Internet Service

[Rich Aldrich]

We have had it with DSL. We live almost 2.5 miles from the hub and the best we can get is 3.2 MBPS. Most of the time it is throttled so we get about 0.4 to 0.7 MBPS. Where I live, its DSL or HughesNet or StarLink.

We just put in StarLink. What a difference. Its expensive, but its nice to be able to run more than just a TV with HULU or Netflix. We get 94 MBPS so far on average so thats not too bad.

UP Fiber Network has fiber optic running right by our house by the highway. It was put in with grant money to connect Escanaba, Manistique, Munising and Marquette. If the fiber gets damaged along the route between cities, they can feed from the other end.. The Company said the only service businesses. Residents cant afford to their service. What a crock. It was installed and started up with tax payer money.

[John Ziebron]

Glad to hear that Rich. I'm in kind of the same situation. I'm about 300 feet from a a Spectrum box that is on the property line of my 2 neighbors to the west. They wanted several thousand dollars to hook me up. I currently have a service that uses a small receiver which requires line of sight to their nearest tower, about 2 miles away. I usually get 4-5 MPS but that's not enough bandwidth to provide for several devices. I've been on the StarLink list from the beginning but they've keep delaying the service date for us in the thumb area.

[Alex Zeller]

It's not cheap but Starlink does work. I recently did a speed test at the wife's house to see how fast her DSL is and I was surprised just how slow it is. She's getting numbers a little better than you but not by much. She's able to stream movies but I think it buffers the movies so she doesn't deal with lag. She's never tried streaming live TV. Amazon will be offering it's own satellite internet to compete with Starlink soon, just not sure when or how much.

Like you there's fiberoptic running on the poles at the bottom of the right of way I live on but it's not for households. In other parts of the state they are offering it but it's to places like trailer parks where there's lots of people close together.

[Alex Zeller]

BTW I've had Starlink since Feb and have had no issues with snow or heavy rain impacting it.

[Alan Lightstone]

BTW I've had Starlink since Feb and have had no issues with snow or heavy rain impacting it.
Is the dish heated?

Pleasantly surprised about no issues with heavy rain. Here in Florida, it's a common occurrence with DirecTV.

[Dave Fritz]

What is the average wait time for Starlink?

[Dave Fritz]

We have had it with DSL. We live almost 2.5 miles from the hub and the best we can get is 3.2 MBPS. Most of the time it is throttled so we get about 0.4 to 0.7 MBPS. Where I live, its DSL or HughesNet or StarLink.

We just put in StarLink. What a difference. Its expensive, but its nice to be able to run more than just a TV with HULU or Netflix. We get 94 MBPS so far on average so thats not too bad.

UP Fiber Network has fiber optic running right by our house by the highway. It was put in with grant money to connect Escanaba, Manistique, Munising and Marquette. If the fiber gets damaged along the route between cities, they can feed from the other end.. The Company said the only service businesses. Residents cant afford to their service. What a crock. It was installed and started up with tax payer money.

Public/private partnerships usually mean public pays the costs and private gets the profits. On the other hand without public support the company most likely wouldn't bother with a low populated area. That's what subsidies are all about. Sometimes subsidies become permanent which is troublesome and costly to taxpayers IMO.

[Brian Elfert]

Glad to hear that Rich. I'm in kind of the same situation. I'm about 300 feet from a a Spectrum box that is on the property line of my 2 neighbors to the west. They wanted several thousand dollars to hook me up. I currently have a service that uses a small receiver which requires line of sight to their nearest tower, about 2 miles away. I usually get 4-5 MPS but that's not enough bandwidth to provide for several devices. I've been on the StarLink list from the beginning but they've keep delaying the service date for us in the thumb area.

That seems strange they want that much money to go 300 feet. I have a three acre lot. The run from my house to the cable box is close to 300 feet. Comcast/Xfinity had no issue with running a new line for free when I was having issues.

[Brian Elfert]

Public/private partnerships usually mean public pays the costs and private gets the profits. On the other hand without public support the company most likely wouldn't bother with a low populated area. That's what subsidies are all about. Sometimes subsidies become permanent which is troublesome and costly to taxpayers IMO.

It pisses me off that rural areas get better faster Internet than urban areas all paid for with tax dollars. A portion of rural Minnesota has fiber optic Internet installed by the local phone company using over $100 million in tax dollars. There is a Boy Scout camp I work with that is eight miles from the nearest paved road. They still have fiber optic Internet. The last couple of miles are run across their property to the administrative offices at taxpayer expense.

My urban house will be lucky to have fiber optic to the house by the year 2100. My Internet is plenty fast on the download side, but really slow on the upload side.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Here we still use a smoky fire and a blanket for uploads. If you have DSL, request ISL instead. Comes over the same line but a little faster (690 KB vs 3.4 MB.) And cost just a little less.

