I switched to the Time Warner solution (Road Runner) a few of months ago.
Soon after that, Sprint started offering a their Broadband service.
http://www.sprintbroadband.com/
My guess is that in time, this will be available in all areas that
they offer cell coverage. Currently they are charging $49.95. My
guesss is that you can work this rate down if you combine with
some of their other services such as long distance and cell phone.
The good news is that with all the options popping up, it is just
a matter of time before everybody will be able to get a decent
connection.
73, Bruce WT4I
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-wf1b-rtty@wf1b.com [mailto:owner-wf1b-rtty@wf1b.com]On
> Behalf Of Kok Chen
> Sent: Saturday, February 24, 2001 5:05 AM
> To: Don Hill AA5AU; WA9ALS - John; dx4win@qth.net;
> Writelog@contesting.com; Rtty reflector
> Subject: Re: [WriteLog] 2-way satellite ISP info on my web site now
>
>
>
> >John, a big thanks for sharing this with us. You are correct in that no one
> >has ever mentioned this type of Internet service before that I can recall.
>
> For those interested, DirecPC (www.direcpc.com) is at
> present beta testing a similar scheme. Those who
> are subscribed to DirecTV may find the DirecPC solution
> to be more convenient. I think the public roll out is
> later this year.
>
> For the last few years, DirecPC had been employing
> a one way satellite system (upload through landline modem,
> downlink thru satellite). As more customers got on,
> it became completely overloaded. There was even an
> attempt at a class action law suite :-).
>
> StarBand (DISH) seems to be using two satellites
> to alleviate the congestion problem. But only time
> will tell what kind of data rates one can reasonabaly get
> when they have met their subscriber objectives.
>
> I am doing a wait and see before I take the plunge.
> Microsoft MSN/RadioShack will be putting in quite a bit
> of marketing muscle into it. Chances are good that the
> MSN demo booth at the RadioShack near you is already
> using StarBand.
>
> My Portland QTH is in the boonies enough that I am
> too far from the Central Office to even get iDSL or
> ISDN, much less ADSL. And there is no cable service,
> either. For broadband, I am left with the choice of
> satellite service, or possibly some future 802.11b
> (2.4 GHz terrestrial) distributed network.
>
> As far as satellite goes, there are some restrictions on
> the DISH version; but DirecPC will probably do the same to
> prevent the transponder from being completely overwhelmed.
>
> With the DISH modem, you are not limited to using
> the USB port. There is a lot of info on the web on
> how to get the DISH modem to talk directly on the
> Ethernet (it has an RJ-45 connector for 10BaseT, but
> you have to open the modem up and pull a card :-).
> With that, you can attach it to a router.
>
http://www.starbandusers.com/index2.shtml has more info
on StarBand, and what people are doing with it.
To get a glimpse of what people are doing in terms
of ad hoc broadband distributed 802.11b networks, look
at http://www.bawug.org/ and http://www.pdxwireless.org.
Anyway, lots of info on wireless broadband are on the web.
www.wirelesstcp.com is another place to look.
Finally, 2-way satellite Internet connection is not for
everybody. These are goesynchronous birds that are way out
there. The ping times through a satellite connection are
terrible. Games, streaming audio and streaming video are
questionable. I have not asked anyone about streaming
stock tickers yet :-).
73
Kok Chen, AA6TY
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