What can my friend do for broadband?

[120inna55]

A friend of mine lives even further out in the country than I do. I have DSL and am pretty happy with it. We can't get cable where I am anyway.

My friend does not have access to DSL and she's spoken with the phone company. It seems DSL in her area is still quite a ways off.

So what are her options (pro's and con's) for broadband?

What I've seen so far is that satellite internet is pricey for hardware and still has caps on usage. It would seem things like Boost Mobile have similar caps. Although I don't really understand what it is Boost has to offer.

[navychop]

WildBlue has a new system coming out. Look here.

[grohgreg]

What I've seen so far is that satellite internet is pricey for hardware and still has caps on usage.

Depends upon one's financial situation. Yes, it's a few hundred up front if you want to own the hardware. But there's also an option to get it free up front (to include installation), then lease it for $10/month. That's also sorta like a lifetime warranty. Cuz when you lease, they should replace whatever breaks at no charge. But here's a warning about that ViaSat offering; it comes with a rather miserly monthly data cap; 7GB for example, on the basic package. If your friend does little more than casual browsing/shopping/email, the allowances are generally sufficient. But no meaningful P2P, no heavy downloading, no streaming movies, et cetera.

//greg//

[120inna55]

Yeah it's that data cap that's the killer. It basically rules out Netflix streaming, right?

[ke4est]

Yep no Netflix. Here is the way I look at it. Most people looking into Satellite inet are on dial-up and tired of it and want a faster internet. So you tell em about it and then they say well I can't do this or that..blah blah. The way I see it is fine stick with dial-up, pay your 10-20 a month for inet and pay your 20-30 a month for a phone line for it. Wait drop your phone line and your dial-up ISP and your monthly bill will be close to the same depending on where you live. No you can't have the features and flexibility of people that live in the city but it sure beats the hell out of dial-up. And with the way things are going now, I look at it as a stop gap measure, because mostly in a couple of years when that 24 month agreement runs out, DSL will be available in your area. That's the way it is around here. I still don't have DSL out in the country and way too far away for cable. I have had satellite Internet since 2001. Back then there was no hope for DSL. Now though every few months a community around me gets DSL. So I figure hopefully it won't be too much longer.

[grohgreg]

Yeah it's that data cap that's the killer. It basically rules out Netflix streaming, right?

Right. But not all consumer grade satellite providers are that bad. Starband is one, but I really know nothing about them. HughesNet is another, I've been using it for over 10 years. They turn off the cap every night between 0200 and 0700 (Eastern). Anything you download between those hours doesn't count against the data cap. And there are free download managers out there that will do it for you while you sleep.

//greg//

[iwc5893]

I would look into a WISP provider.
www.wispdirectory.com

is a good place to start

Sent from my Android Tablet using Tapatalk

[120inna55]

Just a follow-up. My friend decided to sign up with Virgin Mobile and is using their "my-fi". It appears to be a wireless modem/router that simply gives them in-house wifi. They have the 5GB cap (I think for more money they can increase that.) They know they can't stream Netflix, etc., but they are very happy with their faster connection.

I'm wondering how much impact watching YouTube clips will have on their data usage?

[navychop]

5GB ain't gonna do it for a lot of youtube.