[Curt Harms]

Do those of you with sucky internet speeds have decent cell phone coverage, or does that suck too? I kind of understand an ISP's reluctance to run a half mile or more of coax or fiber to service one property. It seems like some sort of wireless makes sense in those cases.

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

Thanks for sharing your success with Starlink. I was looking at it two days ago. We are considering taking the plunge to sign up for that even though it is fairly expensive. Like everyone else, our rural DSL is so bad we know all the field techs by name. Our neighbor recently retired as a Lineman for DSL company. He worked 40 years through all the previous company owners. He is the reason we have any DSL because he installed it when he built his house and created the gravel lane. There is fiber less than 1/2 mile from us yet we will not see it for many years to come. Comcast Cable is also less than 1/2 mile. They won't lay cable up our gravel lane. When we looked at building on a 10 acre parcel that had an easement for all the utility companies to have their hubs and boxes in the corner of the property, Comcast still wanted $8,000 to run cable up to where the house would be built and all they would need to do is lay the cable. Our cell phone coverage is 1-2 bars on a good day.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Thanks for sharing your success with Starlink. I was looking at it two days ago. We are considering taking the plunge to sign up for that even though it is fairly expensive. Like everyone else, our rural DSL is so bad we know all the field techs by name. Our neighbor recently retired as a Lineman for DSL company. He worked 40 years through all the previous company owners. He is the reason we have any DSL because he installed it when he built his house and created the gravel lane. There is fiber less than 1/2 mile from us yet we will not see it for many years to come. Comcast Cable is also less than 1/2 mile. They won't lay cable up our gravel lane. When we looked at building on a 10 acre parcel that had an easement for all the utility companies to have their hubs and boxes in the corner of the property, Comcast still wanted $8,000 to run cable up to where the house would be built and all they would need to do is lay the cable. Our cell phone coverage is 1-2 bars on a good day.AHH, the joys of rural living. We live less than a half mile form some of the fastest internet in the world, but it might as well be on the moon. Recently, Spectrum sent us a letter saying they would serve our subdivision when the Federal government footed the bill for fiber / co-ax. Even though tax payer dollars are footing the bill, service cost will be the same. Another case of corporate welfare. New neighbor, who works from home is using a Verizon Hot Spot for internet. He is part of a team that is based in Silicon Valley.

[Alex Zeller]

Is the dish heated?

Pleasantly surprised about no issues with heavy rain. Here in Florida, it's a common occurrence with DirecTV.

From what I understand the first antenna was heated all the time where as the newer rectangle antenna (which is what i have) is only heated when the temp drops down low enough for snow. In reality it's only the wet near freezing snow that's sticky. There's also an option to 'park' the antenna. When you get the antenna it's at an angle that's close to perpendicular to the ground. It's so it can fit into a smaller box. When you sign into the router there's an option to move the antenna back to that position. I could see doing it if the snow is very sticky and falling really fast. The router is actually pretty smart. It knows the angle it's at and where north is. It maps all obstructions to the antenna so you can remove them if needed. I have one tree that just barely interferes with it's operation but not enough yet to cause anything I've noticed. Once the leaves are gone I expect it to not even show up as an obstruction.

[John E. Hobart]

We were just finally able to get fiber optic to our house because the state Police have a tower about an 1/8 of a mile from us and NPR radio tower a little closer to us with Verizon cell on the tower paid the bulk of the cost to get the new service brought down the road. Still cost us $900 to get it brought to the house approximately 700 feet. The average cost to install fiber optic cable in Illinois is right at $23,000 per mile or about $4.50 per foot. But at least with fiber optic we are getting 500mb upload and download speeds and if we wanted we could get 1gb up and down, which is better than the 3mb on the DSL we had or the over air at 20mb.

[Lawrence Duckworth]

It pisses me off that rural areas get better faster Internet than urban areas all paid for with tax dollars. A portion of rural Minnesota has fiber optic Internet installed by the local phone company using over $100 million in tax dollars. There is a Boy Scout camp I work with that is eight miles from the nearest paved road. They still have fiber optic Internet. The last couple of miles are run across their property to the administrative offices at taxpayer expense.

My urban house will be lucky to have fiber optic to the house by the year 2100. My Internet is plenty fast on the download side, but really slow on the upload side.

In 2015 our rural co-op electric company was awarded some of that shovel ready money to run fiber optic lines. We were just finishing up our lill retirement home when they ran the fiber down the road and up to the house free. The monthly charge is less than 60 bucks....all-n-all a pretty sweet deal. :D

[Curt Harms]

We were just finally able to get fiber optic to our house because the state Police have a tower about an 1/8 of a mile from us and NPR radio tower a little closer to us with Verizon cell on the tower paid the bulk of the cost to get the new service brought down the road. Still cost us $900 to get it brought to the house approximately 700 feet. The average cost to install fiber optic cable in Illinois is right at $23,000 per mile or about $4.50 per foot. But at least with fiber optic we are getting 500mb upload and download speeds and if we wanted we could get 1gb up and down, which is better than the 3mb on the DSL we had or the over air at 20mb.

