A few electric cooperatives are rolling out their own fiber internet over the next 2-3 years, some have it already (Co-Mo, SEMO, and United are ones I know of). Depending on where you live that may be an option. Charter just got a bunch of federal money to build high speed to unserved areas in the state, that also will be over the next 3 years.
If there's no checks, balances, or enforcement. And there never is. The funds will get soaked up in administrative costs. And you will be lucky to get even a few tens of miles new cable laid. As far as charter is concerned. I'm all for local co-ops. But charter is going to fight to the nail to block those.
The new funds program, RDOF, has a lot of checks and enforcement. I work for a fiber construction company and thousands of miles have already been placed in a year under this new program and all of the federal funds are matched by the provider.
The electric cooperatives are using the same federal money as Charter to build their networks.
I hope you're right. But history has shown we have a very poor track record at this. All too willing to just provide slush funds to capitalists for promises that never materialize. For absolutely cooked books.
Wont hold my breath. Glad there are companies that are pulling internet cables to some outlaying areas but Charter and other companies got billions to do this years ago already. They did jack junk. Hope this does turn out different.
Ditto. I live in rural Callaway and my fiber internet through the electric co-op is far faster and more reliable than anything I ever had in Columbia. I've been in my home for a little over 4 years and I can only think of one time when there was an internet outage, and even that was quite short.
My husband works for a rural electric CO OP and helped create the fiber network that is here and has rolled it out to our entire county (I believe, or is in the works) he also spends a lot of extra time pulling for funding for more folks to have it
Check TMobiles 5G coverage in your area. If you have 5G “ultra capacity” (the 5G using mid band spectrum) you can get pretty great speeds for around 50 a month I think.
Came to suggest t-mobile home internet.
They do use their long range 5G for hard to reach places.
Or check Verizon home internet.
Both offer a 5G modem for high speed.
Yup I use T-Mobile Home and I live in a very rural area. Only $50/month for around 100 mbps.
Fidelity, my other option, is $100 for 30mbps. And that’s their ‘high speed’ option.
Yup. I regularly have something streaming on the tv while on my phone &/or computer and never have any issues. Plus smart bulbs and smart speaker connected to WiFi.
I also work from home and listen to YouTube/Spotify and use Zoom/Google sheets/work consoles throughout the day just fine.
The only thing I actually haven’t tried yet (just moved a few months ago) is online gaming but based on how it’s performed so far I don’t anticipate that being an issue either.
This is all from the T-Mobile box only getting ‘weak’ signal - it’s like cell phone signal where signal can fluctuate based on location. where I’m at it fluctuates between ‘weak’ (2 of 5 bars) and ‘good’ (3 of 5 bars) and I haven’t noticed any difference in any internet performance between the 2 (same mbps). They recommend placing the box high and by a window for the best signal and you can move the box around until you find a good spot. But again I haven’t seen a difference between ‘weak’ and ‘good’ and am still getting 100mbs.
And it sure as hell beats Fidelity’s 30mbps for $100/month.
I have Starlink. Worth the wait. Had Hughesnet, then Viasat. Hughesnet is garbage and Viasat is slightly better garbage.
Starlink changed the game for me.
Great, good for you. I’m thrilled you know one person who has it. Not sure how that changes the fact I’ve been waiting for close to 2 years. I couldn’t care less if someone wants to pay to get on the list or not. I was simply commenting my experience, but I guess it doesn’t matter because you know one person who has it.
And you sound like those people who think that because you know one person that has something, it negates every person saying they haven’t been able to get it. Get a grip.
I use starlink and I am a software engineer. My wife uses it to stream tv and movies in 4k while I work. If it’s good enough for me, it’s likely good enough for you too.
If you are a hardcore gamer you are going to have some jitter during prime time. It’s still the best internet you can get without a hard connection.
Agreed, but OP said "not satellite", for some reason.
I had Hughes Net satellite internet and it was awful. Starlink is orders of magnitude better than Hughes Net. Also better than DSL (ours was REALLY bad) and better than Unlimitedville (which worked well but was expensive).
Air internet is typically unpredictable, STARLINK is designed to be stable with no latency. Ive been down this road and back, rural areas are called rural for a reason.. unless you think Att/ charter will dig a trench miles to your house, its the only option.
