Posts by ranch_cow

FCC proudly wastes $90m getting data-capped, pricey satellite internet to tiny percentage of US population

Many towns don't have cable in the first place. I'm 15 miles from the village. The phone company is locally owned, and has been for sale for several years. They can't afford to do anything. In town they offer 5 meg service. Mandatory phone line at $35, plus cheapest DSL at $50, $85 for the service total, and it barely works (audio streaming cuts out sometimes).

Re: 98%

They aimed beams at more populated areas in general. Some areas are only served by the old satellites that have been in use over a decade. Viasat 1 did not cover my area at all. Vs-2 had an antenna failure for which they got a hefty insurance payout, it did not deploy correctly, coverage areas are missing, and misshapen, as well as lower signal than expected.

Re: 98%

Living in rural Nebraska. That map is absolutely ridiculous in my area, not based on fact in any way, shape or form. The second closest village offers fiber with the phone company, 16 miles from me. But, it maxes out at 10, that's the highest tier. The map shows "50" available. The phone company is the only provider for fixed service, Verizon wireless being the other carrier (and cell service never gets to "50" either). It shows coverage where there is none at all. Viasat maxes out at 12 in my zipcode.

That gets into the same issue as cell service. Range is limited. I'm 13 miles from a cell tower. 15 miles from a water tower, and 30 miles from any tall structure other than those. Antennas placed on those types of things have limited range. The Wisp provider in the area won't install much beyond 5 miles. I am able to get cell service in the house with a roof antenna, and I can literally see that tower that is 13 miles away.

Population density where I am is about 2 people per square mile. My neighbors are over a mile away, many are much farther apart than that.

Re: $80 per month?

Cost of equipment is covered by the lease fee that is in addition to the monthly fee. It was around $10/month last time I had the service (although when I had it, they allowed purchasing outright, which I did, they don't anymore), and last I checked.

Re: $80 per month?

No, a lot of systems do not utilize a phone line anymore. The system utilizing a phone line was obsoleted almost 15 years ago (at least). It may be available in special applications, but I haven't seen it, it's not offered by the two major residential satellite providers.

Viasat does have a new system in testing in unknown areas utilitzing DSL, but it's more of a hybrid, not using the DSL for upload only. Details on that are unknown. Except, it costs more, of course, they figure paying for the full price of a dsl line, plus satellite service, and from what I read, extra to make it work together.