Satellite Internet in West County

[Kevind]

Has anyone had a good experience with fast, inexpensive satellite Internet service in the West County?

I don't want to name names, but a friend has moved into a new house on Jonive Road and is definitely underwhelmed by the outfit that installed her satellite system. I hope someone in that area has had better experience with another company. AT&T refuses to provide DSL service in the area, and satellite seems to be the only option.

[redheifer]

Been using Wildblue/exede for about 6 or 7 years. Bottom price is $50.00/month for 10G of broadband. Over that it is $10/G. Broadband free from midnight to 5am. Speed is fair: 1.33 mbps down, 1.57 up. Local installer/technician quite knowledgeable and very affable.

[CSummer]

One we have Not had a good experience with is HughesNet. Very misleading information promising 50GB or more, but delivering only about 15GB, and after that it slows down to a snails pace (e.g., dial-up speed).

Has anyone had a good experience with fast, inexpensive satellite Internet service in the West County?...

[littlegirlblue]

I have a good friend who is an IT guru, specifically about wireless internet systems. S/he tells me that satellite internet can be *very* effected by the weather (ie: fog, rain, clouds, etc). The companies that sell & install satellite internet systems aren't always very forthcoming about this fact. S/he suggests signing up for satellite internet service only as a last resort (ie: you can't get DSL or cable internet service or anything else). Sonic is THE BEST in the area, but not always available at every address. Also, sometimes, you can get DSL at your place if you have a business (vs. just residential).

[SonomaPatientsCoop]

No real advice to offer- just experience.

Sattelite internet is an expensive and inneficient route to take. The couple of companies that have invested a fortune in the required infrastructure know full well no one uses them if they have any other option. And on the flipside- counties and cities pretty much hand the phone/cable companies a monopoly- and they have no incentive to run copper or fiber past the point where they get "X" number of customers per 10,000 ft of line.

Many of us in the rural areas of west county are stuck with Sattelite- or cellular "hotspots" (or, if you're "lucky", a combination of the two.

Regardless, in such situations, you can pretty much forget about the mondern "reality" of AppleTv, Roku, streaming Netflix etc. And you can pretty much be guaranteed that the prime times you want to use what bandwidth you have- evenings, weekends, holidays... all the rest of us in the same boat are doing the same thing- and service slows to a crawl.

Never thought I would miss Comcast...

[Ronaldo]

Yes, Sonic is the best with some excellent people.
However, some of them make mistakes about where their service is available. Initially, a rep told me when I moved to Guerneville there was no service to my residence. Seeing a satellite dish in front of my house I asked my neighbor who lived in the front that the dish was defunct and he was using Sonic!
I could have easily ended up with my nemesis Comcast or even worst AT&T, if I hadn't called Sonic again with empirical proof that indeed there was service at my house.
So, if you're told there is no Sonic service available speak to at least one other rep to be sure.

...Sonic is THE BEST in the area, but not always available at every address. ...

[Willow Summer]

We are a bit east of Bodega and can't get DSL. Instead of signing a 2 year contract with a satellite provider, we are trying using a PCS Mobile 4G cell phone as a hot spot. It is working quite well. You have to use a phone with tethering capability. I signed up for service at $60 per month which is just about what satellite costs, and only use the phone to provide internet for our other devices. I have it positioned in a window with the best orientation which makes a big difference. I just watched an episode of Victoria on the PBS website. Sometimes upload is a tad bit slow, but it works. It's pretty low commitment with no contract and if it ceases to be good I will sign up with Excede or Hughesnet.

If we could have, we would have signed up with CDS Wireless, which is a local company that provides service via a relay system of their own towers. We couldn't use them because we are in a valley without line of site to their equipment, but it's worth calling them to see if it would work for your friend. I think it's better service than the satellite companies and your money stays in the community.

Has anyone had a good experience with fast, inexpensive satellite Internet service in the West County?

I don't want to name names, but a friend has moved into a new house on Jonive Road and is definitely underwhelmed by the outfit that installed her satellite system. I hope someone in that area has had better experience with another company. AT&T refuses to provide DSL service in the area, and satellite seems to be the only option.

[tonytug]

We were on Exede satellite for about 6 years until I finally trenched 1350' up to the road to the pole and convinced Comcast Business to pull cable down; which they did!

The Satellite Guy at 116W and Stonypoint did the install of the Satellite equipment and I was happy with his service.

A tech' from AT&T who came out, told me they are pulling fiber optic around the area and will be offering a high speed wireless service from up on the utility pole to your home. The range is at least 1000'. Should be available in a year or so.

[kane]

We are just South of Freestone, up on the hill, and can see the town of Bodega.
We use Motech and the line-of-sight microwave service comes from a tower atop English Hill(top of Burnside). They can also daisy-chain you via another user who is line-of-site to you if they have a straight shot to English Hill, or to yet another of their users who does. You could also get more sophisticated if some part of your land(or a friendly neighbor) is in view of English Hill, where you could mount a relay to connect you.
We pay $60 for 1.5 Gbit/Sec with unlimited monthly Gigabytes.
12" dish 6' off the ground and it's powered via an ethernet cable(up to 300'
)running to your house/office/shop.
Has worked great for years now, with only a couple days down-time ever.
No contract.
Netflix, Youtube, Lynda, Skype, Hangouts etc all work fairly seamlessly since there's no delays like satellite ISP's.
https://motech.org


I can also use my T-Mobile cell phone and its free tethering for up to 6GB/mo at 4G LTE speeds, to connect the laptops or iPads in a pinch. This is included in my $70 T-Mobile cell plan. We've watched Netflix on this after storms temporarily took out power to the English Hill transceivers.
T-Mobi is currently expanding their 4G LTE network in the county. We are on West side of a hill, somewhat blocking us from a T-Mobi tower, so T-Mobi offers a free (Loaner) system booster to grab and boost a decent 4G and/or LTE signal; this mounts in your house and uses very little power.

There are some iOS and Android Apps which can help you identify cell towers within range of you, and tell you which carrier operates them, Band and signal type-3G, 4G, LTE, signal strength etc, helping you find a carrier to explore connecting with.

iOS Apps = OpenSignal, LTE Cell Info
Android Apps = OpenSignal, Cell Towers, MyMobile

As others have said, avoid satellite if you can get a terrestrial microwave dish(RF) or cable.
We had WildBlue for years and Chuck(near Occidental) is a great WB guy. Grew weary of the hard BW limits though and WB company intransigence(not Chuck) and found Motech.

Also got a quote from Comcast for ....$35,000 , said by the customer service rep with a straight face, meaning somebody must be saying YES to them.

Over and Out,
Kane