What Type Of Internet Is Best For Rural Areas?

By Nathan Young on November 19, 2021

When you’re out in desolate, nearly unpopulated areas, there’s not as much of a need for internet. Most of those regions are uninhabited due to forestry restrictions, farming or ranching, or because they are privately owned land. For these reasons, it’s difficult to acquire the internet, but it’s not impossible. When you weigh your options, consider what type of internet is best for rural areas and what is available to you.

Satellite as the Go-To

This is the immediate choice of most people who move out into rural areas or who have lived there for a while. However, using satellite might not be the best for reliability. Satellite options are lacking because there’s a monopoly on satellite usage, so they are highly expensive. They also have some of the worst downloads speeds, which makes browsing and streaming very difficult.

DSL As More Traditional Method

This option came out just over a decade ago and has been an extremely reliable resource, especially for people located in rural areas. It works like this: a local provider gets contracted with a phone company, and this company will run a line out to your property and directly connect you to their service. It will be buried just like an Ethernet line for added security. This is great because while it might not be lightning fast like some fiber-optics, it’s still decently fast and is an extremely reliable source of internet. Because it is limited, it’s cheaper than other methods.

Fixed Internet as a Home Option

Many people use wireless or fixed internet. For general home use, this option is okay—as long as too many devices aren’t all connected at once. When this happens, it decreases the bandwidth and slows the service down—sometimes completely. You are also limited to the router, which is how you receive a wireless connection, so you’ll have a limited distance that you can travel before the connection becomes spotty.

4G LTE for Those on the Move

Nearly everyone today has a smartphone, and those phones have internet service connected with them. Most of them have 4G LTE or 5G. This comes directly from the company that provides their service in their phone plan. With this, phones can be tethered to their hotspot from anywhere, and users can connect to the internet via their phone (if they don’t mind using their plan’s data.)

There are plenty of ways to connect to the internet for rural service users. Whatever service you decide to go with determines your experience. Therefore, it’s important to research these different companies to find out what type of internet is best for rural areas before getting started.

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