IT Professionals

Why Is Broadband Still Lagging Behind?

Posted by on Mar 10, 2009 | 12 Comments

It is a mystery to most people. Why are we still finding that the only way you can get decent broadband in many rural areas is through the latency heavy satellite options? While some individuals living in rural areas are slowly beginning to see WiMax-like solutions being provided, most of these options are slow coming or in such limited availability that it is just not possible. Even worse, is living in areas to where there is broadband available, but the ISP chooses to restrict its use so much, that the asking price suddenly seems completely ridiculous.

What I am interested in hearing about, is what it is like to still be stuck with dial-up speeds in a broadband world. I am speaking to those of you who must rely on the slow Internet connection made available to you for OS updates, multimedia website usage and other aspects of online life that make dial-up nearly impossible to use. I mean, there are a growing number of websites that are simply not usable from a dial-up connection at all. And that is just sad on two fronts.

With the economy being what it is today, I suspect a lot of people will be switching from expensive cable providers over to free solutions such as Hulu, TV.com, amongst other freely available alternatives. Unfortunately, I am seeing growing indications of ISPs opting to restrict usage even further especially on the cable front as they seem as if they are approaching a breaking point with more users than bandwidth. Not saying this as fact, more just as my perception of their behavior toward casual users.

I remain hopeful that things will continue to improve on the broadband front, but am skeptical if we will see any big changes within the next five years. Just call it a hunch.

  • http://eddie.bodeche.com/ Eddie Thieda

    I can’t wait for fiber optics to become freely available myself.

  • Paul Sherman

    Certainly, in the rural areas, the commercial (profit) viability of broadband is enough to tempt private business to fund the enterprise.

    I think broadand in rural areas will be widespread only via a repeat of what brought electricity to them. And that was the creation of non-profit electric co-ops. In fact, looking at the history of rural power you’ll see many of the same challenges and arguments currently espoused: not cost-effective, they won’t really make use of it, we can’t make a profit, etc.

    Perhaps it’s time for rural broadband co-ops, or maybe allow the electric co-ops to set up broadband using their existing power distribution (the poles, NOT broadband over powerline). I’m willing to put my money where my mouth is.

  • Paul Sherman

    I apologize – typo in the first paragraph:

    Certainly, in the rural areas, the commercial (profit) viability of broadband is NOT enough to tempt private business to fund the enterprise.

  • Aly

    I have the same problem. The ‘broadband’ I get from BT is terrible now – they arent putting any money into the infrastructure of the network. 6 years ago, when we (my family) first got broadband, we were getting 6mbps constantly (not bad considerig our location). Then it has slowly declined until now, where the speed depends solely on how many people are online at a given time in our area. For example – at 11pm at night my connection was a mere 1Mbps, then at 8am the next morning it was 6.5Mbps!! You were absolutely right about reaching breaking point. Infact, its already happened.
    The solution? The government needs to abandon BT completely and persuade Virgin to extend their network. At least Fibre Optic is better than copper wire…

  • Tommy

    I find it amazing,with today’s economy.Seems cable providers would lower rates for all users.Not just the teaser rates for newbies.They capping users and out kind of strange behavior.Seems common sence,since it’s a broadband age now,they would gain more customers with lower rates for everybody.They wouldn’t lose any money.It would be a win for everybody.And they wonder why the economy is so bad.How can many spend when things just cost to much to have.Just goes to show the companies just dont have good common sense.Thus they failing.Many that already has great TV’s,refusing to buy new ones.And the DTV boxes,for some not working.Lower cable bills would be a win all the around.

  • Jim Weider

    I have, until very recently, lived in that dial-up world you talk about in the above posting. Seven years ago I built a house in a very rural area in central Missouri. How rural you ask? Well, my nearest neighbor is a 1/2 mile away and the actual highway is that far away too. For the past 6 3/4 years I have struggled wtih dial-up. Don’t get me wrong, the service I received from the only local ISP available was excellent. The connectivity was dismal to say the least.

    There was little OS patching done via the dial-up connection. Typically I would create patch disks at work, from the high speed connection there, and take them home to use. Not a very practical solution for patching very many computers on a frequent basis.

    What’s changed you may ask? High speed has come to my area in a limited fashion. This just happend a month ago. AT&T, the local phone company, brought it to the rural area, for what reason I don’t know yet. The nearest town is a mega city of 164 people and the next nearest town is 10 miles away with about double that population.

    What’s the catch to the new connection? I haven’t found one yet. I was paying $12 a month for local dial up (long story, but it was a rual subsidized deal through the local schools) and now I’m paying $30 a month for a 3 Mbs dsl connection and that price is fixed for the next two years with no contracts. . Am I getting 3 Mbits, yes. Is it reliable? It has been so far. There were incentives for signing up too, which I won’t go into now.

    Yes, I had entertained both satellite based and wi-max solutions prior to this, however their cost was prohibitive to say the least and their performance was not even close to the new connection I have now. How do I know this, I have set up both and worked with them for others.

