Problematic
Oct. 18th, 2022 03:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greenstormSo my internet out here has been a wireless hub that runs off cell signal. It worked pretty well in the beginning, but it's pretty awful now - I stopped doing youtube videos in part because I can't upload them at all anymore, and now I'm beginning to lose video quality. I'm paying $100 for this, and the company that provides it has no interest in assisting.
Much as I dislike Elon Musk's whole thing, and much as I wish the government had gotten in on this, the only other options I have are getting a landline and dialup ($75 or so) or starlink ($140 plus the unmanageable startup cost). I could try getting a cell booster (same cost as the starlink startup equipment but for a much slower and less sure outcome).
I need to pay down a couple thousand dollars of feed debt from the animals, so I don't really have the ability to take on an extra $40 plus the nearly a thousand to get the unit right now.
I may just... go into work instead of working from home for awhile and get rid of home internet, with an eye towards maybe doing starlink once the feed is paid off. There's a touch of data on my phone.
I've been chewing on this one awhile but it's really coming to a head lately. My work stuff still runs, barely, but I don't know for how much longer. I'm pretty upset about the whole situation - the gov is paying companies a whole bunch of money to run fibre down along the southern highway but it isn't coming up here. My understanding is our cell tower is degrading and no one is interesting in maintaining it, which is why it's getting worse out here.
Bah. Infrastructure is so bad out here. Capital investments, but no taste for maintenance. They're putting in a new hospital but they can't staff the one we have, they keep closing the emergency room down from lack of staff.
At very least, the current internet situation is not a disincentive for moving off-grid.
Much as I dislike Elon Musk's whole thing, and much as I wish the government had gotten in on this, the only other options I have are getting a landline and dialup ($75 or so) or starlink ($140 plus the unmanageable startup cost). I could try getting a cell booster (same cost as the starlink startup equipment but for a much slower and less sure outcome).
I need to pay down a couple thousand dollars of feed debt from the animals, so I don't really have the ability to take on an extra $40 plus the nearly a thousand to get the unit right now.
I may just... go into work instead of working from home for awhile and get rid of home internet, with an eye towards maybe doing starlink once the feed is paid off. There's a touch of data on my phone.
I've been chewing on this one awhile but it's really coming to a head lately. My work stuff still runs, barely, but I don't know for how much longer. I'm pretty upset about the whole situation - the gov is paying companies a whole bunch of money to run fibre down along the southern highway but it isn't coming up here. My understanding is our cell tower is degrading and no one is interesting in maintaining it, which is why it's getting worse out here.
Bah. Infrastructure is so bad out here. Capital investments, but no taste for maintenance. They're putting in a new hospital but they can't staff the one we have, they keep closing the emergency room down from lack of staff.
At very least, the current internet situation is not a disincentive for moving off-grid.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-20 05:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-10-20 03:23 pm (UTC)Is the amazon thing a competitor for starlink?
no subject
Date: 2022-10-21 01:52 am (UTC)The amazon thing is a starlink competitor in theory yeah but it's not deployed yet, won't be for a few years maybe.
Same with uh .. telesat lightspeed (https://www.telesat.com/internet-backhaul/) and astranis (https://www.astranis.com/) and AST spacemobile (https://ast-science.com/spacemobile-network/) and ... looks like a soon-to-be-crowded field. But this year it's starlink or viasat (which xplore is renting time on)
Grum.