How To Get Broadband When You Can’t?
When we look for a place to live, one of the absolute requirements is: can we get broadband. No broadband, we don’t live there. (A close second is proximity to an airport). It’s an occupational hazard of working from home.
When you live in the middle of nowhere like this guy who asked Slashdot, and you want to be connected, what do you do? Mobile phone networks are either non-existent or not data friendly. Landlines give you dialup service. Moving is an option, but some folks are too stubborn for that choice. What do you do? Let’s run through some options:
ISDN: Believe it or not, you can still get an ISDN circuit most anyplace you can get a conventional landline. They are rare, but it is “still on the books.” In fact, I know someone who lives in Santa Clara, CA whom can’t get DSL or cable but still uses ISDN. This gives you 128kb/s if you can bond both B channels, which is nothing to sneeze at. I used this sort of connection many years ago and it was more than reasonable for light surfing. Even if your ISP doesn’t support ISDN, an analog modem on one B channel of your ISDN gets 53k quite easily.
Check The Mobile Phone Companies: Even if you do live out in the boonies, it’s worth asking if they support 3G data services in your area. If it’s 1xRTT or EDGE, you should probably pass. If they offer EVDO or HSDPA, that’s workable.
Satellite: If you’ve got line-of-sight access to the southern sky, broadband over satellite may be an option. The laws of physics are working against you, so highly interactive sessions are out of the question.
Roll Your Own: The prevailing opinion on Slashdot was: roll your own. Use antennas to find the Internet somewhere else and bring it down to your house. Or you could bring the Internet some place else and use wireless to bring it to your house, and possibly sell access to others in the area. This requires the most work, but in many cases has the best promise to give you what you’d want.
The question is: if you couldn’t get broadband where you lived, what would you do in order to get it?Let me know what you think by leaving a comments.
Bookmark with: del.icio.us Digg it Furl iFeedReaders ma.gnolia Maple.nu RawSugar reddit Simpy StumbleUpon
Comment by Janet
This blog given by the information about broadband.
Thank you for the information.
Comment by Nick
well, I live 5.5 KM away from the phone exchange in my town. Cable wires are about 100 feet away from my house (but the cable company wants nearly $8000 to hook me up…yeah right) Local telco says NO to DSL..not possible, wont work forget it..blah blah. Well, luckily I knew a guy who worked at a small ISP and “did away” with the phone number check and activated DSL service anyway. Guess what…it works FINE…and it has worked perfectly for 6 months! I think phone companies should at least give the option of TRYING dsl technology. If your 10 km away from the DSLAM, forget it. But if your up to 7 km and theres no line loaders or other limiting factors…keep pushing the ISP to TRY IT. maybe it will work. so what if its only 25% of the speed…ANYTHING is better than dial up. Dial up is almost an option they should od away with. As all websites are getting more and more data heavy with flash advertisments and so-on…you REALLY cant use dial up.
Comment by Chad
If I had a family and I was nowhere near broadband access, I would probably put down the money for a satellite connection. Of course, since I am 22 and technically homeless, I would move to a city. No shack in the middle of North Dakota for me
Comment by PhoneBoy
@Chad if it were the only option, I’d probably do it too. Fortunately, there are several choices where I live.
Comment by Logan
We live 1/8 of a mile outside the “reach zone” for broadband access. This there some way I can route it to my home?
Comment by PhoneBoy
@Logan Depending on whether its cable or DSL, you might be able to pay a ton of money to get them to run the necessary cabling to your house. If it’s DSL, you’re out of luck as distance matters. If it’s Cable, you might be in luck as it appears to be less sensitive to distance.