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Background
Internet access in rural areas is a problem. While we have made significant improvements since the days of dial-up, it seems that progress has stalled. The big telecommunications companies aren't interested in investing in areas where they can't make a significant profit. We're left with options that just aren't good enough anymore.
Current Options
Right now, rural areas are stuck with few alternatives:
- DSL with speeds that max out at 6 mbps if you're lucky enough to have that option
- Satellite with awfully small data caps and poor reliability in bad weather
- Cellular service with even smaller data caps unless you're willing to pay dearly for enough data
Emerging Technology
A couple of new advancements are somewhat promising.
AT&T has recently started offering fixed wireless in a few areas. This is basically a variation on cellular hotspots that relies on LTE coverage. A lot of people in this area have trouble having enough signal to even make phone calls with AT&T, so relying on that service to stream video to all the devices in the home just doesn't seem practical. There are other limitations to this service as well. AT&T's site claims that "Services like Web hosting or hosted services such as camera, gaming server, peer-to-peer, etc., that require static IP address are not supported by AT&T Fixed Wireless Internet. AT&T Fixed Wireless Internet may not be compatible with DVR/Satellite systems."
C-Spire has started rolling out 5G access to several towns as well, including Quitman. The problem with 5G is that the signal does not travel very far and relies on line-of-sight between your home and the access point. That's perfectly fine if you're in a relatively dense neighborhood in town, but if you have more than 2-3 trees between your house and Quitman, you're out of luck.
Possible Solutions
In my quest for a better internet connection, I tossed around a few ideas and did some investigation. My first idea was to go with the WISP (wireless internet service provider) model. I bought an access point and a few antennas just to see how far I could go through the trees. Unfortunately, my tests weren't very promising. Here's the access point at 40 ft. in the air via my ghetto tower:
However, I couldn't even get a signal through 500 ft. of trees to my brother's house.
So how about going over the top of the trees? A legitimate (and expensive) tower would put that at 150-200 ft. Let's see what's up there.
Oh, look...more trees. (Side note: it took about an hour to upload that 45-second video with my blazing fast 0.5 mbps upload speed) Nothing but trees and the occasional water tower and cell tower. Staying over the trees to facilitate a reliable wireless signal would require a fairly high tower at each home, which is unsightly, not to mention prohibitively expensive.
Well, that leaves pretty much one option: fiber optic cable. Fiber optics can deliver practically limitless bandwidth over extreme distances. However, it comes with its own set of challenges. The equipment required to build out fiber networks is expensive, so it will require a lot of investment up front. In addition to high cost, actually getting the fiber in the ground or hanging on poles is probably the most difficult task. I don't know anything at all about getting right-of-way access to bury cable along county roads. I do know about how much it costs to hang on EMEPA's power poles...a lot.
However daunting, it's still possible. It has been done on much larger scales in England by B4RN. They have lots of interesting and inspiring YouTube videos that document their progress. I believe if we can get enough people in the community on board, we can accomplish something similar.
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