Internet in rural homes

[Ray]

Back in the days when “rural” was definitely “the sticks”, the major power and telephone companies didn’t want to invest in infrastructure extending to only a few new customers, so “cooperatives” were formed that had people combine their funds to pay for it and for the services, as the fractional cost was a lot less per-family.

As the population grew, they have just stayed in place and now act more as a local agent with good purchasing power.

Both my electricity and internet/TV (and phone if I wanted a land line) are fed through co-ops.

“On the edge of Pisgah National Forest” suggests out near Asheville, which has turned into a really “happening” town that’s seeing a lot of growth. I suspect that unless you’re really in the boonies, you won’t have too much of a problem, and once you get over the shock of leaving NYC, you’ll love it there.

[Mountaineer370]

I am currently, and have been for months now, having a lot of trouble getting reliable internet service. I live in what you might call a semi-rural area, where I can see plenty of neighbors homes from my own, but most of us have property between a couple acres to ten or so. The thing is, though, I am no more than about 30 miles to Detroit city limits in one direction and 10 miles or so to the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area in another (good-size college towns).

Previously, for as long as we had internet, it was through our phone carrier, AT&T. Starting last August, we started having regular outages, sometimes for days at a time. Long story short, after many calls to them and many technicians coming out, and getting many different stories as to the reason, after about a month, the problem seemed fixed, but I still had the issue that our service was only for 3 Mbps, and usually I was actually getting between 1 and 2 Mbps. I did not have the option of getting a faster plan with AT&T. We had lived with that slow speed for a very long time, but with the Covid pandemic and all of us having to do a lot more from home, including Zoom meetings and the like, that just was not a good enough internet speed.

So after consulting with many neighbors and learning that the only other option in my area was Comcast/Xfinity (cable internet), that is what we went with. I got a plan with 100 Mbps. The speed is great -- when it works. Since signing up with them a couple months ago, I typically lose my internet signal multiple times a day. Sometimes, I will be lucky and go a few days with no issues, but other days, it might go out ten or twelve times. Calling Comcast has not resolved the issue. They said there is no problem with their lines, that it must be my modem, but exchanging my modem for a new one didn't change a thing.

I really have no other options in my area besides AT&T (too slow for Zoom meetings or streaming content) or Comcast (totally undependable on a daily basis).

As I said, I do not even live in what I think would be described as a rural area. Good luck to you, Tindomul!