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Barb’s Broadband Journey In Rural Illinois

Please note first that I am not advocating for any one provider!  I am just telling my broadband story.

My family and I live out in the country 4 ½ miles from the nearest small rural town of West Union.  Our county has around 16,000 people in it.   I work from home a day or two a week, and from an office in Marshall the rest of the time.  In addition, my oldest son took online college classes in 2011, and another son will likely do the same in a couple years.  We have three laptops and one desktop hooked to the internet.  We need good access.

I started around 1997 with dial-up service at home.  I was thrilled with the new possibilities.  But my speed at work was much better, so I grew bored with waiting.  In the mid 2000s, I chose a new option, Wild Blue Satellite through Norris Electric Coop.  It really was good for me at that time.  Then my two tech savvy boys turned into teenagers and started to crank up our download use. 

I tried upping our Wild Blue package from the $40 a month to the $70 a month which allowed for more downloading.  That helped for a while.  But, with each passing month, my teenagers upped their use, and so did I.

My son, Jaryd, is an extreme user – in August of 2011 he had downloaded 5 Gig in 20 days using his cousin’s DSL internet and his phone.  My younger son, Dylan, is almost as heavy a user.  We constantly have download limit issues.  I remind my boys on a regular basis not to do video or too much music downloads. 

For some providers, if you go over the download limit, it slows you down. If you really go over the limit, it really slows you down.  And, for my current service, it is a rolling 30 day limit. So, if one day you download too much (such as a video,) you may have to wait 30 days to get your speed back. 

So, to find if I had other options, I went searching.  Since we live in a rural area, our options were somewhat limited.   First we tried Frontier DSL land lines.  They tested our line and we are too far from town.  You have to be within a few line miles of the main hub.  Also, at the edge of the limit, it can have reduced speed.  Frontier is implementing new technology which should push signal out farther, and I am keeping my fingers crossed that someday I get that access. 

I next tried Verizon Wireless.  The fee was not bad at all. About $50/mth.  Some set up costs, but not terrible.  One cool thing was that I could have taken the box with me for work or vacation and used it with my laptop wherever there was service.    I asked about the 5 Gig per month download limit and the lady in the store told me that should be plenty (my 5-Gig-per-20-days son said not).  Verizon let me have a week to check out the service.  If you take it back in a very short time, there is no fee.  I signed up, paid the fees, and went home with a small box the size of a phone. So, when it worked, it was great!  But, it was intermittent.  The line would drop in the middle of a search.  I was just too far from the closest tower.  I could not give up the reliability of the satellite, even if the speed was not as good.  I honestly considered keeping both Wildblue and Verizon Wireless!  But the cost was just too much.  So, I sacrificed a small trial fee $35 since I had kept the Verizon box about a week and took it back.  (Note that if I had waited too long I would have been under contract and had to pay a contract cancelation fee – be sure to check timeframes allowed to test.)

Also, note that an acquaintance of mine said that she used Verizon Wireless but, since she was a good ways from tower she had to use a signal booster which she bought from a radio shop.  It was around $400.  I chose not to try that due to the expense and uncertainty.

I went to Cell One in July of 2011 to sign up for their wireless Internet.  No set up fees, which is remarkable.  $40, $70, $100, $140 monthly fee depending on what speed you want.  I signed up for the $40 for 500k speed.  I also asked if I could upgrade to the $70 for 1 MB speed if I did not like the speed and they said “yes.”  With Cell One you have to sign a 2 year contract and then they come out to your home and determine if you have access.   It is my understanding that you are only committed to the contract if you get good access.    The technician came and checked my signal in August 2011 - no luck.  Too far from tower.  

Last Update - In October of 2011, I found out from Frontier that they were doing some new updates in my area.  Their technicians came out (great guys)and tried it.  SUCCESS!!  I am so happy.  My boys have been downloading night and day.  I can actually open the attachments on my emails.  I can watch YouTube videos.  I can make updates to my work web page.   I don't even know what I can do yet!  :)

Barb

P.S.  Check all rates and fees ahead of time - they could have changed since I wrote this.  And, here are a few more suggestions learned from my journey.  First, see what is available for you.  www.broadbandillinois.org will allow you to put in your home address and see area vendors in their database.  (There may be some local providers that aren't listed yet.)  You can then Google to find contact info.  Also, talk to your friends.  What do they have, and does it work for them?  Four key factors to consider – cost, speed, reliability, download limits.