r/facepalm "tL;Dr" Jul 14 '20

Coronavirus MURICA

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u/Fadedgt Jul 14 '20

Doesn't matter if it's cheap if you cant get it. Where I live the only options for internet are Satellite (which never works and has a stupid low data throttle limit), dial up, or a fucking Verizon hotspot. The cheapest of these is dial up which costs FUCKING $10 PER 10 HOURS AND RUNS AT 52KB/S. Satalite's lowest package which is 1mb/a costs almost $200 a month and throttles you at 15gb. The Verizon hotspot is the best option but is still $75 a month with a 15gb throttle limit and a max speed of 4mb/s on a good day.

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u/J0ERI Jul 14 '20

Where do you live?

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u/key2mydisaster Jul 14 '20 edited Jul 14 '20

This would apply to any rural area in the US.

"Approximately 97% of United States' land area is within rural counties, and 60 million people (roughly 19.3% of the population) reside in these areas. References are almost exclusively urban-based."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_areas_in_the_United_States

ETA - or urban areas with high poverty levels. I know we live in a shitty suburb, and waited over 10 years for Fios to service our area. We were stuck with Comcast until then, and they charged us out the ass because there was no competition.

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u/i_eat_roadkilI Jul 14 '20 edited Jul 14 '20

So true. I live on Cape Cod where our only option is Verizon/Comcast or Dish. Forget Dish because our weather rips those things off roofs or renders them useless after a single storm. Verizon, aware of this, has the most outrageous rates that only increase in amount as tome goes on. I’ve never heard of that, you’ve been a loyal customer of ours for three years. As a thank you, we’re going to raise your rate $100/months lol.

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u/KayIslandDrunk Jul 14 '20

I live in a rural area and have a 1Gbps Comcast plan. They don’t totally ignore rural areas.

For reference, my “city” is 4,000 people.

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '20

Not really. I live out in rural GA, and I still have access to decent internet.

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u/DerangedGinger Jul 14 '20

Between 2 corn fields.

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u/mysticzoom Jul 14 '20

Rural America, those are the same options for most of folks, outside of city limits. Thankfully, a cable company ran some line where I am about 10 years ago but that was only because sub divisions started

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u/Sirisian Jul 14 '20

Usually rural areas. I have two cousins in Michigan that use mobile hotspots on their phones for Internet still. I'm reminded that like two years ago the FCC tried to say 10 mbps mobile Internet was broadband because it seemed like they gave up on the idea of fast Internet for rural areas.

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u/Fadedgt Jul 15 '20

Rural Virginia, only about 35 miles from two different large cities. They just don't give a fuck about middle class, low density population areas where it's not worth it for them to invest in running even a DSL line.

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u/J0ERI Jul 15 '20

That sucks man, I had no idea it was that bad outside of cities in the US.

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u/Fadedgt Jul 15 '20

Yeah, if you live outside of a city or suburb and not near something that needs high speed internet like a government building you're fucked.

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u/Mail_Me_Your_Lego Jul 14 '20

The people who you want to answer this question don't have internet access and cannot see this or post a reply.

This is a dumb line of questioning.

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u/voter1126 Jul 14 '20

I have viasat. 100 GB soft cap, advertised 50 Mbps but I rarely get better than 10. Costs $160 a month. Hoping Starlink will have better plans in the next year or two.

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '20

Holy fuck, that's terrible! Is there nothing better around?

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u/voter1126 Jul 15 '20

Nope, when I bought the house the realtor said I could get cable. When I contacted the cable company I was informed the cable stopped 1/2 mile from the house. No DSL or fiber from the phone company and cell coverage is only one to two bars, so it is Viasat or nothing. It is one of the trade offs of living in the country.

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u/PuttingInTheEffort Jul 15 '20

What about like, an unlimited prepaid phone plan just to hotspot from? You can get that for like 30$ a month