Need fast/reliable internet for work: is country living in North Idaho out of the question for me? (home, movies)

[Cnynrat]

In general I agree with you Mike. That makes Ziply's claims all the more interesting because they say they plan to install fiber in most places that used to be served by Frontier.

I believe there is some federal money that can be used to improve Internet in rural areas, and it may be they think they can tap into that and that it makes the business case for them.

As I said, time will tell. Meanwhile, I'm not holding my breath.

Dave

[Shaner]

Hopefully two years this will not be a question anymore. I have gotten to play with 5g in spokane (It's only currently for enterprise accounts) and it is insane. 1gbits down and virtually no latency.

[Cnynrat]

We're still waiting for 3G where we live in Sagle ...

I'd like to think we'll get 5G someday, but it's actually harder to build out the infrastructure for 5G vs. all the earlier generations. The transmission range is much shorter, so many more base stations (e.g. towers) are required, and all those have to have high speed wired connection back to the net.

Dave

[banjomike]

I recall hearing the same about some federal aid for rural cable.

NID isn't the only part of the state where that's a problem; lots of areas down here lack it too, for the same reasons.

[nm9stheham]

Rural internet aid has been going on for a couple of decades now, and followed rural telephone programs that have existed for a long time. Here is the FCC's current blurb on that:
https://www.fcc.gov/about-fcc/fcc-in...-all-americans

[jimmybirdie]

You are most right, Starlink coverage starts from Seattle latitude and will move down south slowly as they have more satellites up there. Initial cost will be around $100/month and the cost will drop once they have more customers. Starlink will have 30,000 to 42,000 satellites. You can sign up to be on the waitlist now. After the next launch, SpaceX will have 600 satellites to provide internet service.

Originally Posted by Cavalry_Chief

Reviving this topic with relevant updates:

In case you haven't heard; SpaceX is about to launch their second rocket carrying Starlink satellites. Why is this relevant?

Starlink will be a constellation of 12,000 satellites over North America (42,000 worldwide) providing faster and more reliable internet. These satellites will be in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at approximately 340 miles above Earth. This altitude is significantly lower than previous internet satellites and will lower pings from 650ms to around 35ms. The speeds, both in response and bandwidth will be better than what is available with Hughes and ViaSat.

Once Starlink has enough satellites in orbit, residential customers will be able to have broadband internet regardless of traditional limiting factors. The first 60 satellites have been launched and tested, another 60 next week, then they expect 24 more launches in 2020. SpaceX is planning to have the Northern United States covered by mid-2020.

Cost is unknown at this time, but expected to be around $80 a month for service comparable to cable internet. No information is available on data caps, speed throttling or package tiers, but I am sure they will be leaking that out as the program progresses. As of now, the receiver/transmitter (commonly referred to as a "pizza box") will be all the hardware that is required for the homeowner.

Is this the answer for North Idaho internet woes? I say, eventually. Probably late 2020 is more realistic, but the thought of having broadband internet, regardless of how remote your property is, this is the dream many of us have been waiting for. One other thing that gives some hope to our situation; the Starlink program is ran from Washington state. I believe this will benefit North Idaho with coverage before other areas.

Also, OneWeb and Amazon's Kuiper systems are very similar and are being launched in 2020 as well, so competition will hopefully keep the prices down.

Let's keep are fingers crossed and hopefully have cheap, reliable and fast internet for all of us rural homesteaders.

[Cnynrat]

I saw a note on FB this morning that claimed they were setting up a Starlink test site just north of Sandpoint. I don't know if it's true as I haven't been able to find another source.

Dave

[Qurpque]

Originally Posted by Mister Torgue

Wow, that’s awesome. May I ask what the name of the ISP is and if there are any other ISPs with decent broadband speeds in that area?

Spectrum cable internet, formerly Time Warner.

[Mister Torgue]

Originally Posted by Qurpque

Spectrum cable internet, formerly Time Warner.

Thank you. We’ve got a decent amount saved up already so I’m going to start my search with the internet in mind first since we both work from home. We may end up buying property several months to a year before we relocate up there. Possibly as soon as by the end of this year.

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by Mister Torgue

Thank you. We’ve got a decent amount saved up already so I’m going to start my search with the internet in mind first since we both work from home. We may end up buying property several months to a year before we relocate up there. Possibly as soon as by the end of this year.

Cale internet is not available everywhere here. If you need high speed for your livelihood, you may have to limit your choices to where the cable is available.