Satellite Internet on the lake

[fishingdad]

      I was wondering if anybody that lives on the lake has Satellite Internet Service?  If you do I have a couple of questions-  Who is it through?  What does it cost for the applicable data plan you have?  Do you have any complaints, compliments, concerns about it.  

      I would like to sign up & do it but I don't want to regret having a 2 year commitment or similar & find out it is bad-horrible connection. Do you burn through the Data extremely fast?  We are up to the cabin almost every weekend April - October  & then every other through the winter so not being there enough isn't the issue just wanting to justify having it.  

[muskie-mike]

I have a data plan thru ATT on my ipad,$30 a month for 3g...Also can make my ATT phone a wifi hotspot..ATT tower is south of Frazer bay

[PSU]

I too use my AT and T hot spot, works great!!

[delcecchi]

There is a problem with the latency of satellite.  Makes loading pages slow.    I agree that a cell phone data plan/hotspot is your best bet.  I think Verizon on East end, and ATT on West end are the choices.   ATT has a tower near Cook, and on south shore of Frazier as mentioned.  

[FishinCT]

Anything from moccasin point west can be pretty spotty with Verizon. If you're on big bay it's tough to beat 

[bassbouncer]

I live in wakemup village and have century link dsl. 

[delcecchi]

The DSL service is great since they ran the fiber down 24 a few years ago.   I was presuming that the poster didn't have that option if they were considering satellite.     AccessMN is another possibility if they are still around.  

[fishingdad]

Thank you for the responses everyone. You are correct Del I do not have the Fiber option.  We do use the Hot spot from AT&T at times but to be honest the Data does not last all that long, Even though we are right by Moccasin point & the tower is at the end of Frazer our signal is not the best at times.  We could also do DSL but according to one neighbor we may be faster sending up carrier pigeons & waiting for a response.

[Walleye Guy]

Based on my own experiences, satellite internet is slow, expensive and you are limited to a certain amount of download GB per month before they diminish the already slow speed.  Mine had a 10GB monthly limit.  It is basically good for doing email, slowly surfing the internet and social media.  You wont be streaming or watching Netflix etc.  It's a viable option but it should be your last option.  Any DSL is better that satellite internet in my opinion.  The service I used also had a two-year contract so make sure its what you want before committing.  Mine cost roughly $75/month when bundled with Dish Network. 

[Fish Head]

My cabin is next to Moccasin Point and we use AT&T for smart phones and hotspot with pretty good service.  Verizon is not good at our cabin, but if I go just a little East, Verizon rocks. 

[delcecchi]

On 10/23/2017 at 9:45 AM, fishingdad said:

Thank you for the responses everyone. You are correct Del I do not have the Fiber option.  We do use the Hot spot from AT&T at times but to be honest the Data does not last all that long, Even though we are right by Moccasin point & the tower is at the end of Frazer our signal is not the best at times.  We could also do DSL but according to one neighbor we may be faster sending up carrier pigeons & waiting for a response.

DSL is very sensitive to where the various electronics and cables are located.  At our cabin we went from nothing, well actually access mn,  to 20Mb DSL once they ran the appropriate wires and fibers.  And our cell service is not great, but a couple hundred yards makes a big difference.  

If you can't do DSL or cellular, Access MN would be my next choice, or maybe even my second choice depending on what I wanted to do.  

[fishingdad]

THANK you everyone this was exactly the type of info I was looking for. for the price of satellite & the spotty service at times with the commitment we are definitely going to go in a different direction with internet. Probably DSL

[delcecchi]

5 hours ago, fishingdad said:

THANK you everyone this was exactly the type of info I was looking for. for the price of satellite & the spotty service at times with the commitment we are definitely going to go in a different direction with internet. Probably DSL

If the DSL is available I would recommend it.  If you are a seasonal resident, you can suspend service in the off season. 

[CigarGuy]

I'm looking to get internet service up here. Tried CenturyLink, no service at my address. Neighbor just got Access Broadband, he doesn't stream any streamings, so I don't know if it's any good. I want to be able to stream hockey games. They want $150.00 to install, if they can't get a good signal, no charge. But, they require at 2 year contract, which I'm reluctant to do. Any updates on this thread, it's a little old?

[delcecchi]

I had access.   They have different tiers of service.   I had the cheapest.. it slowed down about dinner time...

 

Now we do DSL with century link but that might not be available to you.. 

 

Anyway I think for a few bucks extra you can get access that will support at least SD streaming.  They had a tower on Hibbing point as I recall, which is pretty close to you on a straight line basis.   

[CigarGuy]

Access would be $66.00 month total. Not bad, but the reviews are less than stellar. I'd hate to get stuck with a two year contract.

[delcecchi]

2 hours ago, CigarGuy said:

Access would be $66.00 month total. Not bad, but the reviews are less than stellar. I'd hate to get stuck with a two year contract.

They are local dudes.  call them and ask them what they think about it.  

[muskie-mike]

We use ATT on our cellphone set up as a hotspot.....ATT $35 a month plan with 8g data a month...

