That's funny. I was trying to get a different internet service a couple of weeks ago and tried a local cable company that offered internet as well - pretty cheaply. So the guy kept trying to set me up with an HDTV package before he would even talk to me about the internet. Wouldn't even tell me how much internet was if I bought the TV package. I kept telling him we don't watch TV. The only thing we do is watch VCR/DVD movies. We read. Really, we don't watch it! - He just couldn't comprehend it. I finally said goodbye without ever finding out how much the internet package would be if we did get TV. It just sucks your brain out anyway. We live in an area that can only use wireless/satellite - no cable lines run out here. We did finally settle on a satellite company, but the hoops to jump through just to do research were incredible.
We have a similar situation here. We are actually quite suburban, really, I can see the lights of Portland from the house, though we are about 4 miles from any public transportation or McDonalds.
So we're "roughing it."
Our property is located in a "Farm Zone" but surrounded by low-density residential lots. There is a 1 mile gap in the upgraded phone/cable wires from the official companies, and we're right in the middle of the gap. I used to call the phone company all the time, and each time I was assured I was mistaken, that they had wired "everything" ... then there is a pause, and an "Oh, wow. We haven't wired you ... and we're never going to ... unless you pay for it yourself." Maybe three times I've asked for an "estimate" of how much it would cost to bring the wire either up the hill or down it, and the figures have been laughable, 10s of thousands of dollars ... though I think the first quote was 100s of thousands of dollars.
We need internet for our business. Interesting how some of the farm services certifications, etc., are Internet Only now, but nobody thought to "wire" the farms. Big Double Dumb Duh government at work typicalness. This is why we need to elect more women.
For a VERY long time we hobbled along AOL dial-up. Then we had the service provided through Dish TV ... and it sucked maybe a little more than the Dish TV itself. ANY kind of weather and we were without either TV or Internet, and that was okay until they stopped doing old-fashined TV broadcasts. We never bought the converter boxes because I am the one who organizes these things and I don't watch TV myself, so it just didn't get done. We still have Dish TV, though not in my part of the house.
Now there is a new service where they can "bundle" two phone lines together and use that for a high-speed connection. It works really well and is fast enough that I don't complain constantly. It is also less expensive than the satellite, and we don't go over our monthly allotment of service. I use it in my part of the house to watch stuff on Netflix and do Internet stuff. The service is fast enough for regular Netflix, but not fast enough for the 3D movies ... though that might be the house WiFi and not the service itself. I don't care enough to research that, but I should. I use 3D movies for vision therapy ...
Over the years, a couple of other farms in the neighborhood (vineyards, actually) have bonded with us regarding research and phone calls and trying to pressure the phone/cable company to upgrade our area. We've all switched to this new bonded phone-line service. It's nice to have other people helping with the complaining and the research.
