Is the internet in CDA really that bad? (Post Falls, Mullan: to rent, house)

[blockzilla]

Hi, I've read some comments on here and heard from some folks that internet service can range from terrible to nonexistent in many parts of CDA. Are there really no good options or good ways to tell if a potential area would have reasonable service?

I would be working from home so while I wouldn't need blazing speeds, data caps definitely would be an issue sending and receiving emails and large attachments all day long.

We're so far focused on the areas south of town (Cougar Gulch, Mullan Trail, Fernan Lake areas) for ease of commute reasons for my wife, but have heard that this area in particular can be difficult to get reasonable internet service. Is satellite not even an option?

Thanks!

[Dmmhc]

Yes. It is that bad, akin to dial up at times. Changes depending on where you are. I don’t even have T-Mobile cell service around Riverstone. When I go out of state I am amazed at the instant click speeds. When you call the internet providers here, they tell you to just buy the lowest level because the lines do not support the speeds of the higher packages and you are wasting money.

[Dmmhc]

Just did a speed test here at the Kroc Center, Download 4.40 mbps, Upload 1.69 mbps

[Cnynrat]

Satellite Internet from one supplier or another is available everywhere in north Idaho. You may or may not be happy with that level of performance. The last time I checked ViaSat's Excede (sp?) wasn't available here, but DishNet and HughesNet are available.

Dave

[blockzilla]

Originally Posted by Cnynrat

Satellite Internet from one supplier or another is available everywhere in north Idaho. You may or may not be happy with that level of performance. The last time I checked ViaSat's Excede (sp?) wasn't available here, but DishNet and HughesNet are available.

Dave

Thanks! One person I was talking to said that levels of service could depend on your location and look angle in relation to the local mountains. I had assumed they were referring to satellite availability, but I'm not sure how things are set up there, i suppose they could have been referring to having a wireless link to a tower up on a mountain which would then plug you into the terrestrial network.

What's the scoop on why the terrestrial service is subpar? Seems like almost everywhere, even much smaller and more remote areas than CDA nowadays have a lot of fiber run every which way into the big ISPs. Is is something unique to the terrain or location that is a limiting factor in getting a bigger pipe to an ISP?

[Dmmhc]

Originally Posted by blockzilla

What's the scoop on why the terrestrial service is subpar? Seems like almost everywhere, even much smaller and more remote areas than CDA nowadays have a lot of fiber run every which way into the big ISPs. Is is something unique to the terrain or location that is a limiting factor in getting a bigger pipe to an ISP?

I would love to know the answer to this! My parents live in the middle of nowhere in a tiny town and have awesome internet speeds. Internet connections and speeds are a constant battle here. Don’t know why.

[Clark Fork Fantast]

If you look up previous threads on the subject, our former moderator Sage of Sagle used to post about a high-speed cable system he had installed. I can't remember what it was called. Sage used to say it was expensive, but worth the money if you need it for professional reasons.

[Cnynrat]

There could be some extreme examples where a particular location might have compromised satellite visibility, but I don't think that's too common. It's probably not uncommon to have to take a tree or three out to get better line of sight to a satellite. The satellites being used today are all located directly above the equator, so even though they are 23,000 miles above the earth, at this latitude the look angle is fairly shallow.

There are a few terrestrial microwave Internet providers in north Idaho (Air Pipe, Intermax to name two). They install towers on top of nearby mountains, and you do need line of sight visibility to a tower to get one of these services, so availability is heavily dependent on local terrain and tree cover. I suspect that might be what you are hearing about.

Sage had a T1 line installed out to his place. The phone company will do this for you if you want, but the speeds aren't that great, and the cost is quite high. A T1 line runs at 1.54 Mbps in both directions. The benefit of a T1 line is it's private, so unlike any of the other access technologies you are not sharing the line with any of your neighbors, at least as far back as the phone companies central office. All other Internet access technologies - cable, DSL, fiber to the home, satellite, terrestrial microwave, 4G cellular - involve sharing a fixed resource among a group of users at some level. We briefly considered getting one run to our house in Sagle so my wife could work from home, and it turned out to be cheaper to rent a small office in town and pay for phone & Internet there. I think it was going to be $4-500 per month, and I think there was a minimum commitment of 3 years. The cost is high because the phone company is actually running a dedicated cable from your house to the phone company's central office.

It is possible that the connections between the phone company's central office, or the cable company, etc. may be limited in this area, but I have not heard that. I know there are major connections to the domestic Internet backbone in Spokane, and I think one of the telcos has one in Post Falls. That would imply that areas around CdA should have good connectivity, but I don't know how we get connectivity in areas further north.

Dave

[javatom]

Cable speed today - 37 mbps down and 3.15 up. Occasionally it stops completely. Cable experts tell me that is caused from too many people on the same node (whatever that is).

[redwood66]

I am usually 4-18 mbps down (sometimes can get 26-30 at off times) with 5-8+ up on my ATT stand alone hotspot with unlimited data. We actually have 4 of them in our house, plus 4 ATT phones. This speed allows online gaming and Netflix streaming with no problems. Yes our bill is pretty expensive but my sons who are in college can take the hotspots wherever they need them and so can we if we go on vacation. There is nothing available on our road except 1.5 mbps Frontier DSL and it is too expensive to pay for that slow speed. Satellite is not as fast and more expensive.