[Techtalk] satellite vs. mobile internet

[Akkana Peck]

Carla Schroder writes:
> 1. I hate Dish now. Hate hate hate them. [ ... ] > They make you jump
> through insane hoops just to get any information about Internet. I
> don't know why they even offer it because they try very hard to not
> sell it, and push TV service with a vengeance. It took 45 minutes on
> chat and another ten minutes being cranky with phone reps to find out
> that A. they really really do not want to sell Internet and B. Internet
> is not available in my area. But it will be, someday! No really! 

We had a similar experience, except that we learned that Dish
internet had nothing to do with the dish -- they merely re-sell
DSL or fiber or whatever is available in the area. But they have
umpteen resellers, so every ad you get for Dish has a different
phone number and they actually go to different companies each time,
resellers of Dish's reselling of ... what? Here, it's apparently
DSL, but one of the resellers swore up and down to us that it was
fiber, which seems a little unlikely since it is clear that there
is no fiber strung anywhere near here. We gave up after the third
reseller who told us either nothing useful or lies, and went with
DSL (CenturyLink) after waiting though 3+ months of Comcast
promising to connect us.

> Wildblue was awesome. Five minutes on the phone to learn everything I
> wanted. But they are close to capacity in my area.
> 
> So now I am looking at mobile internet. It looks pretty good.  

You definitely will have 4G there? I'm surprised that an area with
no cable or DSL would have good 4G service. Do make sure of that
before committing to a multi-year plan. But if it works, it sure
sounds convenient -- you can take it with you if you travel!

        ...Akkana