learn me LTE home internet

Time has come. The DSL modem is taking a crap. The speed has been horrible for years (5Mb/s on good days down, 0.5 up) and we've been overpaying but that's just the price to pay for rural life. But now that the wife is e-learning and I can WFH more often we need a better option. 

So.... learn me wireless home internet from cell towers and stuff because if I'm spending $200 for a new modem/router I might as well upgrade. And how can I keep access to our current provider's email address? We've had it since 2002.

From my recent searches

I hate to say it, but it's not financially viable to work from home over LTE internet. To get a truly unlimited plan, expect $300+/month on top of $200-500 hardware. Otherwise, you're looking at 10-15gb data caps before throttling or overage free kick in. 

Overage fees average $10/gb, throttling will take you down to 128-256 kbps.

Unless the virus has pushed through big data changes I haven't heard about, it's just not worth the price.

Edit: do a search for WISP in your area. Wireless internet service provider. Like tmobiles home internet, and several others. There are none local to me because of the terrain, so my information on them is limited, but it might be a solution where you live. 

In reply to RevRico :

my friend has one set up. He's getting me in contact with his provider. He is getting 25-30Mb/s downloads, runs through 500-700GB per month (works IT remotely) for $109/ month

This isn't what you asked, but my sister in rural Colorado has had good luck with satellite internet.

We are using a verizon jetpack, $20/month for 15GB before they will supposedly throttle... We don't stream, so the data limit wasn't an issue until my wife started doing zoom for work from home. We went over the limit last month and didn't notice a difference, but we are also in SW Virginia, not a highly populated area. 

I'm curious what company bobzilla's friend is using. 

Is there a neighbor within sight line that you could piggy back off of for faster internet?  You could do a line of site connection from point to point?

https://www.amazon.com/EZ-Bridge-Lite-EZBR-0214-Outdoor-Wireless-System/dp/B002K683V0

Just offer to help pay for half of their internet, etc.

Also you might be able to work with a local ISP to connect directly to their equipment and avoid working with neighbors.

https://swifthighspeed.com/line-of-sight/

Just a thought.

Which cell company works well at your house ?

How much data do you use a month ?

Mint mobile uses Tmobile towers and has a $25 a month deal at 12 GB a month , 

its often on sale for $40 for 3 months from Best buy , and you can get a  sample sim for $5 to see how it works at your house.

In reply to Stefan (Forum Supporter) :

We're all limited with DSL due to our location. Nearest house is half a mile away. They don't have home internet at all and use their cellphones. 

In reply to slowride :

$150 a month plus install is not something I'm willing to pay. thats what it is around us.

In reply to californiamilleghia :

all of them work about the same. Typical cell phone signal is about 15Mb/s and upload around 5. We're close to the interstate so that helps. We're currently using about 7GB a week if I work from home, wife is using about 4-5gig per week now. 12 gig deal won't go far. 

In reply to bobzilla :

How about call your current provider and play the "now teaching from home" sympathy angle.  Could there possibly be a price reduction?  

Not to self...I need to do this too since my wife is a teacher too.  

In reply to John Welsh (Forum Supporter) :

they really don't care. Which is reason #2 I want to move away from them. When I was having problems 2 weeks ago and on the phone with them. They couldn't have cared less if they tried. 

bobzilla said:

Time has come. The DSL modem is taking a crap. The speed has been horrible for years (5Mb/s on good days down, 0.5 up) and we've been overpaying but that's just the price to pay for rural life. But now that the wife is e-learning and I can WFH more often we need a better option. 

So.... learn me wireless home internet from cell towers and stuff because if I'm spending $200 for a new modem/router I might as well upgrade. And how can I keep access to our current provider's email address? We've had it since 2002.

Would you have better DSL speeds with a more modern modem/router? 

Search for Fixed Wireless providers in your area. This is what I will likely end up with at the new house in the mountains, it seems like a better solution than standard cellular data. 

z31maniac said:

bobzilla said:

Time has come. The DSL modem is taking a crap. The speed has been horrible for years (5Mb/s on good days down, 0.5 up) and we've been overpaying but that's just the price to pay for rural life. But now that the wife is e-learning and I can WFH more often we need a better option. 

So.... learn me wireless home internet from cell towers and stuff because if I'm spending $200 for a new modem/router I might as well upgrade. And how can I keep access to our current provider's email address? We've had it since 2002.

Would you have better DSL speeds with a more modern modem/router? 

 

Sadly no. DSL speed is directly related to the distance to the node/box/ connection however you want to refer to it. We are limited to about 5.2 on a good day. The router/modem we have is already 10xbetter than the connection. 

You guys ain't doin nuthin toward swayin me from hoping like berk that Starlink is up and running sooner rather than later...

Ok quick update.  Having more and more problems. They want to sell us a crappy modem for $12 per month on top of the $77. No. Wife's had to drive across town the last couple days to find some place to work. So her work IT loaned her one of their Verizon hot spots. Our normal download is between 4.8-5.2Mb/s and upload is almost always .5. Yes.... zero point 5. This is showing 19 down and 13 up on the phone and 22 down 16up on the two laptops. 
 

I have access to a company that can set us up for absolutely unlimited data and no throttle until 100gig for $107 but there are ZERO sprint compatible devices for sale/not on back order. 
 

so I know what direction we are headed just how to get there. 

T-Mobile.  I have one of their hotspots.  We used it before fiber finally came here and I kept it for my personal laptop at work, keeping my personal laptop totally isolated from the corporate network.  It's great.  Fast, reasonable and no BS.

And it just got worse....

DSL modem died. Dead dead. So what puny internet we had is gone. The wife's borrowed hotspot now randomly loses all connection for hours at a time. God Damnit I am so berkeleying sick of this berkeleying E36 M3. Sorry...... Sprint cannot get us a hotspot because the merger with T-mobile. T-mobile has non available currently for us to get because merger. Because someone closed the world, getting internet access became super important but we are still screwed. 

So tired of dealing with this. Why can't we have nice things? IT's not like I'm living in BFE with nothing. I'm 10 miles from major suburbia at most, 2 at best. I'm 25 frigging minutes from DOWN TOWN Indianapolis. This should not be this berkeleying difficult. 

In reply to bobzilla :

Probably the quickest path to a solution is to buy a modem or hotspot off of eBay, CL, etc. and get back up and sorta running until things calm down enough to get a proper solution.

As to why things are this way?  Welcome to the US where the internet isn't a public service and its owned and run by corporations that only spend money when they feel its worth it.  So instead of taking the money they were given by the Feds and States for infrastructure build out, they mostly used it for their share holders.

Make the internet a public service like Water or Electricity with appropriate standards for basic infrastructure and problems like this become less likely to happen.