Comment by robflynn | Hacker News Reader

Comment by robflynn | Hacker News Reader

I am originally from rural North Carolina and happen to be visiting my parents at the moment. I'll give a quick run-down of their internet options over the years:

From 1995-2000, their only option was dialup. 56k dialup was offered but the quality of the phone lines in the area only allowed for 26k - 28k at best.

Sometime around 2000 or 2001, "broadband" finally moved to the area. However, they can not get DSL or Cable. They have a wireless ISP (radio installed on the house, receives signal from a tower.)

They get about 1mpbs down and about 10% packet loss. Last night I was battling 35% packet loss while trying to do some work.

Parts of the county do have DSL and Cable. A guy who lives about 10 houses up from my dad has Time Warner broadband. He's had it for 10 years and loves it. My parent's can't get it, however, because they're just over the county line and apparently this county has some sort of exclusivity agreement with another small/local cable company.

That small cable company does have broadband, but only to small/select area of the county, and they don't seem to have any interest in heading out this way.

I really don't even know what to do to help them anymore as far as connectivity goes. I just know that it annoys them.

Anyway, the point of my little tirade is: It angers me to see possible additional imposed limitations to an area which already struggles to have anything to begin with.

All we had to do was have a few meetings about community WIFI and put up a few radios and suddenly the local cable company decided that what they said would take a decade could be done in a couple of months. I've never seen them move so fast. It was like leprechaun magic.

Have a few meetings, invite your local cable representative to talk about "options". (They always send a guy to tell you how committed they are, how many new places they hooked up last year, and how your neighborhood is just too rural to serve at this time.) Once you get a T1 somewhere with a big antenna, they'll freak.

I'm not entirely certain that they (the cable company) cares. There's the wireless ISP in the area (what the parents currently have) and they didn't seem to fret when that came into the area.

This is mostly an old, poor, mill town -- except all of the mills have long since gone away.

You pretty much described exactly the kinds of things they say. When I first called on my parent's behalf in 2008, I was told it would be 2010. In 2010 I was told "maybe 2011." Here we are in 2011 and they still have no answer for me.

Bell South apparently doesn't have a DSLAM near by... though my sister has DSL and lives about 6 miles from my parents.

They're pretty much at the county line, so I think this has caused them to end up in a "no man's land".

Time Warner can't come that last 1/4 mi and the other cable company doesn't care to come out this far.

900mhz seems to be the way to go.

edit Just stumbled across this article online, written about someone in the same county: http://www.internetforeveryone.org/americaoffline/nc/day5

If it were me in this situation, I would talk to the guy who has the cable and share his connection (even pay for his monthly fee to provide incentive). It's relatively easy to connect two houses by using directional wireless antenna.

We considered that, actually. I need to look into it a bit more for them.

The guy lives about 1/2 mile away and there's quite a bit of trees in the way.

Depending on how determined you are, 900mhz is unlicensed and can punch a wireless signal through trees. Equipment can be expensive, but there's surplus stuff out there, esp. among hams.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/33-centimeter_band

We've been considering that as an option.

I think it would be doable. About a year ago I was getting shared internet from someone a couple miles away. There was line of sight between the two antennas, but the internet signal was pretty good.

A guy who lives about 10 houses up from my dad has Time Warner broadband.

Similar situation here - Comcast provides service to the entire area with a few exceptions, such as my neighbor and I. The cable service stops 150 feet up the road at the next closest neighbor, and for five years they have declined to extend the line. According to my neighbor, last time he called Comcast they offered to run the line if he covered the $9K or so cost.

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