broadband wireless users experiences please

[Lemon law]

While I am not sure this is best anand tech forum to post this on, I still am not able to get dsl from my telco, namely ATT.

Having come into some money, I now have the option to try various existing wireless internet broadband options, none of them all that attractive. And the two year contract is overly long.

1. Satellite based broad band from either Wild Blue or Hughes. Neither of them have stellar records, they are not cheap, and they are not fast. Worse yet, might as well forget
VOIP because of high latency. And I do have a very good view of the Southern sky.

2. Some sort of WImax based solution off cell phone towers. At&T, sprint, and verizon seem to offer such options. With only AT&T having a close by cell tower only 1.5 miles away. The other two are marginal for cell phones at my location. Again the downside is not fast, expensive, and a bandwidth cap.

But at any rate, what I solicit here is user experiences to help me pick the best option.
Once I choose, the networking problems with hooking up two computers should be a trivial problem.

 

[JackMDS]

Those thing change geographically it is a good idea to ask users around your "neck in the woods".

With the options that you have I would forgo VOIP.

Internet Wild Blue is a good solution.

 

[xSauronx]

Search your immediate area for Wireless ISPs, or WISPs. I have no idea where you are, but those are popping up in more and more places. Less latency than satellite. Even though the bandwidth wont be great, it *may* still be good enough for VOIP as the latency on wireless can actually be pretty acceptable, there may be no cap, and the pricing is probably no worse than satellite.

satellite works but its slow as all hell. is cable an option?

 

[kornphlake]

How about an ISDN line? It's probably not a great suggestion, but if it is available it may be more reliable than a wireless or satellite solution. I'm not sure about latency, and with 128k speed you probably won't be able to use VOIP services.

 

[Lemon law]

To reply to only xSauronx, in a word, is cable an option, its a definite NO.

In terms of an ISDN line, it might be an option if AT&T gave me a stellar noise free telephone line that had some broadband potential if doubled with ISDN. That too is a no because doubled AT&T lines could not deliver 128 kb/sec, it might be an option, but reality says no, as AT&T does not deliver quality with one phone line let alone two.

I would also like to have some third party wireless option I keep searching for, some are tantalizing close, but no cigar yet. For what its worth I am in the cusp between the 46050 and 46052 area codes, and I am on the 765-325-xxxx exchange.

As for Wild Blue satellite, I can live without VOIP, but I keep checking their consumer complaints that are quite frankly horror stories. I have no problem with signing a contract with them, but the way they word their contract, it binds me without requiring Wild Blue to hold up their end of the bargain in any way.

That is why I am asking for ACTUAL user experiences. Those that are going on mere theory but do not actually use those providers, cannot help me in terns of guidance.

 

[frostedflakes]

Been using Alltel Axcess for nearly three years and have been pretty happy with it. Part of the reason is the price, though. It's only like $10/mo for smartphone tethering (well, it's more now, but they grandfathered us in), and Alltel doesn't have a 5GB/mo limit. Now that Verizon acquired Alltel, it's still kind of up in the air whether we'll get to keep this rate and service, but so far so good. I don't know if it's still possible to sign up for Alltel service or if it's all Verizon now, but you might look into that. If you can still get signed up under an Alltel contract, you may be able to avoid the 5GB/mo cap that Verizon and other providers enforce. I'm thinking it might be too late to do this, though.

But even with a 5GB cap, I'd still take a terrestrial wireless option over satellite. I've just heard far too many horror stories about satellite. Cellular data service shouldn't degrade due to atmospheric conditions like it can for satellite, and it has much lower latency. Overall I've been pretty happy with our EVDO service. Again this will vary depending on location and other conditions, but I can usually get 1-1.5Mbps down, 0.3-0.5Mbps up, and 150ms pings with a rev. A capable modem. But one thing I've noticed is that service is pretty variable. Probably 90% of the time I get these speeds and have no problems, but especially over the last year or so, sometimes I'll just get crap speeds, have problems with pages loading (DNS issue, I think), stuff like that. I suspect most of it was related to the Verizon transition, though, so hopefully it will be smooth sailing once they get all of that worked out.

I've always thought the $60/mo for data card plans was pretty steep, though. You might look into tethering, which involves using your phone as a modem and connecting through it. It's usually cheaper (I think most providers charge around $30/mo), but you can't talk on the phone while on the net, at least not with CDMA providers, I think it may be possible with GSM. You'll still be able to receive calls with CDMA, but if you take the call it will disconnect you from the internet.

I don't know, maybe some useful information in that wall of text. If you have any specific questions, let me know.

edit: And I kind of mentioned this earlier, but service quality will depend on a lot of factors. Service is pretty good for me, but if you happen to live in a fringe area, or if your local tower is very congested, it may be very, very bad. Whatever providers you end up looking at, make sure they give you a grace period where you can try the service and have the option to cancel service w/no penalty if it sucks. Would also be a good idea to check DSL Reports for user reviews from people close to you, might give you a good idea of how service is in your area.

 

[Lemon law]

Thanks for the user input FrostedFlakes, I will check out alltel and see if its available in my area. While I have no interest in cell service, I really need broadband internet, and if I need a better antenna to make things fly, I am willing.

 

[frostedflakes]

Yeah a high gain antenna and/or amplifier is definitely an option if you're in a fringe area. I've never bought any products from them, but I've heard a lot of good things about 3GStore. You might keep them in mind if you need to buy some equipment, I've read that they have some really knowledgeable techs that can get you set up.

http://3gstore.com/

 

[frostedflakes]

edit: Weird, double post...