Affordable Rural Internet Access

[Denim Deb]

I'm wanting to get a netbook. What about internet for one of them? I don't really have any internet access out at the farm, and want to use it a lot out there and DON'T want to have a phone w/internet. They're too small for me.

 

[hqueen13]

Deb, so long as you get some sort of internet service for it, then you can. But it will require you to pay for the service.

 

[Denim Deb]

How much do those types of services cost? I don't want to spend a lot of money for it.

 

[Athene]

Depending on where you live, you may be able to get free dial up through the library, schools, or university. Dial up service, if you have to pay for it, runs about $7/mo through a third party (not the landline phone company). DSL is anywhere from $20-$40/mo. Cable is usually about $40/mo. Satellite is $80/mo, and slower than DSL. An air card through a cell phone company is usually around $50/mo.

If we are talking 3G/4G wireless internet, something like Cricket or CLEAR, it varies wildly and you just have to check for your area.

I have decided to go with free dial up through the university. I'll be able to pay bills, and the price is right!

 

[elwood]

ok well we were in the same spot with internet. I went with verizon and got what they call a jetpack. It cost me $1 and I pay $50 a month for internet. It is 3g where I live but the device is 4g capable. It is wireless and battery powered. I can take it anywhere. There is a limit on my usage but I have not hit it yet.

 

[luvinlife offthegrid]

We had to go with Hughesnet. It's expensive, but we run a business out of our home, out where no wires run. We had a little verizon thing that plugged into the side of the laptop for a while, but even verizon has spotty coverage here. We ended up having to switch to At&T for our cell service. At that time we also switched to hughes. Oh, well- at least it's a business writeoff. :/

 

[tjcnok]

I've used cricket broadband for a couple years. It's $40.50 including taxes and everything. Very fast compared to dial up and much more reliable than AT&T land line service (every time it rained, the telephone went dead for a few days and the repair guy is pretty useless too so after making sure Cricket was going to work we cancelled our land line and went totally cell phone for telephone service and Cricket air card for internet. We are so far in the country that cox internet will never be an option here, at least in my lifetime but there are ATT & a Cricket cell towers very close to us so both work remarkably well. We have skype installed on the computer but no one else in our circle of relatives and friends do so we actually have never used skype.

 

[Eddie_4]

Internet is the need of today's generation. It should be affordable and cheap in rural areas.

 

[hqueen13]

Should and are can be very far apart. Since this thread started I've moved to an area further out of town but with a MUCH higher income bracket. We have the smallest most humble house tucked between massive mansions (my landlords house has 6 chimneys). But we have no internet here. No cable no nothing. I'm not paying through the more for bad satellite service. Thankfully I have strong cell signal with Sprint, and my bf has good signal with T-Mobile, both are 4g. The only bad news is that we still can't afford the cellular internet. Thankfully we manage to have smart phones and so we Do everything from them. He can jump off his phone as a Hot spot but it's super slow.
But that explains why my typing is rather strange sometimes. I at least try to catch the bad autocorrects, but the punctuation and grammar is not worth the trouble to fix most of the time.

 

[eagrbeavr]

If you have sprint coverage then I'd try straight talk. Same as t mobile in regards to unlimited and no contract for 49$ total. I love it. However, Ive never heard of cricket and just looked at the website. I may switch over. Thanks to who it was who mentioned it