Rural internet provider recommendations?

[Happy]

We’ve been with a smallish, independent internet provider for a couple of years. Service has become increasingly sketchy and we can’t continue to play the hit and miss game...not with hubby running a business out of the house!
Explorenet has a promotion on an unlimited use package but we haven’t heard great things about them. Anybody have good or bad experiences with them? There’s no high speed lines past our house (and probably never will be)

[Kbr42]

We have had xplornet for years and I can count on 1 hand how many outages we've had. We were with KOS before and it was like a toilet seat at a mixed party for dependability. I would highly recommend them. It all comes down to your installer. If they are awesome and gets things alinged, you're golden. Check the tree line to the tower, if you need to go higher, then do it. Also, depends on how many people are connecting with the same town will affect your speed and throughput. Good luck!

[labradors]

We have xplornet and they're not bad. We can watch Netflix with them too. It helps that we can see their tower from our house! As Kbr42 says, do check the tree line to tower. Our neighbor across the road and in the woods has a tough time getting reception.

[WLLady]

only option really down here is xplornet. been with them forever.....at least 8 years?? i think. not down too often, but we do have to call and remind them sometimes of the package for speeds that we have, and we have a tough time streaming...sometimes it's good, sometimes it's not. but given our options here they work just fine. They were great when we fried all the equipment getting hit by lightning, were in the next day to fix everything. and the customer service has always been better than any other providers we've been with in the past!!! we BARELY have line of sight to a tower that is almost too far away.....which is part of our issues. with clean line of sight things would be fine.

[Ontario Chick]

It really depends on where you live.
Best way to find out what would work for you is talking to your neighbors and their experience with their provider.
Explornet was the only game in our area and everybody loved them, got on in droves, at which point the service deteriorated because they were reluctant to pay for more bandwidth, and service deteriorated and everybody left in droves again.
A bit of a hit and mis proposition.

[Shnookie]

I live 15 minutes from Regina but can't get high speed internet like they have in the city. Several people here have Xplornet and don't like it. There are a couple other rural providers. I am using my cell phone. It works well because there is nothing in between me and the nearest cell tower. I don't play games on it or watch movies and videos though. I use the USB tether. It uses less data than making the cell phone a hot spot.

[Shnookie]

Also, the USB tether charges your phone every time you plug it into your computer, and it uses less power while your on the internet than when you make the cell phone a hot spot.

[Happy]

It really depends on where you live.
Best way to find out what would work for you is talking to your neighbors and their experience with their provider.
Explornet was the only game in our area and everybody loved them, got on in droves, at which point the service deteriorated because they were reluctant to pay for more bandwidth, and service deteriorated and everybody left in droves again.
A bit of a hit and mis proposition.

The problem is that all of the neighbors (well the ones I will speak to) use the same company we do. They have a tower on top of the silo down the road. It was awesome when we first got it. I was streaming everything and it's an unlimited package. Now everyone has signed up and its brutal.

Can't rely on cell service at my house either. Bell is best but it swings dramatically within the same room.

Xplorenet seems to be great or horrible and I rarely hear anything in between. Guess there's only one way to find out! Thanks for the feedback.

[baronrenfrew]

we have two way satellite with xplornet (where most here have "line of sight" to a tower) and its ok, you do need to shut it down once a month and let it cool down or speed gets slower over time. (i suppose i should put a power bar on a timer and shut it at night). of course if weather is nasty it slows down.

[Farrier1987]

xplorenet has been good for us. We have their homephone too. Works pretty well pretty much all the time.