High-Speed Internet Access Is Finally Coming to Rural America

5G fixed wireless home internet offers an option

But traditional broadband technology has its limitations. Stringing miles of cables or optical fiber to remote rural customers is time consuming and expensive.

The much-hyped introduction of 5G cellular service didn’t improve the picture much. Its higher-frequency radio waves require a greater concentration of towers than the old 4G networks.

So-called millimeter-wave 5G signals can’t travel as far as 4G LTE transmissions, which means many rural locations remain out of reach. However, some fixed-wireless solutions have been introduced as an alternative to cable Wi-Fi in the past couple of years.

T-Mobile has launched its fixed-wireless Home Internet in limited areas. For $50 a month, high-speed access is delivered using a T-Mobile supplied 5G router/modem that then uses Wi-Fi to connect a subscriber’s devices online. 

Verizon offers a similar service dubbed 5G Home Plus for $60 a month. However, both services have limited availability and neither cover rural areas with little or no cellular service.

Telephone wires, satellites are slower

So folks in the country have typically had only two options: old digital subscriber lines (DSL), which is internet service over wired telephone lines, or satellite services such as Germantown, Maryland-based HughesNet and Carlsbad, California-based Viasat. In many cases, they are too slow to handle many of the ways information is disseminated today.

The maximum speed of DSL service in urban areas is 100 Mbps, according to service-comparison site BroadbandNow. And that speed is more of a rare burst than a constant. The best a fixed DSL line could muster in some tests in a rural area was 1.2 Mbps on downloads.

Almost a quarter of rural residents 50 and older were likely to use their local phone line to deliver high-speed internet via DSL, twice as likely as urban or suburban residents, according to a 2021 AARP study.

Satellite internet services often promise up to 25 Mbps but usually fall short of that, especially when the weather is rainy, snowy or windy. Speeds of up to 75 Mbps can cost close to $170 a month.

Netflix streaming video service recommends speeds of at least 3 Mbps to watch a single standard-quality video, commonly referred to as 480p, a screen height of 480 pixels with a progressive scan that draws the picture line by line in sequence; 5 Mbps for high definition; and 25 Mbps for ultra-high definition or 4K.

In 2015, the FCC raised the official requirements for broadband to 25 Mbps for downloads and 3 Mbps for uploads. That’s about 40 times slower than the gigabit download internet speeds that providers such as AT&T Fiber, CenturyLink, Google Fiber, Verizon Fios and Xfinity offer in urban areas.

“I think most services perform well over a 100 Mbps-plus download and 20 Mbps upload network. We design services around that,” Cisco’s Beesley says. However, in households with multiple users online and more smart home devices like web cams, “obviously more is better.” 

A different kind of satellite offers alternative

The challenge of bringing broadband to the boonies has made the market receptive to new technologies. The most prominent now is small low-earth-orbit satellites to relay internet connections. The first such service is called Starlink, launched by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, and made famous for its use in Ukraine in the war against Russia. 

Starlink eventually will use a constellation of thousands of satellites to bring internet service to remote locations around the world with speeds of 300 Mbps or better. Unlike a HughesNet or DirecTV satellite, these are not geosynchronous or geostationary satellites, which typically sit in one spot about 22,000 miles above the planet. Starlink’s smaller satellites orbit 340 miles above the Earth, substantially reducing the signal delay or latency. 

By the end of October 2023, Redmond, Washington-based Starlink had more than 5,000 satellites in orbit, according to independent observers. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets can put up 60 at one time, but thousands more satellites will be needed to provide complete coverage.

Initially, Starlink service focused on southern Canada and the northern United States, but it is rapidly expanding around the world. Starlink recently announced that it now has 2 million active subscribers and is available on seven continents in more than 60 countries. 

How low-earth-orbit service fared in the country

During its initial release, I conducted weeks of hands-on testing as part of Starlink’s beta program, and then returned to the service in early 2023 to reassess its performance. The bottom line: The technology represents a significant improvement over the alternatives, with speeds hundreds of times faster than DSL. I regularly recorded top download speeds of 200 Mbps.