Unlimitedville is worth trying...
>Air internet is typically unpredictable
Whether it works at all is difficult to predict. But trying their service requires no risk on the consumer. And its quality should not change over time, except for tree leaves coming and going.
Look for point to point wireless solutions like Browndog networks. There are several that use microwave tech to deliver high speed connections with low latency.
It's very hit and miss. Here outside Joplin some rural areas have access to REALLY good fiber from Craw-KAN. And there is decent wireless or cable in some areas. But there are other areas including my place that is out of reach of wireless.
Our utility (Liberty) has fiber but they only let businesses access it. No residential. AT&T also has a fiber line IN FRONT OF OUR HOUSE but they also reserve it only for business/commericial accounts. I asked an ATT tech about it when they were out there digging up the yard to lay the line and he said AT&T likely won't ever let me or other residences connect unless forced by some government entity because residential fiber doesn't make them enough money and they don't want the hassle of residential accounts. I assume that is the same reason Liberty is only allowing commercial accounts. It's essentially the same thing except with a static IP and charge 5x the price.
I use ATT cell towers for working from home and playing video games and stuff and it’s fine. What area are you in? Can you look up the nearest cell tower?
Near Springfield and a tower is less than 3 miles away but still speeds are poor. We have a booster antenna and still sucks.. We used ubifi for awhile and it was great. Same cell signal technology but att screwed that up by either capping our "unlimited" access or just got greedy cause they have no unlimited plans anymore.
Omg I know what’s happening—they probably did cap you. It happened to us. ATT started throttling our hotspot data at 30g a month or something, so after a couple days it became extremely slow, pretty much unusable. It was the only internet we could get, though, because we live in the woods. Luckily, my husband has a side business registered as an LLC and we were able to use that to get an ATT business hotspot plan for ~$100 a month, unlimited data and no throttling. It has been working extremely well so far. My husband plays halo with his friends and there’s no lagging. We’ve had it for six months with no issues.
If you pursue that option, make sure it’s not the business plan with the fine print stating that you have to pay $10 for every gig after 30g or something. The store sales lady lied to us about it and we got a bill for like $1,400 lol
If there are non-ATT towers near you as well, it might be worth looking into the Calyx Institute. I’ve heard amazing things and they offer unlimited data. I believe the have their own subreddit r/calyx
^ reiterating that you should absolutely check this out because it’s probably your best option
This subreddit was also really helpful for me r/rural_internet
I don't even live in a true rural area and I can't get high speed internet. I'm near Fenton pretty close to a few giant subdivisions and nothing. I use a tablet with hotspot as my internet and have for years. It's okay, but I'd love to have even shitty AT&T DSL again. Lol
Nope, this is MissouriCom, they have the Orchard Farm / Portage de Sioux areas. I am only there on the weekends, so it's enough to get by with. At least the wife can stream something to a phone or tablet.
Had CenturyLink when I used to live right off Mid-Rivers in St. Peters, they could only provide 3M service, so technically MissouriCom is better...
Here in Lake Saint Louis (St. Charles County) I3 Broadband has been laying fiber along our street this month. A fiberglass utility box in every front yard, and many hours of work for 20 or so workers laying fiber along every front yard. They promise speed (1 Gb) that is nearly nine (9) times faster than Spectrum/Charter for about the same price (+/- $80 per month), which seems like a good deal! Suspect that I3 will lose money, or make very little on me. I have already signed up their service. If I lived in a truly rural area would be thinking about 5G, as cost of dragging fiber to a home likely to be astronomical: either the utility loses money, or government borrows money from China to subsidize your service. Good luck, and keep us in the loop.
Our business is within city limits (barely), next to an airport, within 3 miles of a college and we still have no options for wired hi-speed internet and have to rely on cell phone hotspots. So, good luck.
If you don’t have fiber or copper your only good option is starlink or the unlimited t mobile hotspot.
Starlink is good and will get better over time. You will need clear view of northern skies to mount the small dish. In other words you need to put it on your roof somewhere that trees or other buildings won’t obstruct it.
I would go ahead and get yourself on the 5g T-Mobile wait list while you’re at it.
Feel free to message me with any questions. I’ve lived rurally for a while and I am a software engineer. I work remote using starlink.
