[Hidden-tech] Internet Access in the sticks?

[Jonathan Dill]

Unfortunately, I think the bottom line is probably going to be that 
anything other than dialup is probably going to be expensive at least 
about $100 / month.  You might be able to get ISDN, fractional T1, or 
something like SDSL that can run over longer distance than the normal 
ADSL.  You might be able to find out about alternative (more expensive) 
xDSL options available to your address, possibly through someone like 
Covad, this site used to have a decent search engine but I haven't used 
it in awhile:

http://www.dslreports.com/

If you have other neighbors close enough, and your service agreement 
will allow you to share the connection, you might consider setting up a 
sort of "co-op" and get something like a T1 and share the cost.  Some 
providers are giving deals on T1's now like $300-400/month due to 
competition from broadband.

You might look into EVDO or CDMA (which work over cell phone network) 
but coverage for those will probably be spotty in the sticks as well.  
You can get a router box that you can plug the EVDO card into to share 
the connection to multiple computers.  I can give more details about 
that if anyone is interested.

Satellite internet uses a separate dish and not the same dish for the 
satellite TV, but it probably will be equally affected by the trees.  
Also, satellite has "high latency" so although nominal transfer speed is 
pretty fast, there is a longer delay time.  I think it is a bit 
expensive, here are the pricing plans I found for hughesnet formerly 
k.a. direcway:

http://go.gethughesnet.com/HUGHES/Rooms/DisplayPages/LayoutInitial?Container=com.webridge.entity.Entity%5BOID%5B71A9F5B422ABCE4886D9492F66B5B589%5D%5D

Jonathan