Internet in rural homes

[Tindomul]

Does anyone here have any experience with internet providers in rural homes. My wife and I are about to close on a home in rural North Carolina. High up in the stix as they say, actually it borders Pisgah National Forest. Our original intent was that it would be a vacation home and eventually retirement. But with coronavirus, we wanted to see if we could get away from NYC for a few months at a time and work from home over there.

I am not sure if that will be possible down there. Hughesnet offers limited internet capacity, moderate speeds for up to a certain amount of gigbytes, then it gets real slow.

With two kids and two adults zooming all day for school and work, I'm not sure it will be feasible.

I figured I would just ask if anyone here has experience.

Thanks

[Ray]

North Carolina has excellent service in some places and none whatsoever in others. You'll have to do some local digging to learn for sure. Can't your realtor help?

I have better internet here in Oak Island through a "telephone co-op" than I did with Verizon in PA.

[Tindomul]

What is a telephone co-op? Realtor hasn't been much help on this issue, but he said he is looking into it. Thanks!

---------- Post added 01-14-2021 at 12:03 AM ---------- Previous post was 01-13-2021 at 11:49 PM ----------

You know, I looked it up and that led me to some great finds and possible solutions. Thanks Ray!

[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!

[Tindomul]

Thanks Ray and Cheri. The house is at 3K+ feet in altitude, basically in a temperate rainforest. I know the previous owner and was a guest at the house 10 or twelve times over the last 15 years. I fell in love with the place and this year we had the opportunity to purchase the home. I can see two neighboring homes, but that's it. The back yard is basically a few acres of Rhododendron/ oak/ hickory forest.

Ray thanks to your help I found out that the local electric company (a cooperative) was offering fiber optic in the area, but the area the house is in is currently under construction for this internet coverage. They said they would begin creating coverage in the next few months and would complete in two years,

Keeping fingers crossed that they will get to my place first

Cheri, thanks for the ideas, maybe I will look into comcast for the area.

---------- Post added at 10:47 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:34 AM ----------

Nope, comcast not available.

[DirtyCoconuts]

this is a long shot, especially in COVID times, but if you can ask your neighbors and see if they want it too, then you can call the coop back and tell them they can have three + customers now paying for the next two years while they complete the install now...small companies are still willing to, occasionally, make smart choices lol

Originally Posted by Tindomul

Thanks Ray and Cheri. The house is at 3K+ feet in altitude, basically in a temperate rainforest. I know the previous owner and was a guest at the house 10 or twelve times over the last 15 years. I fell in love with the place and this year we had the opportunity to purchase the home. I can see two neighboring homes, but that's it. The back yard is basically a few acres of Rhododendron/ oak/ hickory forest.

Ray thanks to your help I found out that the local electric company (a cooperative) was offering fiber optic in the area, but the area the house is in is currently under construction for this internet coverage. They said they would begin creating coverage in the next few months and would complete in two years,

Keeping fingers crossed that they will get to my place first

Cheri, thanks for the ideas, maybe I will look into comcast for the area.

---------- Post added at 10:47 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:34 AM ----------

Nope, comcast not available.

[Mountaineer370]

Tindomul, I'm sure you must have thought of this or already done it, but have you tried Googling (or whatever your preferred search engine is) "Internet services in North Carolina," even narrowing it to your part of the state? I did that recently when I was looking for another option and that's how I found out that I had exactly two choices (unless I wanted to go with a very unreliable satellite internet service).

Fiber optic would be my preferred choice, but I understand it may be a while until it gets to your new house. Does the neighborhood has a cable TV provider? If so, cable internet should be available from the same company.

Check out this site:

Internet Service Providers in North Carolina | HighSpeedInternet.com

[Fuerte Rav]

What about Elon Musk's new service, Starlink?

We're hoping it will get to our area when it covers Africa! Our current options are dismal and expensive but at present we have no choice.

[DirtyCoconuts]

Originally Posted by Fuerte Rav

What about Elon Musk's new service, Starlink?

We're hoping it will get to our area when it covers Africa! Our current options are dismal and expensive but at present we have no choice.

Then you are so generous to spend your money to spend your time with us!!