High Speed Internet in Rural Areas

For many in the United States who live in rural areas, there are limited options for internet connectivity and even less for high speed and broadband connections. For some time, dial-up internet connections were the only possibilities for accessing the internet if the consumer lived outside of large metropolitan areas.

The two most frequently cited high speed internet connection options are cable and digital subscriber line (DSL), but those are not commonly available in rural areas. With cable connections, most cable companies do not find it financially viable to lay miles of cable to remote home sites. As for DSL, the connection signal suffers from degradation the further the receiving modem is from the internet service providers (ISPs) central office.

The other options for rural internet access are wireless connections, via cellular towers or satellite. Cellular internet access is very limited, especially in rural communities, where there are not a lot of cellular towers. Additionally, cellular internet connections tend to be costly, because the consumer has to pay for the amount of data that is downloaded.

In contrast, high speed satellite internet access is affordable, reliable, allows the consumer to always be online, and is available virtually anywhere, including the remote regions of the contiguous U.S. There are currently two high speed satellite providers in the U.S., HughesNet and WildBlue.

Both HughesNet and WildBlue offer assistance with installation of the required, unobtrusive satellite dish – which is attached to a building or on a free-standing post – calibrating the signal from the satellites, and setting-up the required satellite modem, as well as running the coaxial cable from the satellite dish to the modem.

For the rural consumer, high speed internet access via satellite is the best option for broadband connectivity.