Dish vs Space X

Satellite internet so far is very lousy. My neighbor tried twice and hated it. Heavy rain and it's gone. When the dust settles and people get unlimited 100MB speeds in rural areas (with Elon's dish), they will rush. AT@T knows it. They have started their promo for cell tower connected internet subscription. 1 yr commitment, 500 GB limit, about 40 bucks before extra fees and taxes. Their speed is up to 25 mbps. Of course, that speed wil go waaay down at bad weather and evening hrs. It is an option though.


Only an option if you have their service towers anywhere close.
 
I forgot to mention. In order to get AT&T's offer, u r required to have Directv or AT&T as a cell service provider.

Once AT&T customer service member told me all the cell phone companies use each other's towers. But, the nearest cell phone tower to my house in the sticks did not provide any signal to my cell phone with Sprint! This was before I built my house. I had to switch to AT&T, or no cell service. Then, they connected two cell towers (close to my house) to each other by digging a ditch and burying cables. The speed got better. I believe they did this in order to offer fixed wireless Internet service.
 
I hear u Tanman. The wifey almost cried when we had to switch from Sprint to AT@T. We had a fantastic family plan with Sprint. The price u pay when u live far away from civilization!!
 
I forgot to mention. In order to get AT&T's offer, u r required to have Directv or AT&T as a cell service provider.

Once AT&T customer service member told me all the cell phone companies use each other's towers. But, the nearest cell phone tower to my house in the sticks did not provide any signal to my cell phone with Sprint! This was before I built my house. I had to switch to AT&T, or no cell service. Then, they connected two cell towers (close to my house) to each other by digging a ditch and burying cables. The speed got better. I believe they did this in order to offer fixed wireless Internet service.
As I understand it, there are indeed instances where due to financial/logistic considerations the companies would agree to share a tower, but this is by no means universal. I think it's a tower by tower agreement.
 
Ok. I thought this was common knowledge. There are Tower Companies. They own and operate most cell towers. Each tower may have several different providers. Each provider may choose to have a backup battery or generator- or nothing but the antenna. And there are antennas of different frequencies. Each antenna likely covers a few frequencies. But frequencies far apart may need different antennas. And, of course, provider X may add new frequencies long after the initial antennas were put up, and so add an additional one rather than replace with a fancy combined unit (if even possible).

Cell companies have been moving away from owning their own towers for years.
 
Satellite internet so far is very lousy. My neighbor tried twice and hated it. Heavy rain and it's gone. When the dust settles and people get unlimited 100MB speeds in rural areas (with Elon's dish), they will rush. AT@T knows it. They have started their promo for cell tower connected internet subscription. 1 yr commitment, 500 GB limit, about 40 bucks before extra fees and taxes. Their speed is up to 25 mbps. Of course, that speed wil go waaay down at bad weather and evening hrs. It is an option though.
The new low-earth satellite internet options will be NOTHING like existing satellite internet. Apples v Oranges.
 
Low earth orbit versus geo orbit. A few hundred miles versus 22,000. Even at the speed of light, it makes a big difference.

Also, the signal processing and perhaps frequencies are different. Not to mention the number of available antennas.
 
As navychop said, most towers are owned by independent tower management companies that lease space to multiple service providers. When we lived on our mountain, we leased space to American Tower for a 150' multi-use tower. Verizon and AT&T were both on it from the beginning, and T-Mobile was negotiating with AT for space when we left. There was also a microwave antenna plus some public service antennas for police and fire repeaters. After awhile, there some federal government antennas added that AT didn't know what service they were for. The feds also installed a satellite dish on the roof of their equipment cabinet.
 
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WOW there is painting with a broad brush. The "not caring" is not a rural thing. It is a personal pride thing and they do not live in one type of area.
That was mostly tongue in cheek. :rolleyes:
 
Well explained. Nobody is expecting super fast internet where U download 4k movies within seconds. As long as I can stream without data limits, I am a happy camper. Heck, give me 50 mbps, I will declare Musk the greatest since Edison!!
 
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Back in the day in Vermont there was rumblings from the legislature to make all cellular companies use the same towers and to make them all disguised (trees whatever).Never went anywhere.
In my rural corner of Vermont(known by some as the North East Kingdom) we are 99 percent either ATT or VZW.Very little Sprint or T Mobile.I would say 50 percent of the towers are one company only and 50 percent have both.Over the course of my retail career I sold both ATT and VZW so I had a pretty good idea where the towers were and which company had coverage where.
If it wasn't for Interstate 91 going north from White River Junction to the Canadian border(to Montreal) I doubt we would have nearly the amount of towers we do.
 
As I understand it, there are indeed instances where due to financial/logistic considerations the companies would agree to share a tower, but this is by no means universal. I think it's a tower by tower agreement.
Most towers today are not owned by the cell providers. The tower businesses were spun off and run as independents providing tower access to those willing to pay to install their equipment on the tower and use the fiber line.



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