Anyone use Broadband 3G/4G for home internet connection?

We are looking to purchase a house wayyyy off the beaten path, in North Carolina. No DSL, no cable. Other than using dialup (OUCH!) or the satellite internet provider(limited downloads), I thought I'd get a WLAN router (MBR1200) which has a port for a Broadband connection, for a 3G and/or 4G USB stick. Some of the 4G providers now have unlimited downloads for $60 a month, which I think is pretty reasonable.
Anyone doing this now?

Also, how would I find out if I get a good signal on the property before I buy the service and hardware? Yes, all the providers have those generic Maps-of-Coverage, but I would like to test the signal right on my property.

DVC500 at last wrote:We are looking to purchase a house wayyyy off the beaten path, in North Carolina

Hope all goes well for you, still a little to far north to be a snowbird Economic reasons ? I have been getting laid off now for the last 3 years over winter. Things GOT to getter better sometime

Sorry I can't help with the tech stuff ... but I'll tell ya, I sure wish I was moving there! My parents have been talking alot lately about buying a house down there. My father has been wanting to leave MA since he got out of the Navy in '62. I've been wanting to get out of MA since I learned to speak!

I'm sure the savings in property taxes alone vs. NJ sold you on the move! Best of luck to you. You'll be 50x better off.

AA130FIREMAN wrote:Hope all goes well for you, still a little to far north to be a snowbird Economic reasons ? I have been getting laid off now for the last 3 years over winter. Things GOT to getter better sometime

Yeh, I was laid off in 2008 and haven't had a job since. Watched my job get offshored to Mexico.
Can't afford the monthly house payments and taxes on wifey's salary, so have to sell the house before the bank takes it.
We'll get a nice small place down in NC where we don't need a huge salary to pay the taxes. My roots are in NC.

Don'r worry, we are taking the DVC-500 with us

SMITTY wrote:Sorry I can't help with the tech stuff ... but I'll tell ya, I sure wish I was moving there! My parents have been talking alot lately about buying a house down there. My father has been wanting to leave MA since he got out of the Navy in '62. I've been wanting to get out of MA since I learned to speak!
I'm sure the savings in property taxes alone vs. NJ sold you on the move! Best of luck to you. You'll be 50x better off.

Smiity, the place we are looking to buy has a 3 TT-bay concrete garage with roll-up doors & 12 foot ceilings, another 3 car garage/workshop, another 2 car workshop that I will use as our coal bin
22 acres of virgin, old-forest pine.
And the taxes will be 1/10th of what they are on this place in NJ!
This is a bad time to sell the house, but its a great time to buy a house, so it will be a wash for us.

AWESOME!!! Sounds ideal!!

I'll be waiting anxiously for the pics of the new homestead ...

I soon plan / hope to face a similar downsize to a technology dead zone. While I plan to keep a "room" in town during the week, Ill miss my TV on the weekend. AT&T U-verse® services would fit me very nicely - but not available yet - so I was thinking dish for both.

A hundred years ago I was using two modems to double the dial up speed from my ISP. Then dSL became available with in 1000 feet of a switch ( I qualified) and I could rule the on line gaming - that only lasted a few months before the world caught up.

so what do you think of dish?

Sting wrote:so what do you think of dish?

The Dish ISP provider isn't too bad. Alot of latency though, since the signal has to do a 19,000? mile round trip to the satelite, so not good for VOIP or gaming. They also have a download limit per month. Just one or two Microsoft upgrades could suck up the month's allotment of dowmloads. There are people on this forum who use it. Maybe one of them will give a personal opinion.

I see 4G as the up and coming technology to buy. They are still installing the xmiters countrywide, though, so make sure its in your area before ordering.

DVC, does that area have rural wireless broad band? I don't know exactly how to find out but a friend has this service. They live off the beaten path in VA. A few years ago, their area got this service. They have a directional antenna, the 'traditional' non disk type. What's this called - I'm guessing you already know?