    Of course now I’m convinced the Mayans were right and the wrold will end soon. What else would explain a high speed connection in the middle of the woods which are in the middle of nowhere and half way from somewhere.

  • js

    Honestly I find myself wondering why supposedly intelligent people keep asking this silly question right on up to the president. What company wants to spend tons of money on equipment, wiring and labor to get service out to an area where 1) There are about 3 ppl per sq. mile. 2) Most of those people are named Jed or Zeke and don’t know what that “new fangled inernet” even is and 3) probably couldn’t afford it in the first place. It just doesn’t make sense. If you live in the middle of nowhere I don’t think there should be a reasonable expectation of having all the ammenities available in more populated regions. Most of these places don’t even have sewers, running water, natural gas lines or any of the other things most people consider necessities in life yet there’s this huge push to give everyone high speed internet access like people will suddenly die without it. It’s really kind of laughable we should be concerned with Bubba updating his myspace page or watching youtube on broadband when he has no running water. And before anyone flames me, yes I live in a suburban area but have been to many different rural areas around the country and have seen the conditions, so I have a clue what I’m talking about.

  • AG

    Since I work for a dial up ISP I know some of the answers that you are seeking.
    Part of the problem is the technology. DSL just won’t go far enough. The signal just attenuates too fast.
    We’ve tried to use 802.11 but it won’t go through a pine tree and there are literally millions of those around here. It also won’t go through a mountain, which means that we’ve got to put a tower on top of most in not all of them and the owners all want to be paid. Plus you need power up there, roads…
    Right now WiMax is just too expensive for a small outfit to afford. Start up costs are so high that even the larger companies aren’t interested either.
    Fiber is probably the way to go but that’s not going to go to the rural areas any time soon.
    Cellular options work, when you can get a signal so right now it seems to be the most likely winner but it’s pretty expensive.

    AG

  • Edward Skoog

    How does $45/mo. for 320Kbps when the router configuration shows 1200up/800down availability? When my provided was questioned about this;”we have our service capped for all users at 400Kbps, and there is no plans for an upgrade”. Translation “shut up and be thankful you have any service at all”.

    You can have all this great service from our USDA supported provider of ‘last resort’ in Lipan, TX. Only 80 miles north of Crawford, TX. Yep, we been Bushwacked too.

    My 60 acres is on the market for this very reason after visiting my son’s Uverse in San Antonio. As a retired Computer E.T. the phone service here is straight out of the 1950′s. Their still burying copper service lines! It’s hard to believe this level of service especially when the nearest shopping is a 30 mile drive and ordering over the web saves a lot of gas..

  • http://septarius.blogspot.com Septarius

    Its quite sad here at my house 5 years ago we finally were able to convince our isp that we should have dsl going right next to our house since the people down the street had it and it was blazing fast 1.5 Mbps which for the time was fast enough and a lot faster than dial up but now it seems even that isn’t fast enough to do a lot of things like downloading patches. I hope broadband can catch up in the US to Canada and other countries soon.

  • Bob Lewis

    About six years ago I made the plunge to Broadband since I am only about three blocks from the main switching station for the area. I had DSL (@ 1.5 to 3Mbps) and it worked like a charm although it took quite a bite out of my Social Security income.

    Suddenly, Qwest Communications bought out U.S. West and DSL disappeared in favor of an Ethernet connection for which I don’t have capability. In addition, to get the Ethernet I had to buy a “bundle” of phone services I neither wanted nor needed. Ergo, I am back to using dial-up, and waiting for interminable times to download anything. (Example: 4 hours, twenty-two minutes to download Windows Updates – and that’s not all of them since I don’t use IE or Outlook.)

    I no longer even visit sites that offer video clips or anything streaming. At 76 I just don’t have that much time left. Gaming? Fuhgeddaboudit! By the time I get to play, the game is long over.

    In the mid 80s, many rural phone companies were given millions of dollars to upgrade their equipment and make broadband feasible. I know of one such company whose owner built a new building and then stocked it with a state-of-the-art wine cellar instead of new phone equipment. He has since installed more modern switching (in 1996 when he was finally caught), but the wine cellar still exists.

    The reason there is little Broadband availability in rural areas is because of GREED. Now that the economy has collapsed in large part because of that greed, broadband use will take a nosedive too. Cable and satellite companies will not spend the money to broaden the scope now when they didn’t do it while their profits were astronomical. In fact, the communications industry will probably be waiting in line for a multi-billion dollar bailout from the government..

    Bob Lewis

  • GeneralGeorge

    Here in rural Iowa about two miles from a small county seat I have some of the slowest internet speed i have ever seen. Qwest is the only provider and I have been bugging them for the last four years to get me some broadband. It makes no difference that the house across the highway and an eight mile north has broadband from town and the houses south have it from some where I know not. Thet refuse to run me a line. I resort to driving into town and parking on the square wgere I can pick up the coffee shop’s WIFI signal. I even go in sometimes an get a cup to drink in the car while I wait for a vital upgrade or patch. And yea I guess I am just a backwoods hick with a PHD but we like to wallow with the livestack here.