# Downsizing to the country? Think about Net access too.



## Lethe200 (Nov 22, 2017)

Why the elimination of 'net neutrality' will affect many in small towns or on limited budgets:

*America** is about to kill the open internet – and towns like this will pay the price*
Residents of Winlock, Washington can barely stream Spotify and Netflix. Changes to net neutrality rules are going to make things even worse
London Guardian U.S. 21 November 2017
https://www.theguardian.com/technol...en-internet-net-neutrality-winlock-washington

(excerpt) It’s Saturday morning at a café near the museum in Winlock, Washington, and Michelle Conrow is eating brunch while surfing the internet on her laptop. What might seem a banal activity for many is a luxury for Michelle. The internet at her house just outside the town is primitive by today’s standards, with speeds similar to the dial-up days of the 1990s. It took three days to download Microsoft Office to her new computer.

Many of the 1,300 residents in this rural area, which was once the US’s second largest egg producer, report frustratingly slow connections. There’s no binging on the latest must-watch Netflix show or streaming music on Spotify to suit your mood. No quick downloading of a podcast for your journey to work as you grab your coat. No running several devices simultaneously as parents catch up with internet banking or shopping on Amazon while their children chat on social media and watch YouTube videos.

Some have no broadband at all because the only provider, CenturyLink, has maxed out its system and there is a waiting list to get a connection, while others live outside the service area. Conrow and others have been complaining about the service for years. And if the internet’s top regulator, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), gets its way, Conrow worries things may never get better.


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## Capt Lightning (Nov 22, 2017)

I thought we were badly served by the internet.  I live in a small village in N.Scotland and the internet is pathetically slow.  There have been promises of high speed fibre optic broadband for years, but nothing has happened.  Some other villages have better speeds, but here it's just about good enough for browsing, e Mail, online shopping etc..  I don't stream films etc., but look at some videos on Youtube.

The greatest proportion of Scotland's residents live in cities so the ISPs can say that 90% of the population get fast internet.  However the other 10% probably occupy about 90% of the area, and nobody worries too much about them.


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## Don M. (Nov 22, 2017)

I guess we're lucky.  We live Waaay out in the boondocks, but have had reasonably good internet service through our old landline phone company, Windstream.  Then, about 18 months ago, our local electrical co-op began installing fibre optic service, and we got it.  Now, our phone, TV(280 channels), and internet are bundled on Fiber, and the service has never been better.  The TV, and phone are crystal clear, and we get 100 MB, Upload and Download internet...I can get speeds up to 1GB if I want to pay $20 a month more...but this basic service is 20 times faster than we had in the past, so I should never need more.  Hopefully, if they change the regulations, our area will escape the nonsense being considered now.


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