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Well, it should not be too surprising..... It costs a lot of money with low return to run lines out for just a few customers in a relatively rural area. Cable companies are not under obligations to provide universal service like electric and traditional telco utilities have been for a long time.
I know, but I'm not from here. I last lived in Massachusetts and am from New Jersey.
I really hope we get Starlink here. To be clear I mean the Beta.
Consolidated has been way less than desirable. We were promised a bonded 15/1 line when we moved in, took them over a month to get out here and they were only able to provide a single 7/1 line. In 2020 this is absolutely, completely unacceptable and isn't even high speed internet.
Thanks for all that input. I'm headed to Maine today, as a matter of fact, and plan to explore my options while I'm up there for a few days for the closing.
I do have another question: Anyone here use a "hotspot" phone or device to run your internet? There are a plethroa of options including Verizon. I've tethered my phone to my computer in the past. Now it's a "thing" and looks really interesting.
I do have another question: Anyone here use a "hotspot" phone or device to run your internet? There are a plethroa of options including Verizon. I've tethered my phone to my computer in the past. Now it's a "thing" and looks really interesting.
I have, but a lot depends on your distance to a cell tower and the mode you can get (1xEVDO, 3G, 4G LTE, etc.) Plus you have to consider your data plan and whether they will charge you extra for exceeding it or just throttle your speed.
In many cases, DSL, Cable or WiFi such as RedZone will be a better choice. On occasions when I've tethered my phone, it has always been slower. Plus, I generally tend to use a lot of data at home and I could easily exceed my data plan, so I have to be careful in my usage. So many sites pushing advertisements and javascript can eat up the data allotment too.
Cell coverage is iffy here, even though I'm only three miles from Rt. 95. If my guess about Searsmont is correct, based on my travels near the area, cell coverage may be an issue, but I couldn't say for sure. You'll find out real fast when you get here.
I have used my iPhone as a personal hotspot when I couldn't get internet any other way. It's okay in a pinch, but like Zymer said, it was clearly slower than my WiFi at home or at the office, barely adequate. Now I don't know what the performance of a purpose-built 4G cellular hotspot is... the 5G ones will probably be great, but my understanding is that 5G isn't available in most of the country yet?
P.S. RedZone internet is apparently provided via a 4G cellular network, and it sounds like a good deal, anyway ($40/mo)
Hm, according to this 2019 article, Redzone is based in Rockland, is rapidly expanding, and offers something they are calling 5GX, that is not a true 5G system, but is pretty fast, at least 25 Mbps download speeds. If you go with it, I will be curious to see how it works out.
I have been using a phone or other device as a hotspot for about 10 years in my work travels. It works just so-so with 3G CDMA (EVDO) with at least 2 bars. It can be decently fast if you have at least 2-3 bars of 4GLTE. But 'fast' is based on what you compare it to. It is not fast compared to fiber but is indeed fast compared to ADSL. And the local cell site loading will determine your speed; if there are a lot of users, then speed will slow.
As noted, if you use too much data with a basic plan, you will be dumped down to 3G in most cases for the rest of your plan month, and your speeds will slow a lot. So be sure you have a good plan for this and at least 2-3 bars of 4GLTE minimum for any worthwhile speed at all. Even with a higher level plan, you can be dumped to a slow speed if you use too much data.
On that note, the new satellites will eventually get loaded too and the initial speeds will slow with more users. Those new satellite networks have a lot more channel bandwidth, but you can only put up so many of them...
As to the above post, yes, be alert to the terms like '5Gx'; things like that are never true 5G. AT&T used the term '4G' to describe a higher speed variant on their wideband CDMA technology some years ago and got slapped down by the FCC. With 5G, it is even more confusing as the 5G standard is a family of wireless data link technologies; 4GLTE actually survives into the 5G family with some modifications as the way to have decent data speeds in the rural areas with the present widespread tower setup.
Real 5G may never get past the far suburban type of densities; the level of cost to deploy it is pretty high. It is not in the technology but in the need to put up lots and lots of 5G base stations to get to high user densities at competitively high speeds. That requires lots and lots more backhaul paths (fiber connections) to all the small base stations and blows apart the traditional financial model in the cellular world of leased lines to each base station. They are, in many areas essentially, building out new and separate networks for this, and it is a much higher level of capital investment. Hence, it is gonna be sloooow to really get 5G out there.
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