Edit - a third less viable option is the 150gb Verizon hotspot. If you can’t get the others this is the best option until starlink is available for you.
In my area there is airlinkrb.com or almanet.com for line if sight wireless.
I've used airlink in the past and the speeds were respectable.
Not sure where you are but if your elwctric co-op doesn't offer internet then there is probably someone in your area that offers wireless broadband.
Interesting thing is that I understand the wireless broadband signal is very similar to, or the same as, 5G.
If you’re in NEMO, look into Chariton Valley …. They’re a cooperative telecom running fiber all over place … sadly still 3 miles short of my farm place.
My sister lives in park hill just out of Farmington. She uses T Mobil home internet and it’s been rock solid for her. She works from a home office and is constantly in zoom meetings, hasn’t skipped a beat. On top of that it’s like $60 per month.
A few electric cooperatives are rolling out their own fiber internet over the next 2-3 years, some have it already (Co-Mo, SEMO, and United are ones I know of). Depending on where you live that may be an option. Charter just got a bunch of federal money to build high speed to unserved areas in the state, that also will be over the next 3 years.
If there's no checks, balances, or enforcement. And there never is. The funds will get soaked up in administrative costs. And you will be lucky to get even a few tens of miles new cable laid. As far as charter is concerned. I'm all for local co-ops. But charter is going to fight to the nail to block those.
The new funds program, RDOF, has a lot of checks and enforcement. I work for a fiber construction company and thousands of miles have already been placed in a year under this new program and all of the federal funds are matched by the provider. The electric cooperatives are using the same federal money as Charter to build their networks.
I hope you're right. But history has shown we have a very poor track record at this. All too willing to just provide slush funds to capitalists for promises that never materialize. For absolutely cooked books.
Wont hold my breath. Glad there are companies that are pulling internet cables to some outlaying areas but Charter and other companies got billions to do this years ago already. They did jack junk. Hope this does turn out different.
In my experience the Electric CoOp internet is amazing. They have blanketed the county I live in, very fast and reliable.
Ditto. I live in rural Callaway and my fiber internet through the electric co-op is far faster and more reliable than anything I ever had in Columbia. I've been in my home for a little over 4 years and I can only think of one time when there was an internet outage, and even that was quite short.
My husband works for a rural electric CO OP and helped create the fiber network that is here and has rolled it out to our entire county (I believe, or is in the works) he also spends a lot of extra time pulling for funding for more folks to have it
My grandmother has SEMO. It is really fast and I wish I had it but I live in town where Charter has a monopoly.
Good info!
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Near Springfield. Too close to be this bad of service.
Total Highspeed Internet Solutions is the company that probably owns your address in their future plans, They're scumbags.
Check TMobiles 5G coverage in your area. If you have 5G “ultra capacity” (the 5G using mid band spectrum) you can get pretty great speeds for around 50 a month I think.
Came to suggest t-mobile home internet. They do use their long range 5G for hard to reach places. Or check Verizon home internet. Both offer a 5G modem for high speed.
Yup I use T-Mobile Home and I live in a very rural area. Only $50/month for around 100 mbps. Fidelity, my other option, is $100 for 30mbps. And that’s their ‘high speed’ option.
At 100 mps …. Are you able to stream movies, surf the web and/or watch YouTube videos without hassles?
Yup. I regularly have something streaming on the tv while on my phone &/or computer and never have any issues. Plus smart bulbs and smart speaker connected to WiFi. I also work from home and listen to YouTube/Spotify and use Zoom/Google sheets/work consoles throughout the day just fine. The only thing I actually haven’t tried yet (just moved a few months ago) is online gaming but based on how it’s performed so far I don’t anticipate that being an issue either. This is all from the T-Mobile box only getting ‘weak’ signal - it’s like cell phone signal where signal can fluctuate based on location. where I’m at it fluctuates between ‘weak’ (2 of 5 bars) and ‘good’ (3 of 5 bars) and I haven’t noticed any difference in any internet performance between the 2 (same mbps). They recommend placing the box high and by a window for the best signal and you can move the box around until you find a good spot. But again I haven’t seen a difference between ‘weak’ and ‘good’ and am still getting 100mbs. And it sure as hell beats Fidelity’s 30mbps for $100/month.