VigIIPeaBurner wrote:DVC, does that area have rural wireless broad band? I don't know exactly how to find out but a friend has this service. They live off the beaten path in VA. A few years ago, their area got this service. They have a directional antenna, the 'traditional' non disk type. What's this called - I'm guessing you already know?

Yes, I haven't checked into that steup yet, but I'm sure they are available. The old-style directional antennas, pointing to a tower in the local town.
I would prefer the latest technology though. 4G is good enough for HDTV streaming, using non-directional antennas. We want to use it for our phone service (Voice-Over_IP), Internet connection, and TV-thru-internet. From what I have read, 4G handle that.

I have not found TV over the internet to my sanctification

What have you found?

The service I posted above claims to have it but???

My son has a "droid" phone - off base he can sink it to his laptop and since he is a legacy customer - his provider currently allows him unlimited use. But he also has a big monthly plan expense.

Thinking!

but lots can change by the time I am ready.

Some of the latest technology TVs are coming "Web-enabled" to allow browsing and even veiwing of content on websites such as Youtube. They are pricey, but available.
Don't want t oget a new TV just for web browsing? There are add-on components for viewing Web browsing content on your TV. I believe LogicTech is promoting one of them.
In the meantime, you can view sites like Hulu.com, FastPassTV.com, SurfTheChannel.com.
For no annoying pop-ups, try TV-Video.net
Probably hundreds more.

When theres a will, theres a way

Sting wrote:I have not found TV over the internet to my sanctification

Roku, http://www.roku.com/ internet streaming box, i have 2, subscribe to Netflix $8.99 and Hulu plus $9.99. Many more channels, most are free. http://www.roku-channels.com/home
I will be dropping cable soon, as of Jan 1st they are upping the price again of 300 channels of nothing.

Did anyone just see the tv series “gold rush: alaska” where they senselessly killed a juvenile bear

Do these links have shows like that

but my real question is that channel has more than this BS to offer

Couldn't miss it

DVC500 at last wrote:We are looking to purchase a house wayyyy off the beaten path, in North Carolina. No DSL, no cable. Other than using dialup (OUCH!) or the satellite internet provider(limited downloads), I thought I'd get a WLAN router (MBR1200) which has a port for a Broadband connection, for a 3G and/or 4G USB stick. Some of the 4G providers now have unlimited downloads for $60 a month, which I think is pretty reasonable.
Anyone doing this now?

Also, how would I find out if I get a good signal on the property before I buy the service and hardware? Yes, all the providers have those generic Maps-of-Coverage, but I would like to test the signal right on my property.

You need to find out what cellar companies have coverage for your new property. Ask locally of the cell phone providers. Get their coverage maps. Then borrow a high end cell phone for those carriers and use the phone as an instrument to measure the signal strength. My cell carrier is Verizon and on my cell phone is two sets of signal strength bars. 1X and 3G. 3G is the data network. Other carrier companies will have similar names and their high end phones will also have signal strength indicators.

Check with the local government economic development office. All states and counties have them. They will have data infrastructure information or know how to get it.

Understand the various cell companies future plans for upgrading the data infrastructure. A good start is their annual report to stockholders. Pay attention to the buzz words, 3G, 4G etc.

Many cell phone towers are not owned by the cell phone companies. They are owned by third parties and space is leased to cell companies and others. American Tower is the largest. They have a cell tower locator:

http://www.americantower.com/sitelocator/default.aspx

See if you can identify a tower near your new property. Then contact the tower owner and ask who has equipment on that tower. My closest American tower also has a local wireless internet service company on it. They offer always on 1.5 M-bit symmetric internet service for about $60 a month. They install a directional transceiver on your property. My local county has areas that are rural and will never have fiber, DSL or even cable TV. Local county government is building a fiber network backbone that will connect all the county government and school facilities together. In addition there will be a way for private companies to use lease the network for expanding service into areas that would never be served by existing companies. North Carolina has high tech areas and a state government in tune with high tech development. You might be pleasantly surprised at what might be available. Approach them as if you had a business need.