 7 homes on a road less than a quarter mile long. All of us would sign up to a reasonable service with reasonable allowed usage. Right now if the cell companies would re-think their strategy they could clean up in my area as the towers are in place.

I have had a business for 35 years, a website for 13 years, all my big wholesale orders and all my retail orders come via email. We did fine on dial-up until my husband bought a laptop. He fumed whenever I, on the main machine, downloaded anything with graphics, because it slowed him down.

We have been bombarded by bundling offers/DSL offers for years. Finally, after realizing that we could get rid of the fax & its extra line, since we rarely use it anymore, we got DSL. We pay about the same for all business communication services, did not bundle, and have less marital strife over who is downloading what and when. True Broadband is not possible yet down in our valley, but then, only some cell service providers work down here. We either have to walk about 50 yards up the back hill or be on the second floor and have the right service provider to get enough bars.

I like the faster service, we can always hook up the fax if we need to send something or use a web-based email-to-fax program. These whiners need to simply call their phone company. I am much more rural than they are, live in Wisconsin and all it took was one visit to the phone company, less than a half-hour for setting up the new modem and my bill is the same as with dial-up.

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