Alternatives to cable with poor Internet service?

[rnorwo1]

I am desperately wanting to cut our satellite tv, for both financial and other (can't stand that my kids watch this much!) reasons. We live out in the sticks, though, and so we have to have satellite for both tv and Internet. DH lives to watch NASCAR and a few other shows, however, and he is reluctant to give it up. Our Internet is awful (at almost $100/mo ), though, so streaming is not an option. Are there any other alternatives that don't require Internet? I suspect not, but just thought I would try. Thanks for any info!

 

[Colleen27]

Unfortunately this is one of the downsides of rural living - all the best TV replacement ideas are Internet based, and even an antenna may not be of much use to you depending on how far you are from the cities where your local stations broadcast from. Check AntennaWeb.org for an estimate based on your zip code to see if that's an option worth pursuing.

 

[ksloane]

No help. Just wanted to say I feel your pain. I also live in the country and so we're stuck with $100 Internet and $100 TV every month. I have no desire to live in town, but really wish true broadband Internet would expand....

 

[rnorwo1]

I don't love it out here as much DH does , but I do like it. We would move if it were up to me. Our $900/mo gasoline costs for our long commutes alone makes my blood boil!
I'll check that site out, thanks for the info!

 

[ksloane]

I don't love it out here as much DH does , but I do like it. We would move if it were up to me. Our $900/mo gasoline costs for our long commutes alone makes my blood boil!
I'll check that site out, thanks for the info!

Oh wow! Yea, I'd have to relocate if that was the case. I'm 10 minutes from work.

Now, shopping is another story, but we just don't shop daily. Shopping trips are planned.

 

[justlook3]

If you're only interested in older shows, you could always try Netflix DVDs or your local library. Even if your library doesn't carry some shows, they can always try via interlibrary loan. The drawback there is that often the rental period is very short (high demand) and you'll have to marathon things. That's not going to help with Nascar of course. It's hard with poor Internet to really replace cable though.

 

[ellochka]

Yeah, if it's not economically feasible for the cable company to lay down the fiber optics, the internet speed is going to suffer. Try calling the phone company and see if they have DSL service at your location. Newer DSL is better, but it's still slower than cable.

 

[misskari]

What about services that go through xbox or Roku? I'm not too familiar with them but I hear that it's a possibility.

 

[KalamityJane]

Xbox and Roku won't work, they rely on streaming. What we did, that worked for a bit when we were rural was to get the Verizon mifi and could stream a bit on there. It had a 20gb cap which is not much though. We did library movies, Redbox and Netflix DVDs mostly.

 

[vacationer1954]

Unfortunately this is one of the downsides of rural living

Yes. We rely so heavily on these services for our leisure entertainment and work that, at this point, we won't consider living somewhere without at least two good choices for broadband Internet. It's now as important or more important than other aspects of the area's infrastructure.

 

[smokeyblue]

I can't complain too much because I can get cable internet, but I'd really like to just get DSL because it is so much cheaper. I live one mile from the city center and can't get DSL. The kicker? My parents live 35 miles away in the sticks and they get DSL!

 

[Egdisney]

I can't complain too much because I can get cable internet, but I'd really like to just get DSL because it is so much cheaper. I live one mile from the city center and can't get DSL. The kicker? My parents live 35 miles away in the sticks and they get DSL!

DSL isn't cheaper for me and it is much less reliable. I dream of the day I can get cable again. We live in a town outside of the Kansas City, it isn't that small, but for some reason they didn't run cable lines to the subdivisions on this side of the interstate. If we buy another house cable access will be the first thing on my list.

 

[ellochka]

Yes. We rely so heavily on these services for our leisure entertainment and work that, at this point, we won't consider living somewhere without at least two good choices for broadband Internet. It's now as important or more important than other aspects of the area's infrastructure.

I agree. It can also be good for your pocket because you always have alternatives if the prices are getting too high.

 

[sksjasams]

Yeah, if it's not economically feasible for the cable company to lay down the fiber optics, the internet speed is going to suffer. Try calling the phone company and see if they have DSL service at your location. Newer DSL is better, but it's still slower than cable.

I agree...try calling your local phone company. We live in the country too, with satellite as the only tv option. We pay a lot for Directv, but my DH could never give it up.

We get our dsl internet from our phone company (frontier). We have their lowest level internet and pay just under $30/mo. Is it the best? no. But its good enough for the price. DS can play online with his PS3 and we can stream movies/shows from amazon (works well) or hulu plus (works ok) as long as we choose SD instead of HD.

 

[rnorwo1]

We definitely don't have DSL, unfortunately. I will check Into Verizon, though, thanks!

 

[taymaesmom]

My office is in the middle of nowhere on a national wildlife refuge so we are not able or allowed to have any internet lines run to our building. We just got internet through Frontier, its satelite based and its actually pretty darn good. We were all kinda shocked at how good the quality was, we were honestly expecting dial up quality from horror stories we had read but its really great. Now we aren't streaming but stuff like facebook with video are running fine.