OK, here's the situation. My sister lives in bumblef#$% South Carolina. Batesburg to be exact, directly on Lake Murray. She is too far away from a switching station to get dsl, and cable doesn't travel out as far as she is, so she is relegated to dial up internet access, and as we all know updating a file on dial up is a nightmare, let alone sharing photos, or any thing else families like to do when we are this far away. She uses Direct T.V. I believe just to get a signal. Any way the only high speed internet available to her to her knowledge is a satelite service called Wild Blue, which requires a $200 setup fee, even though she has been given the equipment to use from her inlaws. Then it's arond $60 per month to keep the service. My question is is there a service that will enable her to install a pci card and use cellular service to get high speed internet? Something like Verizon's broadband service for laptops? I know I could look this up myself, but I am wondering if anyone has any experience with something of this sort before I recomend something to her?

Thanks for the help,

Stephen.

 The satellite thing is the only thing I know of and even then its limited to certain locations. I wanted to get it for my mom who lives in extreme North GA and even though she has dish servive they dont support the broadband from there. I was kinda bumed because it is really a pain in the neck for her since she uses her computer a good bit. She knows the joys of broadband too because she had comcast before her and my dad moved up there. Its beautiful country land but I dont know if I could handle not having broadband.. heh

Savage Animal:

My question is is there a service that will enable her to install a pci card and use cellular service to get high speed internet?

Probably it would be best to contact the cellular service providers in your sister's area and talk with them about it, Stephen.

She can probably get internet through a cell plan, problem is out in the boonies she probably has no high speed service available no edge, evdo or 3G just GPRS which would translate to dialup speeds anyway. if Wild Blue offers high speed that probably her best bet. unless she has a neighbor who has another available option for her.

IF she gets service out there cellular add-on is the way to go IMO ... as digital says she wouldn't necessarily be able to get high speed but still should be able to aquire "slow DSL" speeds (in the vicinity of ~256k on the slow end). This would be a remarkable improvement over 48k or w/e she happens to be getting.

Also its noteworthy that she does NOT have to go through her cellphone provider either -- Verizon has standalone service available that you would be basicaly only paying for internet svc after the initial purchase of the PCMCIA or USB card.....I believe Sprint and AT&T both offer something similiar. The prices are not quite as inexpensive if they were to be an add-on service -- I think its ~$50 a month or something like that (not too far away from satellite but Verizon gives you a FREE aircard if you sign up for 2yr SVC through them. Have her stop into her local BBY as ask BBY mobile for details (as they have all providers there -- Sprint, Verizon, AT&T etc...)

 Just so happens end-of-the-line internet is my specialty.  I work for a WISP (wireless internet service provider) in the middle of nowhere, Oregon.  I would look into local businesses and see if there are any WISP providers in your area. Most areas have at least 1, and see what kind of services are available.  Everyone else is correct in the fact that most areas such as that do not have great (if any) internet through cellular because the towers in such areas are outdated.  Wildblue works okay, but only for download.  It's not a viable gaming or VOIP solution due to the high initial burst latency as it initiates the connections to various parts of the web (typically 600ms-1sec delay before you start receiving information).  Beyond the burst as the information starts streaming the downloads speeds are close to most other base-level ISP's.  So do some research on local ISP's first, then go to cellular companies, then to Wildblue as a last resort.

Edit:  On a side note, the FCC is readying the release of a new frequency (700MHz) which will allow for service to reach far beyond any current capabilities.  The equipment is being readied by many manufacturers for release as soon as the spectrum is opened.  So while there may not be a lot of options today, by this time next year things will look much brighter.  Most of the spectrum was auctioned off, but they required that some of the band be left open for WISP's to operate on.  Considering current 2.4GHz technology is capable of shooting up to 50 miles line of site, the lower frequency should allow for miles and miles of line of site and non-line of site services.

If you go with satalite, like WildBlue, you'll need a clear line of sight in the southern horizon.

There has already been the best advice possible given so I won't repeat it. I do have a question though. I have a lot of gaming frinds in Europe. Some of them in Germany and the UK get speeds of 6mbps down (not sure what the up speed is). I know their cell service kills ours and roughly why, but how are they getting those speeds over a dish? And more importantly, why don't we have it?

 satellite and cellular service far surpases that of the US for European countries mainly due to a much larger competitive market. You can easily have 4-5 companies competeing per country over there verses our 4-5 throughout our entire country. Since there is so many more companies in a smaller area there is more competition which makes these companies offer better services then you will find over here. The US is in no way fully utilizing the capabilities of the cellular band. For instance, In many parts of Europe you can be sitting at a bus stop and pull up the bus schedule right on your phone to see when the next bus arrives. That is just 1 of many features that could be implimented. There was a pretty lengthy article on this in pc magazine last year or something.

Thanks Nelson. I knew some but not all of that. I would think with services like WildBlue having to compete with DSL/Cable/FIOS they would work on the speed a bit. As it is now the only people who buy it are those who have no other choice. Not a great business plan if you ask me. I would want to be as fast as possible to poach some of the customers they are already poaching for TV. Just a thought.