Internet and televson options for small town Texas

[fizteach]

OK guys. Moving from Dallas to Campbell, Texas is going to be great, but for one issue. What do you country techies use for high speed internet in the country? We will probably go DIsh for tv, but their download speeds are only about 5 mbs. I would like to find something faster that won't break the bank.

Any thoughts?

[nightmare69]

OK guys. Moving from Dallas to Campbell, Texas is going to be great, but for one issue. What do you country techies use for high speed internet in the country? We will probably go DIsh for tv, but their download speeds are only about 5 mbs. I would like to find something faster that won't break the bank.

Any thoughts?

Satellite is the only option I know of for high speed. The have different packages with different speeds.

[puma guy]

Being in the big city isn't all that better. Uverse in my neighborhood barely lights up the wire - as in .7 after they tested it. Comcast is really the only alternative and the "high speed" ISP I pay them for averages about 5-6bps even though they advertise minimum of 12 and that's what I pay for. Being it's network setup and I'm on the end of the line it's often extremely poor. At times I can't even watch a streaming movie on Netflix w/o constant (every 15 seconds) freezes/ re-buffering. I've never tried satellite service.

[JALLEN]

I just signed up with Guadalupe Valley Telephone Coop this afternoon for cable, internet and telephone service at our new home. It is north of New Braunfels, about 5 miles up FM306, and Time Warner, our current provider, has no service there. It is semi-rural. The current occupant has Dish Network, GVTC telephone and internet. I signed up for 8MBs and for an extra $15/mo can go to 12MBs, and as high as something like 80 MBs. It is on a fiber optic line. Since I will not be flying drone missions from my house, I thought I would try the 8MB service. The speed test here with Time Warner this afternoon ran 8.63MB download and about .75MBs upload.

[puma guy]

I just signed up with Guadalupe Valley Telephone Coop this afternoon for cable, internet and telephone service at our new home. It is north of New Braunfels, about 5 miles up FM306, and Time Warner, our current provider, has no service there. It is semi-rural. The current occupant has Dish Network, GVTC telephone and internet. I signed up for 8MBs and for an extra $15/mo can go to 12MBs, and as high as something like 80 MBs. It is on a fiber optic line. Since I will not be flying drone missions from my house, I thought I would try the 8MB service. The speed test here with Time Warner this afternoon ran 8.63MB download and about .75MBs upload.

I'm pretty sure that's who my daughter uses in Fischer. Haven't heard any complaints from them. They have "triple threat" service: Cable TV, ISP and phone.

[mojo84]

I just signed up with Guadalupe Valley Telephone Coop this afternoon for cable, internet and telephone service at our new home. It is north of New Braunfels, about 5 miles up FM306, and Time Warner, our current provider, has no service there. It is semi-rural. The current occupant has Dish Network, GVTC telephone and internet. I signed up for 8MBs and for an extra $15/mo can go to 12MBs, and as high as something like 80 MBs. It is on a fiber optic line. Since I will not be flying drone missions from my house, I thought I would try the 8MB service. The speed test here with Time Warner this afternoon ran 8.63MB download and about .75MBs upload.

I use GVTC 12mbs. It is fiber and well worth the few extra bucks. We use VOIP for our business line and the kids can be streaming Netflix and we do not notice much speed degradation on the internet.

I also use dish satellite. It's ok until the least little rain storm shows up.

[2farnorth]

Where I'm at we use Direct TV and have to use Verizon DSL for internet. We tried wireless internet but found it unreliable. Every time the wind would blow (every day) the antenna would move away from the tower.
The satellite companies out here are expensive and don't have a very good reputation. You pay for "UP TO" a certain speed but like my daughter found out you only get that speed in the wee hours of the morning.
Peoples Tel is laying a fibre optic cable through here (1/4 mile away) right now but from what I'm told we will have to be hooked up via wireless when they get it completed. At the moment I'm not signing up for anything that is going to cost more.
DSL is slow but it sure beats dial up.

[troglodyte]

We're on DishTV but, contrary to their commercial, cannot provide internet service to us. "The satellite is full in your area".
We found ERF Wireless Internet and it has been suitable. Not blazing but fine for what we do. Netflix and online gaming usually work fine unless we're all on at the same time. We're supposed to get moved to a closer tower and then things are supposed to be even better.

[jocat54]

I live in the sticks and have dish for tv and had Wildblue for internet service, until my phone company got dsl in our area, so use them now.
Wildblue was okay at the time, would use them again if I had to.

[Pawpaw]

Look for wireless internet providers that may serve your area. Here we have http://www.coolaccess.net and http://www.skybeam.com

They install a dish on your roof. Instead of pointing at a satellite, it points to a tower. I have a wireless router inside that services my computers and other gear.

I'm on SkyBeam with a 15 meg download speed. It cost about $65 per month with unlimited downloads.

For TV, there is no cable company that serves my street so I'm on DirecTV.

[strider67]

I also have the SkyBeam and DirecTV setup, just like Pawpaw and it serves my purpose well.

The only complaint I have is that I probably don't have as many 1911's as him...

[RottenApple]

The only complaint I have is that I probably don't have as many 1911's as him...

Funnily enough, I've got the EXACT same complaint!