[CigarGuy]

I talked to them twice about the service and what their cancellation fee is and couldn't get a straight answer. I have att and 20g data/hotspot, but I'd eat that up in no time. My wife has unlimited hotspot with Verizon, but when I'm laid off in the winter, she's only up here every other wknd. I'm up here about 3 weeks per month. I have Dish, but with the dispute with fox, no Wild games and some of the outdoor shows I like, plus I'm sick of the contract disputes and missing some of my favorite channels.

[delcecchi]

Winter might be good with access.  If I understand correctly there is a certain amount of bandwidth at the tower.   Depending on the tier you pay for you get allocated a bigger chunk.   But if there is some left over, you can get it even if you aren't in a high tier.     

That was a few years ago so it might be different now.   At the time there was said to be a Radiologist somewhere on the lake that worked remotely and when he was downloading high resolution images everyone else had to wait.   But in winter....  demand way down.    Maybe you could talk them into some sort of trial offer ?

 

Or, what would it cost to upgrade your ATT  to more data or unlimited?   That's got to be less than satellite internet which is limited data also, right?  

Edited November 11, 2019 by delcecchi

[chucker1101]

Talked about this before...low-earth satellite internet is pretty close to being ready. SpaceX just launched 60 more satellites yesterday, giving them about 120 in orbit now. They need 400 in place to start servicing the Northern United States and should be there by June next year.

Low-earth satellite will be a game changer. High speeds, high capacity. So don't lock into service plan long-term. Still questions about pricing (haven't released any detail), but right now i'd expect early adopter rollout next summer, and widespread availability in Northern MN by summer 2021.

[delcecchi]

Chucker, what is the latency for the LEO satellite service expected to be?    I know that was an issue for the Hughs service.   

[SkunkedAgain]

I better upgrade to a Heavy-Duty tin foil hat, to keep Space-X from stealing all of my thoughts about the best fishing holes.

 

[chucker1101]

5 hours ago, delcecchi said:

Chucker, what is the latency for the LEO satellite service expected to be?    I know that was an issue for the Hughs service.   

15 ms round trip from/return to space is what SpaceX is claiming now. Pretty impressive if it pulls off.

 

The issue with Hughes is the position of orbit of the satellite. Hughes satellites are in Geo-synchronous orbit with the earth, which means the satellite's orbit moves at the exact same rate as the earth turns. That way the satellite remains at relatively the same spot over the earth. The trouble with geo-sync orbits is that they are a long ways away. 22,500 miles, give or take. That's a long ways for a signal to round-trip. And there's not really a high-demand capacity solution.

 

The new constellation model of internet satellites uses a bunch, like say 4000, of really small satellites, about the size of a desk. These are in low-earth orbit, only 150 miles from earth by comparison. Capacity is handled by allowing satellites to share data between themselves. So if one satellite is overloaded, it will off-load data throughput to another close-by satellite via peer-to-peer communication. It's a pretty cool engineering model.

 

As you can probably tell, this is in-line with what I do for a living. But i am pretty hyped about the possibilities for people like us, who will never have optic cable strung to our remote location.

 

 

[delcecchi]

Sounds terrific.   Having spent my career in the Tech field I am always cautious as to what startups are claiming.  But more power to them, I hope that they can achieve everything they are aiming for.    15 ms seems really fast.   It will be great if so.   

 

Note, claiming a lot more than can be delivered is not limited to startups.    I have run into it many times inside an established tech power.  

 

Fortunately, we are only like a half mile from the fiber on 24 so our DSL works fine...   Before that we had access.  Before that we had 26k dial up.   

 

Edited November 12, 2019 by delcecchi

[CJPerry27]

I am on Raps Road - west end of Lk. V.  No service there.  I spoke to Centurylink - They said the more people that call in the area - the more chance there will be for service(where it is not yet available).  Pls call 1866-541-3322.

 

[CigarGuy]

We've had Access Media since winter, it works fairly well. They had to bounce the signal off the neighbors receiver because they couldn't get a straight signal from my place. Have some buffering issues, but it's the only option I have. I'd rate it about 8 out of 10

 

[delcecchi]

I used to have Access until century link brought in DSL.    Worked fine, although don't plan on streaming video at suppertime in the summer.... 

 

I think the tower is on Hibbing Point.   So depending on your elevation and exact location might be better or worse.   

[chucker1101]

Starlink is looking for Beta users!

 

https://www.zdnet.com/article/spacex-starlink-internet-prepares-for-beta-users/

 

I've registered with 55790 as a zip code. If/when I get information on Beta, i'll post it to this thread. Early reports are saying Starlink will run about $80/month. Don't know about any setup or equipment additional costs yet.

 

Edited June 18, 2020 by chucker1101
addl info

[SkunkedAgain]

Thanks Chucker! I looked into Starlink a month or so ago but hadn't seen anything posted. I'm signed up now thanks to your post.

 

I would love it to get CenturyLink, but assume they will charge an arm and a leg to run cables under the lake to get to islands and isolated cabins. They also provide crappy service that cuts out constantly (even during this post) in the Twin Cities. If Elon Musk can put men up into space, he should be able to get me a semi-reliable internet signal on the lake.