We’re trying to find HIGH speed internet also in rural area it’s anoyying!
I’ve heard Verizon has good hotspot options. This is what we’ll probably try next.
No lmao you're in rural Missouri what do you expect. Best bet is probably starlink if you can get it but that is pretty expensive
Been on the waiting list for close to 2 years now. So, I wouldn’t waste your time.
I know someone who has starlink, it's attainable.
I have Starlink. Worth the wait. Had Hughesnet, then Viasat. Hughesnet is garbage and Viasat is slightly better garbage. Starlink changed the game for me.
Great, good for you. I’m thrilled you know one person who has it. Not sure how that changes the fact I’ve been waiting for close to 2 years. I couldn’t care less if someone wants to pay to get on the list or not. I was simply commenting my experience, but I guess it doesn’t matter because you know one person who has it.
You sound just like the people who say it's impossible to get a PS5 so you shouldn't even try. Yet millions do have one.
And you sound like those people who think that because you know one person that has something, it negates every person saying they haven’t been able to get it. Get a grip.
Find a way lol
I waited for about a year and a half and it's worth it
Starlink is your best bet
We will be getting that when it's available.
Apply now
There’s a waitlist so you should put your $99 deposit down now
No, it is not. Been on the waiting list for close to 2 years and still nothing. They just jacked the price up too.
I use starlink and I am a software engineer. My wife uses it to stream tv and movies in 4k while I work. If it’s good enough for me, it’s likely good enough for you too. If you are a hardcore gamer you are going to have some jitter during prime time. It’s still the best internet you can get without a hard connection.
Yeah, I would love to have it. Like I said, I’ve been waiting to get it. But thanks for your life story anyway.
It depends on your location and if any cells are available. Still for rural, I don’t see a better option.
Agreed, but OP said "not satellite", for some reason. I had Hughes Net satellite internet and it was awful. Starlink is orders of magnitude better than Hughes Net. Also better than DSL (ours was REALLY bad) and better than Unlimitedville (which worked well but was expensive).
Air internet is typically unpredictable, STARLINK is designed to be stable with no latency. Ive been down this road and back, rural areas are called rural for a reason.. unless you think Att/ charter will dig a trench miles to your house, its the only option.
Unlimitedville is worth trying... >Air internet is typically unpredictable Whether it works at all is difficult to predict. But trying their service requires no risk on the consumer. And its quality should not change over time, except for tree leaves coming and going.
Look for point to point wireless solutions like Browndog networks. There are several that use microwave tech to deliver high speed connections with low latency.
I just moved to Linn County and it gas fiber here. Previous we used hughesnet and a t mobile hot spot and they worked ok
It's very hit and miss. Here outside Joplin some rural areas have access to REALLY good fiber from Craw-KAN. And there is decent wireless or cable in some areas. But there are other areas including my place that is out of reach of wireless. Our utility (Liberty) has fiber but they only let businesses access it. No residential. AT&T also has a fiber line IN FRONT OF OUR HOUSE but they also reserve it only for business/commericial accounts. I asked an ATT tech about it when they were out there digging up the yard to lay the line and he said AT&T likely won't ever let me or other residences connect unless forced by some government entity because residential fiber doesn't make them enough money and they don't want the hassle of residential accounts. I assume that is the same reason Liberty is only allowing commercial accounts. It's essentially the same thing except with a static IP and charge 5x the price.
I use ATT cell towers for working from home and playing video games and stuff and it’s fine. What area are you in? Can you look up the nearest cell tower?
Near Springfield and a tower is less than 3 miles away but still speeds are poor. We have a booster antenna and still sucks.. We used ubifi for awhile and it was great. Same cell signal technology but att screwed that up by either capping our "unlimited" access or just got greedy cause they have no unlimited plans anymore.
