I always dreamed of living in a rural area – fresh air, nature, and people are closer, at least in terms of friendship. But, getting decent internet speeds and good connectivity can be a real problem. The Internet has become a necessity in today’s world for work, classes, entertainment, and many other activities. Inadequate broadband endures a significant social divide that imprisons rural citizens in their homes and diminishes their access to necessary services and potential career paths.
Fortunately, internet connectivity in rural areas has improved over the years due to new investments and a variety of choices present all across the country. Currently, many of the providers can boast quite wholesome offerings - even if one lives in a rural area. Here is an overview of your best bets for staying connected:
Satellite Internet Providers
Other issues that satellite internet was famously associated with in the past are low speeds, high latency, limited bandwidth usage, and weather interference. However, the newer generations in the satellite services have made significant progress in the recent past. Thanks to investments from companies like Viasat, HughesNet, and Starlink, satellite plans now provide:
- Speeds like 25Mbps, 50Mbps, 75Mbps, 100Mbps, 125Mbps, 150+ Mbps
- A latency between 30-50ms that makes streaming, video games, and video calls fluid
- Yes, it offers no-hard data cap monthly plans of 100GB+ / 150GB+ and more.
Although satellite internet has its focus on the installation of the dish, it must provide an unobstructed view of the southern sky, the technology itself is not as geographically restrained as ground-based ISPs. Satellites that orbit the Earth can transmit signals to almost any inhabited part of the continental United States. However, pricing is also standardized irrespective of the geographical location - valuable for rural users who may pay significantly more for marginal DSL or wireless service from local telecoms.
In terms of the four pillars of fast speed, large data volume limits, and availability advantages, it is suggested that satellites should be considered first when purchasing rural broadband. Remember to put your address on sites owned by companies so that you can view the latest promotions that include your area.
Fixed Wireless Broadband
It is a network that uses a wireline connection to send signals through the air from ground-based towers and antennas. Fixed wireless, if a home is within the range of sight of a provider’s transmission source, these plans can provide comparative speed to cable or fiber at comparable prices.
For the record, more fixed wireless providers have extended the networks into rural areas lately. Their signals are much more powerful, thus they can go as far as several miles – even beyond the normal WiFi router. Additionally, since towers are often constructed on elevated sites and are above the ground, they cause minimum interference with line of sight interferences such as trees and buildings. Leading rural providers to check first include:
- Rise Broadband: LTE 25-50 Mbps up to 20 plus miles from towers
- Vast Broadband: 50-100+ Mbps speeds across communities in South Dakota, Minnesota, and western Iowa
- Clearwave Fiber: 100-500+ Mbps across many small and dispersed rural regions across Illinois
- Global Wireless Solutions: 10-100 Mbps in some locations in Montana and Idaho
However, once again, availability cannot be divorced from its location to the last point. Still, fixed wireless should be of interest to rural dwellers as a much faster and more reliable solution as compared to competitive DSL and regular satellite services. It is important to use the company coverage map to identify the location of service provision.
T-Mobile Home Internet
The telecommunications firm recently rolled out 5G home internet service meant specifically for rural households that the regular ISPs such as cable or fiber do not serve. For the service, it leverages T-Mobile’s expanding 600MHz and middle band 2.5GHz 5G networks.
Initial performance indicates that T-Mobile Home Internet has a positive effect on providing connections with download speeds of between 30 and 90+ Mbps. It does so for bandwidth-intensive applications such as video streaming, gaming, and videoconferencing without problems. And it is a lot different than satellite home internet service which includes such disadvantages as limited data usage and possible slows due to weather conditions.
There is a bit of a catch, however, for signing up with T-Mobile – one has to prove his or her eligibility first. Despite it being a relatively new network, the coverage it has is not as vast as that of the urban centers but rather mostly covers the rural areas. Houses interested in joining the network can check for availability through T-Mobile’s website by inputting their zip code. If service is not available as yet, the interest form allows a customer to be on a waiting list as coverage is expanded in the area.
DSL Providers
For the people, who do not have access to any of the above services, the local DSL services like CenturyLink, Frontier, or Windstream could be the best option. Although these telecom companies are still trying to upgrade their networks in many rural regions, they do provide some form of internet connectivity to almost everybody through their copper telephone wire system.
Still, just keep it real and do not overemphasize DSL internet.
- The speeds of a Speeds are usually limited to 10-25 Mbps in rural areas
- This implies that if the number of users is high during certain evenings, there could be slowdowns due to congestion.
- They charge more than the urban units for a relatively poorer standard of service.
However, minimum without DSL broadband is preferable to trying to work or attend online classes on an outdated 3G modem with limited data allowance. It may be easier for neighbors on a street, or road, in a low DSL infrastructure area to band together and request providers to improve the services. More demand can encourage the provision for acquiring fresh tools.
In conclusion, what you should always remember is that it is never okay to accept the fact that you may not have a reliable Internet connection, especially if you find yourself in a situation where there are few choices available. For any given set of problems in a rural area there are always certain geographical features that make certain solutions more feasible than others. Perhaps, considering the navigation of the file with the help of the availability tools of several leading home internet providers, a suitable match will be found. Improved access indicates that through a network connection, the residents in the rural areas get a chance to access services, employment, and other quality life-enriching services.