Installed, that price doesn't seem too bad though I'm certain Verizon pays well under retail prices. Here's a spool 984 feet long.

https://www.amazon.com/RiteAV-Direct-Outdoor-2-Strand-Multimode/dp/B01J66FWHO/ref=sr_1_6?crid=9VHZ8SF06YW0&keywords=fiber+optic+cable&qid=1661951472&sprefix=fiber+optic+cable%2Caps%2C74&sr=8-6

I was home when Verizon pulled our cable. I didn't see how they went under the sidewalk but the rest was just a Vermeer vibratory plow I think it was called. It took less than 2 hours but that just got the cable to the house. Another guy pulled the cable into the house, terminated it (the tricky part IMO) and installed the ONT (Optical Network Terminal), functions like a modem but it's not a modem. Apparently the installation of fiber costs somewhat more than copper but the annual maintenance cost is considerably less so over time it's cheaper than copper. It's also immune to electrical interference.

[ChrisA Edwards]

AT&T pulled FO cable to our house about 3 years ago. I backed out of my driveway and saw the AT&T truck and a couple of guys working around the pole opposite my house. They said they were running fibber optic cable and it would be about 3 months before we could connect to it. Three months passed and we got notice it was available, so we made an appointment. They came and ran the line under the road and trenched it to my house. A tech came and made the inside house connections. Didn’t pay a dime for any of this.

1Gb service.

[Jack Frederick]

I have gotten to know the AT&T guys who spend much of their time at the pole out front. IN speaking with them they told me of a neighborhood in the Fresno area who banded together sending letters to PUC complaining of slow internet. Their efforts paid off and the company ran the fiber to the neighborhood. I mentioned this to a number of my neighbors and they thought it a good idea for me to do. I said, “Not me, US.” Starlink is working out very well for us.

[Curt Harms]

In 2015 our rural co-op electric company was awarded some of that shovel ready money to run fiber optic lines. We were just finishing up our lill retirement home when they ran the fiber down the road and up to the house free. The monthly charge is less than 60 bucks....all-n-all a pretty sweet deal. :D


I've read other stories like your, Lawrence. The previous FCC head, Agit Pai was in big telecom's pocket. Big telecom doesn't like local co-ops like yours, they'd rather wire the lucrative areas and let the rest go without so the FCC was not helpful - and that's being kind.

[Dave Fritz]

It's a human condition to be angry at those getting government subsidies when you're not, but if you get it, well, it's great. Rarely do we see the big picture and what's good for the country. Politicians of all parties use this human flaw all the time to get people worked up and angry. Anger is a powerful motivator. History shows it's been going on for a long time, the topics have changed but the behavior hasn't.

[Brian Elfert]

It's a human condition to be angry at those getting government subsidies when you're not, but if you get it, well, it's great. Rarely do we see the big picture and what's good for the country. Politicians of all parties use this human flaw all the time to get people worked up and angry. Anger is a powerful motivator. History shows it's been going on for a long time, the topics have changed but the behavior hasn't.

If you choose to live in the middle of nowhere why should you expect to have the same services at the same cost as those who live in a city? Can I move to the middle of nowhere and then demand that taxpayers build a strip mall with all the services I need next door and then also have taxpayers pay to run city water and sewer to my house. I want all the services of city living while living in a nice rural area.

[Dave Fritz]

If you choose to live in the middle of nowhere why should you expect to have the same services at the same cost as those who live in a city? Can I move to the middle of nowhere and then demand that taxpayers build a strip mall with all the services I need next door and then also have taxpayers pay to run city water and sewer to my house. I want all the services of city living while living in a nice rural area.
I'm sure some city folks felt the same when REA brought electricity to rural areas of the country. That's worked out pretty good for the USA.

[Curt Harms]

I think up until recently 'modern' telecom services - cable TV, high speed internet - were viewed as luxuries. Why should the government/I pay for your luxuries? I'm not sure HSI is a luxury anymore, with remote school and work from home due to the pandemic.

[Frederick Skelly]

If you choose to live in the middle of nowhere why should you expect to have the same services at the same cost as those who live in a city? Can I move to the middle of nowhere and then demand that taxpayers build a strip mall with all the services I need next door and then also have taxpayers pay to run city water and sewer to my house. I want all the services of city living while living in a nice rural area.


I agree with Dave and Curt.

I'd be pretty reluctant to call electricity a luxury in 2022, or even 1940. REA was a real blessing for people.

FWIW, I recently asked my internet provider why the taxes on my connection are lower than cell phones, etc. They claimed that remote work and school drove the change - "the government" (fed?, state? local?) no longer view internet as a luxury.

[Now I dont want to go too far down this path because it becomes political. But an argument can be made that having some kind of telephone service shouldnt be taxed because it isnt really a luxury any more - parents need to stay in touch with kids, elderly people needing help, etc.]