Rural networking advice

[EpiCheeseTime]

Hey everyone. My father in law is moving soon from citish life to country life. I was tasked to look for internet for his new house...yay.

 

Sad thing, only satellite covers his area. So we are not going with that. I have in the past worked with cradlepoints for a cellular option and plan on doing that. Thing is, I only set them up and such, never found/bought/financed the sim cards to go in.

 

I need help finding good deals or who to go through or what to ask in order to make sure I'm not getting screwed.

 

Main uses will be scrolling Facebook and some light kids gaming (minecraft mostly), and in a year or so some business work.

Thanks in advance.

[Blue4130]

48 minutes ago, EpiCheeseTime said:

Hey everyone. My father in law is moving soon from citish life to country life. I was tasked to look for internet for his new house...yay.

 

Sad thing, only satellite covers his area. So we are not going with that. I have in the past worked with cradlepoints for a cellular option and plan on doing that. Thing is, I only set them up and such, never found/bought/financed the sim cards to go in.

 

I need help finding good deals or who to go through or what to ask in order to make sure I'm not getting screwed.

 

Main uses will be scrolling Facebook and some light kids gaming (minecraft mostly), and in a year or so some business work.

Thanks in advance.

You don't say which city, province or country you are in... 

[ausham]

6 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

You don't say which city, province or country you are in... 

I second this

[EpiCheeseTime]

Angola Indiana, US.

 

Was mostly looking for tips and tricks to talk to providers. not necessarily a go to this person and say this, more so a broad overview so I can talk to multiple providers. Didn't know if there was phrases like "data only" or "rural cellular internet" that would cause me to get to the correct spot when I call in rather than getting the run around.

[Donut417]

2 minutes ago, EpiCheeseTime said:

Angola Indiana, US.

 

Was mostly looking for tips and tricks to talk to providers. not necessarily a go to this person and say this, more so a broad overview so I can talk to multiple providers. Didn't know if there was phrases like "data only" or "rural cellular internet" that would cause me to get to the correct spot when I call in rather than getting the run around.

Not sure if it’s in the area. But TMobile offers unlimited 4G LTE. Up to 50 Mbps for about $50/m. They keep sending me ads for it, LOL. 

[ausham]

If it was me id get a pre paid phone with a unlimited plain and use one of the many apps that by pass the built in hot spot so that the provider cant see that your using a hot spot.
that would bypass your providers hotspot data limits and if they ax you for using to much data you could start a new pre payed plain in a different name.

A mi-fi or jet pack could be used to, but would be rather pricey. 
what about dsl? If he has a landline phone hw may be able to get dsl.

[Donut417]

Just now, ausham said:

If it was me id get a pre paid phone with a unlimited plain and use one of the many apps that by pass the built in hot spot so that the provider cant see that your using a hot spot. A mi-fi or jet pack could be used to, but would be rather pricey. 
what about dsl? If he has a landline phone hw may be able to get dsl.

LTE would be faster sadly. Many times DSL in areas like this is 3Mbps at most. 

[ausham]

3 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

LTE would be faster sadly. Many times DSL in areas like this is 3Mbps at most. 

Faster yes, but possibly less stable and reliable then dsl of the signal is not the best. Im just shooting it out there as an option.

[EpiCheeseTime]

@Donut417 DSL is not an option. The only "residential" option is satellite.

 

@ausham Correct, that is the only issue that I have ran into with reliability. But I would take that with redundant options rather than paying for satellite. Plus you can just toss a better antenna on it and solve most reliability issues.

 

[Donut417]

1 hour ago, EpiCheeseTime said:

@Donut417 DSL is not an option. The only "residential" option is satellite.

 

@ausham Correct, that is the only issue that I have ran into with reliability. But I would take that with redundant options rather than paying for satellite. Plus you can just toss a better antenna on it and solve most reliability issues.

 

First thing you need to do is figure out what providers are in your area for LTE. Find out who has the best signal to the house. Verizon will probably be the provider of choice, but I’d at least check. See if there are any WISP’s in the area as well. 

[Donut417]

1 hour ago, ausham said:

Faster yes, but possibly less stable and reliable then dsl of the signal is not the best. Im just shooting it out there as an option.

From what I have been reading as of late, DSL is generally not very stable. Verizon let its copper network rot. AT&T announced they will no longer be accepting new DSL subscribers. Century Links network is garbage and Frontier is on the edge of bankruptcy. Also providers are having hard time finding replacement equipment for the telephone network from what I have read. Probably in a decade DSL may not be an option at all.