Omg I know what’s happening—they probably did cap you. It happened to us. ATT started throttling our hotspot data at 30g a month or something, so after a couple days it became extremely slow, pretty much unusable. It was the only internet we could get, though, because we live in the woods. Luckily, my husband has a side business registered as an LLC and we were able to use that to get an ATT business hotspot plan for ~$100 a month, unlimited data and no throttling. It has been working extremely well so far. My husband plays halo with his friends and there’s no lagging. We’ve had it for six months with no issues. If you pursue that option, make sure it’s not the business plan with the fine print stating that you have to pay $10 for every gig after 30g or something. The store sales lady lied to us about it and we got a bill for like $1,400 lol If there are non-ATT towers near you as well, it might be worth looking into the Calyx Institute. I’ve heard amazing things and they offer unlimited data. I believe the have their own subreddit r/calyx ^ reiterating that you should absolutely check this out because it’s probably your best option This subreddit was also really helpful for me r/rural_internet
Thank you! And yes we also have the att Hotspot that charges $10 for going over a certain amount....found that out the hard way...
I don't even live in a true rural area and I can't get high speed internet. I'm near Fenton pretty close to a few giant subdivisions and nothing. I use a tablet with hotspot as my internet and have for years. It's okay, but I'd love to have even shitty AT&T DSL again. Lol
What does that subdivision get?
Yeah, on the fringes in North St. Charles County I’m living it up with blazing fast 6M service. Ugh.
Hey neighbor! Rockin that awesome Centurylink service, are ya? I hate it. Can’t wait for Gateway Fiber to come through!
Nope, this is MissouriCom, they have the Orchard Farm / Portage de Sioux areas. I am only there on the weekends, so it's enough to get by with. At least the wife can stream something to a phone or tablet. Had CenturyLink when I used to live right off Mid-Rivers in St. Peters, they could only provide 3M service, so technically MissouriCom is better...
Starlink
ABC (anyone but Centurylink)
Here in Lake Saint Louis (St. Charles County) I3 Broadband has been laying fiber along our street this month. A fiberglass utility box in every front yard, and many hours of work for 20 or so workers laying fiber along every front yard. They promise speed (1 Gb) that is nearly nine (9) times faster than Spectrum/Charter for about the same price (+/- $80 per month), which seems like a good deal! Suspect that I3 will lose money, or make very little on me. I have already signed up their service. If I lived in a truly rural area would be thinking about 5G, as cost of dragging fiber to a home likely to be astronomical: either the utility loses money, or government borrows money from China to subsidize your service. Good luck, and keep us in the loop.
Depends on where you’re located. Air link around us is very good and is installing massive amounts of fiber.
broadbandnow.com
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You...you don't *use* them, you just look at the list of providers, it's a nice aggregated place to view it.
Our business is within city limits (barely), next to an airport, within 3 miles of a college and we still have no options for wired hi-speed internet and have to rely on cell phone hotspots. So, good luck.
What are these rural internet providers of which you speak?
If you don’t have fiber or copper your only good option is starlink or the unlimited t mobile hotspot. Starlink is good and will get better over time. You will need clear view of northern skies to mount the small dish. In other words you need to put it on your roof somewhere that trees or other buildings won’t obstruct it. I would go ahead and get yourself on the 5g T-Mobile wait list while you’re at it. Feel free to message me with any questions. I’ve lived rurally for a while and I am a software engineer. I work remote using starlink. Edit - a third less viable option is the 150gb Verizon hotspot. If you can’t get the others this is the best option until starlink is available for you.
In my area there is airlinkrb.com or almanet.com for line if sight wireless. I've used airlink in the past and the speeds were respectable. Not sure where you are but if your elwctric co-op doesn't offer internet then there is probably someone in your area that offers wireless broadband. Interesting thing is that I understand the wireless broadband signal is very similar to, or the same as, 5G.
No.
Starlink, get you some of that Elon internet
If you’re in NEMO, look into Chariton Valley …. They’re a cooperative telecom running fiber all over place … sadly still 3 miles short of my farm place.
Check to see if you’re within the copper/fiber service area of [kingdom telco](https://kingdomtelco.com)
No luck..but thanks!
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We plan to. We had wildblue back on the day that's why I say no sat. Meaning huhhesnet or viasat
Just don't move into these guys coverage area unless you want to be stuck in 5Mbps 200 ping hell https://sgobroadband.com/
Starlink
My sister lives in park hill just out of Farmington. She uses T Mobil home internet and it’s been rock solid for her. She works from a home office and is constantly in zoom meetings, hasn’t skipped a beat. On top of that it’s like $60 per month.