Rural Internet Options

[demosthenes2010]

I live on an island in Lake Erie and am looking for options to improve my internet connection.

 

I currently have a fixed point wireless connection that has a "maximum down speed" of 22Mbps (though I've never seen it go over 14) and a "maximum up" of 3Mbps (though I've never seen it go over 2).

 

While I usually see a 40ms latency, I sometimes get random spikes of 300-400ms which can impact gaming and conference calls (I work from home).

 

I have been considering paying for a second connection through the same provider or using the relatively good 4G connection I can get here to utilize a MiFi/Jetpack device to through Verizon (US provider).  When using my cell phone's hotspot, I never see drops in throughput or latency spikes.

 

I'm wondering if anyone else has experience channel bonding a 4G connection to any sort of other broadband connection using relatively inexpensive technology.

 

I'm not above purchasing a used business class router from Ebay with multiple WAN in ports.  I'm not expecting more than 15Mbps through either internet connection so I'm not exactly looking for the latest and greatest in speed there.  If necessary, I could connect it to a cheap residential wireless router to connect all of the devices in my house (tablets, television, PCs, etc...).

 

99% of the time, this fixed point wireless does the job fine and when it doesn't, I can turn on my cell phone's hotspot but I'd prefer to not have to wait for performance to degrade before dipping into my hotspot data.

 

Further, I only have 20GB per month on my AboveUnlimited plan so I have to ration it as needed.

 

From what I've read I can -

1.) Try and use some sort of VPN service like Speedify mixed with Connectify (sounds like a pain in the ass with added latency)

or

2.) Build out a system where I use multiple Verizon Jetpacks/Mifi devices with a business class router with multiple WAN ins (I can buy two Jetpacks for 400 bucks plus 40/month for up to 30GB of data) along with two Fixed Point Wireless Connections and some sort of QoS attached to a residential wireless router to take advantage of Verizon's unlimited 720p streaming to handle all of the video streaming while saving the "good stuff" (capped bandwidth) for gaming and the rest of the traffic can go through the unmetered network.

 

Option 2 may sound like a bigger pain but once the upfront cost is out of the way, the total cost of service per month would be $ 190(75x2 for the unreliable Fixed Point wireless and 20x2 for the dual 4g connections) and if done correctly, would ensure that everyone in the house can work and be entertained without disruption or worry of going over any caps that might be in place.

 

The way I see it, we can live with 720p video streaming if it is unlimited.

We won't go over 30GB per month even if we each gamed 6 hours per day every day on the 4G connections(according to my calculations).

And the torrents, web browsing, etc... can be deprioritized to run on the Fixed Point Wireless.

 

In the process I'll probably learn a lot about networking.

 

Any advice is appreciated.