For the first time in a rural Vermont location, email downloaded in a split second, and movies could be streamed without watching a “buffering” icon every few minutes. Facetime, WebEx and Zoom video meetings also were conducted along with innumerable data-intensive tasks, such as updating a computer operating system and playing games online. They all worked well with some caveats.

Speeds varied widely from about 28 Mbps to 200 Mbps. The low-earth-orbiting satellites move, so Starlink’s dish and software must track them constantly, which could be one reason for some of the discrepancies. Furthermore, the Starlink connection often would drop for no apparent reason, suddenly interrupting what was until then a perfect Skype call.

Cisco’s Beesley explains that such hiccups are akin to those that occur when you’re on a train and the cellular system has to transfer your phone call from one tower to another as you travel.

“It’s still a minor problem,” he says. “But as the mesh network builds out, the more seamless the hand-off can be.” So as Starlink sends more satellites aloft, the company expects reliability to improve.

In 2022, the FCC approved up to 7,500 Starlink satellites to be launched. However, Starlink initially sought the OK for more than 30,000 satellites despite objections from competitors that it would lead to more space junk and the possibility of damaged satellites falling to Earth. 

Up-front equipment costs can be expensive

Starlink’s package costs $599 for its satellite dish and Wi-Fi router, plus shipping and taxes, which puts the total at nearly $700 without monthly service costs, depending on where you live. Basic service is $120 a month. 

Additional plans now include mobile service, useful for recreational vehicle travelers, that costs $150 a month. Many customers will find that price high — and it doesn’t include TV channels or programming. Starlink is also about to introduce a third-generation package for the same price but promising an improved Wi-Fi router.

On the upside, the Starlink system is relatively simple to set up. Unpack the dish, pop it into its four-legged base, find an open piece of sky to aim at, string the cable to the included Wi-Fi router and turn it on.

The dish is motorized and heated to keep it clear of snow and ice. People who live in wooded, mountainous areas might have a more difficult time finding that open piece of sky so their dish can discover satellite coverage.

HughesNet satellite internet starts at $49.99, and data is capped at 15 gigabytes (GB) a month at the top speed of 15 Mbps. The price increases to $124.99 a month for 200 GB at a top speed of 25 Mbps. The equipment has to be purchased for $349.98 or leased for $14.99 a month.

That’s still expensive without a lot of data. If you watch four two-hour movies from Netflix in 4K, you’ll exceed the 50 GB limit. Streaming ultra-high-definition video can use up to 7 GB of data an hour, Netflix says.

Astronomers worry about light pollution

Starlink’s plans have generated more controversy, not just from its competitors. The first complaints came from astronomers and amateur stargazers who pointed out that the light pollution from the low orbiting satellites reflecting sunlight interfered with telescope observations.

SpaceX has tried different solutions, including a VisorSat that uses a black sunshade to reduce light reflection. How effective it has been is still a matter of debate.

With thousands more satellites eventually expected to circle in low earth orbit, Starlink made an arrangement with NASA to avoid future collisions with craft such as the International Space Station. Starlink will automatically maneuver its satellites to avoid any collisions, NASA will not move its equipment and Starlink will report any planned launches to NASA.

Meanwhile, more low earth orbit satellite services are likely:

• Amazon, based in Seattle, received permission from the FCC in 2020 to launch what it calls Project Kuiper to deliver rural internet access, but it is still in its initial test phase. 
• Eutelsat OneWeb, based in London, has recently received approval to roll out service in India. 
• Telesat, based in Ottawa, Ontario, in Canada, has plans to offer similar access and plans to use Musk’s SpaceX rockets to launch a global service available in 2027. 

Ultimately, the low orbiting satellites might resolve the problem of delivering high-speed internet access to less populated areas. The number of people working remotely during the pandemic and now in hybrid work situations has accelerated the demand for high-speed internet access nationwide.

But a challenge remains: Can that demand lower costs for all who want the faster service they see in cities and suburbs?