House-shopping for the wife and we've found an amazing spot, but there's a problem -- no broadband. Cable is not an option and I was surprised to find that it can't even get DSL. FIOS is also not an option, unsurprisingly.
I just priced out T1 but that starts at $500 a month for a mere 1.5Mbps connection, and that increases linearly with the bandwidth ($1,000 for 3Mbps, up and up).
Intriguingly this house does have LTE, and a solid connection at that (full bars on my Droid Charge, I got 15Mbps down on Speedtest). Has anyone tried running their home on a pure LTE connection? That'd be pricey for sure given mobile plans, but likely cheaper (and faster) than that T1...
I've heard talk of Verizon starting residential LTE service. Anybody have any insider info to share?
p.s. I've tried the WildBlue satellite internet service. Speed is... okay, but latency is so high it wouldn't be something I could reasonably work from.
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Looking for suggestions on (very) rural broadband - LTE for home?
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TimS's pick
Tim, I'm not an insider, but I am adept at Googling (probably not more so than you, though).
I found this article which details Verizon's plans to launch Residential LTE using a device called a "Cantenna" (already in use by DirecTV, who Verizon partnered with for their Residential LTE test) in Q4 of this year (fibertothewhatever.com/wp/news/verizon-confirms-fi...). This is going to be device they use (they're going to call it something different though) to offer residential LTE.
Even though it seems as though this is still a ways away (but might be out by the time you close escrow on a house and start moving in...) it looks as though Verizon is investing heavily into it - opting for residential LTE over any new FiOS deployment (they're only going to focus on current FiOS offerings, not expanding them). This PCMAG article has a picture of the "cantenna" and some more details: www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2395357,00.asp#fbid=...
A choice quote: "'Cantennas' are can-shaped antennas that can communicate with our nationwide LTE network to provide wireless broadband in a fixed location and might be well-suited, as Fran suggested, for deployment to homes in rural areas where wireline broadband services are hard to reach,"
Seems like this might be the service for you. I hope they can get it working by the time you guys move in. I tried searching for similar options from AT&T or Comcast but came up with a blank. This is probably going to be your best bet.
I found this article which details Verizon's plans to launch Residential LTE using a device called a "Cantenna" (already in use by DirecTV, who Verizon partnered with for their Residential LTE test) in Q4 of this year (fibertothewhatever.com/wp/news/verizon-confirms-fi...). This is going to be device they use (they're going to call it something different though) to offer residential LTE.
Even though it seems as though this is still a ways away (but might be out by the time you close escrow on a house and start moving in...) it looks as though Verizon is investing heavily into it - opting for residential LTE over any new FiOS deployment (they're only going to focus on current FiOS offerings, not expanding them). This PCMAG article has a picture of the "cantenna" and some more details: www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2395357,00.asp#fbid=...
A choice quote: "'Cantennas' are can-shaped antennas that can communicate with our nationwide LTE network to provide wireless broadband in a fixed location and might be well-suited, as Fran suggested, for deployment to homes in rural areas where wireline broadband services are hard to reach,"
Seems like this might be the service for you. I hope they can get it working by the time you guys move in. I tried searching for similar options from AT&T or Comcast but came up with a blank. This is probably going to be your best bet.
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The only problem with relying on LTE for home service would be data caps. As the EIC of Engadget would you be able to do your job only 2, 5 or 10 GB a month?
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I had a similar situation when we moved into our new home last year. We went a year using 3G data to power our home network. I had a mifi through virgin mobile (they offered unlimited data at the time) and a dd-wrt router set up to work as a repeater. The router connected to the mifi as only 1 device. This allowed me to bypass the 5 device limit as well as connect my hardwired devices. It worked beautifully until I was finally able to get DSL to my home. The speeds weren't great, but with 14Mbs, you should be fine. Good Luck!
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Tim, considering your job and what you do. I wouldn't try it. You would blow through that data cap in 1 hour doing your job. VZW has hada few outages with their network in the past. Nothin' beats hard-wired. (whatever it is)
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As much as I hate to say it, since it sounds like you love the place, I don't see how this is going to be feasible for you. Even if residential LTE is in the works, those types of rollouts seem to take ages upon ages. I can't see it being readily available for at least another couple of years. If it were me and no wired connection was available, I'd try to find another place.
Good luck though, hope you find a solution or find another great place.
Good luck though, hope you find a solution or find another great place.
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