I am on cable but I'm in a big city... though I'm in basically a weird little cellular gap for my cell service but I have a solution for that come the holiday sales weekend lol.
Here's a bunch of info so you can consider all your potential options and understand the differences. This is generalized so someone who specializes in any/each of these areas may have more precise info for you but this should lead you down the correct path to begin with or to make a decision based on your circumstances :)
General Info:
Think of your options as like a pipe. The size of the pipe will greatly dictate how much internet can get through (limitations of how fast and how much data)
- Satellite Internetis often the weakest option meaning the smallest "pipe". Could this be different with different satellite offerings sure, but the technology in general = smaller'ist pipe of your options lol
- Hughes Net - pure trash. They cost an arm and a leg and they have TOTAL LIMITS of data that are not feasible. No real service today over a line will give you a limit that you would have to dance around if at all. I know a guy who had it, he jumped ship for Verizon's new Cell Wifi technology which worked 10x better for him
- Phone Line Internet is often 2nd or 3rd weakest option. This can vary based on how new/old your phone lines are. In general lets assume regular plain old phone lines, you will not be able to get enough data over that "pipe" to be worth a darn. My parents have this in their small town and their phone lines have not been updated since the 80's so data is coming over a copper line built for telephone data/voice transfer.
- Newer line can send more but again its a crap shoot and each place is different so your mileage may vary. General rule of thumb is to use a later "pipe" of technology like the options named next
- Cell Home Broadband Options are something very new. Verizon offers it for sure because the guy I know that tried HughesNet switched to this service. If you have 4g cell coverage at your location than this is an option for you.
They work similarly to how your phone works but are customized to work more for a home than a small portable cell phone. My understanding is that the cell towers now have seperate equipment optimized to provide this service. You are issued a "box" you hook up at home that communicates to the cell tower hardware and boom you are in business. This tech is long overdue as the concept is not new at all because it already happens with cell phones BUT cell phones are not home computers therefore they don't have the stronger tech requirements needed for really heavy broadband support.
This option may be really good for youto look into if you have good 4g coverage and no other options AND your provider or a provider in your area has the offering- Cell Phone Hotspot or Data Cards (Honorable Mentions) - if you don't have a cell provider around that offers straight home broadband then this might be an option to limp by on but they don't come with very good unlimited data plans. You can get unlimited data but they will slow it down on you, on an already not so fast "pipe".
The cell phone hotspot works by allowing your phone to turn into a wifi broadcaster with its current cell signal and you connect your computer to it over wifi. It's simply sharing the connection so if your phone has decent 4g coverage then you can rely on this for mostly things like internet surfing, email, etc but no video or audio services like netflix of spotify or radio over internet.
The data card is a bit more tailored to computer use and is similar to the home broadband idea but a smaller pipe. It needs it's own plan just like home broadband will BUT the technology is a smaller pipe and data plan is closer to your phone's data plan than anything else, not really tailored for home usage.
These are options if nothing else coming up works and you dont like or don't have the options already mentioned.
- Cell Phone Hotspot or Data Cards (Honorable Mentions) - if you don't have a cell provider around that offers straight home broadband then this might be an option to limp by on but they don't come with very good unlimited data plans. You can get unlimited data but they will slow it down on you, on an already not so fast "pipe".
- Cable Internet should be considerably better than any option mentioned so far. It is simply a bigger "pipe" since it had to run video and audio over it's cables so the cables were built to transfer considerable data where phone lines are not (they do phone calls) and satellites are very specific "use", resource restricted, and beam from space.
THIS will very very likely be your best option if you have cable already in a rural area. - Fiber Optic/FIOS is going to be the best option available for the average Joe if it is available. The "pipe" is massive compared to all other options mentioned so far. This is the big daddy and nothing stands close to it should you simply want fast interneat and or require intensive data transfer up/down.
Upload speed isn't too much of an issue but if you are wanting to be an online streamer then we can discuss how much MB you would look for going up :)
Hope this info helps :)
