I've been reading this forum's posts about CenturyLink because, like other rural Americans, they're 1 of only 4 Internet options we have after moving out to the country. The other options are satellite, which we'd like to avoid, cellular via tether/Hotspot or wireless broadband. I'll talk about that cellular & wireless broadband options later on but first up:
What should I be asking CenturyLink when the big kicker is that I'll be working from a home office? My work requires live web conferencing (Hangouts/Skype,WebEx) so that will be a bandwidth ask of them? My employer provides a VoIP phone for my office so I should ask about latency? Any minimums on bandwidth and latency that I'll need?
CenturyLink's website says our new address will get "6 Mbps" so I assume that is something like 6 down / 1 up? Damn slow compared to City speeds that we came from. It sounds like some folks here have gotten CenturyLink's Techs to check for higher bandwidth while they're onsite for install, so is that what I need to focus on? How do I ask about bonded, if that is one way to get higher bandwidth?
Now for the side comment on cellular and wireless broadband to avoid CenturyLink altogether :) Our cell phones are on Verizon and I can get clear voice signal for work calls at our new home but we're getting "flaky" data. I've tried downloading just 30MiB files over cell when tethered/HotSpot to the phone and several times the download dies midflight and I have to retry. I read where we could get a dedicated cellular device (with external antennas for better cell gain?) but that's assuming Verizon won't throttle us as heavy users. So I don't think going tethered/Hotspot is viable after our Hulu/Amazon Video streaming gets added to my live web conferencing data usage.
On wireless broadband: I'd really like to go this route because it's a Mom & Pop locally owned shop (been by the office and all) but a) they're more expensive than CenturyLink at about same speeds (10 down / 3 up @ $85/mon) b) their nearest tower is 4 miles away and our new home is in a valley surrounded by trees c) one of their towers went out just a few weeks ago and 60 clients were without Internet for over a week (they don't keep towers in stock, I'm sure :). Those reasons sounds like a case for using good ole copper ...
Let me know if this makes sense, and your thoughts, thx!
Justin
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