r/Rural_Internet

Our Keweenaw internet provider, Shorewaves, is closing shop at the end of the month, leaving a lot of people stranded. Michigan's rural internet program promises to bring fiber service here… by 2032.
I really do not want to subscribe to nazi-net satellite.

We don’t have 5G signal; is there some kind of antenna or booster that could catch a signal from further away? Can I buy a roll of fiber cable and roll it from 5 miles away? :-)

Other suggestions?

I am in nursing home unfortunately due to medical issues all hitting me, I'll be here for a long bit. The internet they have sucks, are their any hotspots or companies that provide hotspot services where it wouldn't matter if the location I am at has an ISP provider. I figured if I could find something for myself, I'll just pay for that so I can have decent internet. I have been searching but keep running into products that seem to be scams. Thanks for any help that can be provided.

I’m going on a road trip for 3 weeks to different states and national parks. I work remotely and I’m worried I won’t be able to get work done during the trip. Some stops, we’ll be staying in hotels but others will be camping. I want a device that I can use maybe while we’re driving on the road or at the campsite or even if the hotel WiFi is spotty. I don’t need to much data since I won’t be working everyday, maybe just a couple hours here and there, but I anticipate the others on the trip might want to use it as well to check directions or send messages or whatever. Ideally I would only be interested in paying for that month. However I will be going to Europe in November so I would love to know if there’s any options that could potentially work for both my roadtrip and internationally. thanks!

update: i’ve done research and i still don’t really understand what option is best tbh. i’ve seen the t-mobile options (which is my carrier) but it seems like even if i choose monthly and cancel i have to pay full price. i also saw homefi which i heard is bad and hard to cancel. idk what to do😭

Unluckily i was in one of their selected counties.

>Hey everyone,

I’m having a frustrating issue with my T-Mobile G4AR gateway and hope someone here has found a workaround.

My gateway keeps automatically connecting to a tower with a stronger signal, but that tower is extremely congested (speeds drop to 15down / 3up during evening time).
There is another tower that is actually closer, much less congested, and gives way better speeds when the gateway occasionally hooks into it.

I even bought an external directional antenna to try and force a connection to the better tower. It works temporarily right after a reboot, but after a few hours or a even minutes, the G4AR’s internal firmware decides to switch back to the heavily congested tower because it perceives that signal as "better" or stronger overall.

Here’s my constraint: I live in an apartment, so I absolutely cannot mount the antenna outside or on the roof. It’s strictly indoors near the window.

Is there any trick to making the G4AR "stick" to the specific tower?
Or am I completely out of luck with the stock carrier firmware?

If there's no way to fix this on the G4AR, would upgrading to a third-party gateway (like SUNCOMM SE06) with PCI/tower locking be my only real solution to swap the SIM into?

Appreciate any advice or tips!

Been hopping carriers trying to find the sweet spot. Here's my journey so far:

Mint Mobile - decent but coverage gaps hurt

Xfinity Mobile - actually pretty solid, had a BoGo deal that got me down to $15/month. Left because the deal ended.

Visible - currently on it and honestly terrible. Drops in almost every city I visit across New England. Not just slow, basically unusable.

Boost - tried it briefly, same story.

My situation:

Travel frequently between MA, CT, and NY (a lot of I-95 and I-91 corridor driving)

iPhone 17

~15GB actual data usage monthly

Light hotspot use (maybe 5GB or less)

Need solid performance for maps, music streaming, and calls while driving

Sick of being deprioritized during congestion

Hard cap of $20/month, open to annual plans if the value is there

Month-to-month preferred but annual is fine if it makes sense

What I want: A network that actually works in New England cities and doesn't throttle or deprioritize me into the ground. Coverage and reliability matter more than price at this point, as long as it stays under $20.

Anyone running a solid setup in this region? What are you on?

Edit 1 : Switched from Xfinity because the offer expired and i was moving so had to close down the internet service.

Edit 2 : Visible Priority Plans are 30$/month. As a fresh grad that becomes difficult to manage.

We're a few miles from the city and have tried several options for internet. We've had 20 Mbps DSL for 10 years, and 10 Mbps before that. We've tried T-Mobile 5G, and it was absolutely horrible. Tried AT&T and got great speeds for 10 days until it tanked horribly and started getting over 20% packet loss. Haven't even bothered considering HughesNet or Viasat. I've called every single ISP in the area and they've all either told me "just move" or "just get Starlink." They refuse to do any work near my house because the lines are more than 1500 feet away. Starlink is too expensive for what I can get, and I'm worried about the reliability. Not only that, but CGNAT sounds annoying especially when I port forward quite a bit. Any help is warranted, I just want usable internet for once.

I'm in rural East Texas.

Been looking into wireless options for a property outside the metro area and the technical explanations I keep getting are all over the place. One provider says interference is from terrain, another blames tower distance, another says it's a frequency band issue. Nobody can give me a straight answer on what's actually limiting performance.

I came across Wave1 while researching how rural wireless networks work in theory. It helped me understand some basics, but I'm still struggling to translate that into practical expectations for actual service at my location.

What really gets me is that nobody will give a straight signal strength estimate for a specific address. They'll quote speeds but won't explain the conditions those speeds depend on.

Is this a common experience? And is there a reliable way to get an honest technical assessment before committing to a provider, or is it basically trial and error out there?

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for a reliable home broadband connection in the Athur Pirivu area, Karur.

My priority is good uptime and a stable connection since I work from home. I'd prefer a fiber connection, but if fiber isn't available, I'm open to other reliable broadband options as well.

If you're from this area, could you please share:

• Which ISP you're using
• Your experience with uptime and customer support
• Whether you'd recommend it
• Any local contact for a new connection (if available)

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

I'm seeking recommendations from people staying in DSO specially in Silicon Heights 1 or nearby buildings, which WiFi works the best , which one would you suggest for a studio?? should I go with a du basic 199 package or not?