My iPad2 picks up cellular data very well….looks like that technology should be useful.  It’s faster to load and plays vidoe better than my dsl on my home computers.

Sounds interesting, but it is line of sight, not a good idea in the mountains (maybe in the gentle valleys in Buncombe County where there are miles and miles of flat land surrounded by mountains, but not out in the western counties). Most farms here are in isolated valleys that don’t even have cell service. For example, in the valley I live in, we have no cell service, the NC Highway Patrol 800Mhz VIPER Radios don’t work, and even UHF reception is spotty.

Most of the people outside the city limits are still on dial-up, the phone lines incapable of speeds above 21 kbps. A simple page like The Drudge Report can take a minute to download for these people. 

For us in the rural counties west of the balsams, it will still have to be wired access or satellite dish internet options, unless someone is willing to put up repeaters every couple of miles, sometimes for only a few dozen customers at the end of the line…and I don’t see that happening, ever.

Thanks, Thunder Pig, for the perspectives on steep-terrain challenges to line-of-sight solutions.

It makes me wonder if there might be some community/grassroots-based approaches. I don’t know the economics of the various technological solutions, but my questions are basically: What if the 10 to 50 families in a holler wanted to provide their own micro-local-net? What would be the costs of various solutions?

And would there be economies of scale possible if there were, say 5 to 30 hollers that wanted to join into a micro-federation of micro-local-nets? What would the spread-out costs be then?

I’ll bet Don Davis at Skyrunner or Wally Bowen at MAIN could shed some light on my questions.

“I’ll bet Don Davis at Skyrunner or Wally Bowen at MAIN could shed some light on my questions.”

I’ll bet they could be REAL self serving too as they shed the light. Good invitation to do so JF.

As I said, my iPad loads pretty well even in remote areas…and I expect delivery to improve over time. This feature available now,  without millions in stimulus money to set up through these granite hills.

Thanks for the invitation to comment Jeff. MAIN is part of the Rural Broadband Policy Group which is comprised of various rural advocacy groups and nonprofit networks. Our position is that community-based broadband networks have never been more feasible, both financially and technologically.

The only obstacles to realizing this vision are the “inside-the-Beltway” policy mindsets that assume only a for-profit carrier is capable of providing advanced broadband services in underserved areas.

Specifically, we need to ensure plentiful “unlicensed” bandwidth in lower frequencies that do not have the “line-of-sight” limitation cited by an earlier commenter. We won a great victory on this front in 2008 with the unanimous FCC vote to free up the TV “white spaces” for unlicensed broadband use. http://tinyurl.com/6kv2zgk

The TVWS technology has been slow to market for a variety of reasons, including benign neglect from DC policymakers who have moved on to other issues.  just last month we fought off an attempt by commercial providers to include TVWS in a spectrum auction to finance a new nationwide public-safety network.  Auctioning the TVWS would, in effect, turn over this valuable spectrum to Wall Street/commercial carriers. In short, we still need to be vigilant in protecting the TVWS, but we also need to boost our advocacy for MORE unlicensed spectrum in Congress and at the FCC.

Simultaneously, we are fighting to ensure that community-based broadband networks are eligible for the new Connect America Fund. The CAF would re-direct $15.5 billion of the existing Universal Service Fund for rural broadband deployment. However, the way the CAF is currently proposed, only big commercial carriers would be eligible for this funding. With public pressure this policy oversight will be changed.  http://tinyurl.com/4dn6rw3

In short, with plentiful unlicensed spectrum in the lower frequencies, and with community networks eligible for CAF support, Rural America will be positioned to take control of its own digital broadband destiny.

But the Rural Broadband Policy Group can’t do this alone. We need every chamber of commerce, economic development agency, every “buy local” and sustainable-community organization, etc., to help lobby Congress and the FCC on these two all-important issues.

Wally Bowen
Mountain Area Information Network

I guess that (each holler acting on its own) would be the best way to fill in the gaps. The screenshot of his speedtest was interesting. I’d love to have an upload speed of 3.77 Mbps, a Download of 12.03 Mbps. Right now, I’m at an upload of 0.73 Mbps and a download speed of 2.91 Mbps. My ping is 37 mS.

Before Frontier took over, I was at 1.2 up and 4.5 down and a ping of 20-27 on Verizon.

My previous experiences with grass roots people working together has not been a happy one. Too many chiefs and not enough indians. But, if I want a true broadband connection, I might have to suffer through the experience.

I appreciate you sharing the link. You’ve given me something to pursue.