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Internet providers have left rural Americans behind. One county is fighting back
(www.theguardian.com)
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this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2024
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Before I moved back to the city, I used to use T-Mobile Home Internet in a very rural area and it was the absolute best internet you could get out there. It was about 70 MBPS down while the DSL in the area was max 10.The only other choices for the area was dial up, which was obviously even slower or satellite through HughesNet, which was super expensive and extremely data limited.
I currently have T-Mobile. I cracked their unit open and attached an external antenna which is installed on the roof. I'm getting about 250 stable. Fiber just became available in my area, but the price is more than what I'm paying now.
It's actually really good, isn't it? It makes me hopeful that maybe one day in the future we won't need to run a wire to our houses for the internet just like how we don't run wires to our houses for phone service anymore because nobody fucking uses landlines.
Edit: btw, check out my community i mod !t_mobile@lemmy.ml
I have T-Mobile too. Would you mind explaining the process of adding an external antenna? I’d like to get 250 Mbps stable.
You have to open the unit and disconnect at least two of the internal antenna and plug in antenna adapters. Then you can run the coax from the exterior antenna to the unit and plug them in. Then you use an app to locate your closest tower and point the antenna towards that using the T-Mobile app to see your connection strength.
https://youtu.be/wXSpbP8NuWw?si=oyJdwfuJSwcKvdcj
I wish I could get tmo home internet. My only option is starlink and Verizon LTE, and Verizon has managed to ruin my credit multiple times over their own incompetence.
The area I was in did not officially support it but I knew it would work so when I moved before I just brought it with me and turned it on and it worked fine and after I left I told the new residents to just go in and purchase it and if need be give a different addressAnd it would work. And they did.
My signal is weak due to obstructions.
Our signal was pretty weak about minus 108 dBm at all times, but it was still enough to be functional and be better than everybody else's internet in the area.