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California is home to some of the most beautiful beaches in all of the USA. Over 40 million people are residing in the State. Since the area is diverse geographically as there are mountains and broad deserts all in the same place, there are various choices for internet connections available to the residents.
Options for urban area residents
If you are living in a densely populated area, terrestrial connections will work much better for your requirements. Among these connections, the cable would be the apparent choice because most people already have a subscription to cable and landlines. Then there are the suburbs. They are not too dense population-wise and have access to solid advanced tech infrastructure. People living at such locations can enjoy any broadband service that they want.
Options for rural areas residents
The State also houses around 5 million people who are living in rural locations. There are various options for internet connectivity available all over California. They include Cable, Fiber-Optic, DSL, and Satellite connections. However, the rural area residents can get only satellite internet as they lack the relevant infrastructure of fixed wired and cables.
If you are residing at such a location and are looking for an ISP that can help achieve your goal of connectivity, you have two options. One is HughesNet, and the other is Viasat. Both offer satellite wireless internet service, providing connectivity to the whole country. Hughesnet internet prices make it the absolute go-to option for many people. The speeds are consistent over all the plans, and the prices are affordable for most households and individuals.
Moreover, these areas are sparsely populated. This allows for clear views of the sky and therefore, signals can easily travel between a satellite in space and the dish antenna on earth. If there are skyscrapers or densely populated cities, the satellite radio signals get dispersed.
Benefits and drawbacks of satellite internet
The biggest perk of going for a satellite connection is that it is available everywhere n the country. This makes it an ideal choice for remote locations. There is, however, a setback. The installation charges are more expensive as you cannot just install a dish antenna on your own. You need professional help with that. Although, you can skip inside equipment charges by fixing up the modem on your own.
There are no wires and cables required to spread the connection throughout the house. Similarly, there are no such issues regarding bringing the service connection to your home. It is all wireless and works with the dish antenna outside, the modem inside, and the satellite orbiting the earth in space.
The monthly charges are higher than those offered with terrestrial broadband and there are soft data limits. If you exceed your plan data limit, there will a reduction in the download speed for the rest of the month.
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Choosing a connection
Simply, check out the Localcabledeals webpage if you are living in the State of California with no existing subscription. They have detailed information regarding services and prices. Moreover, you can also search for available ISPs in your area by putting in your zip code.
We’re going to go through the two available satellite/wireless ISPs, namely, HughesNet and Viasat. We’ll take into account their plans and prices to help you decide on any one of them according to your requirements. You can then shop for the one that offers the best value at the most affordable rates. First, let’s look at some of the demographics of internet connection available in California:
- Cable and satellite internet providers can access more than 90% of customers
- Around 68% can access DSL as well as fiber connections
- All the residents have access to a minimum speed of 25 Mbps
- Among those, almost 90% can access speeds of 100 Mbps and more.
HughesNet
With its new Gen5 connections, all the HughesNet customers can now get a consistent bandwidth of 25 Mbps. There is a 3 Mbps upload speed. While 25 Mbps may not sound high enough, it is actually enough for most kinds of internet usage. The internet plans offered by the ISP are fairly simple and straight. The prices range between $59.99 to $149.99 per month and the allowed data limit ranges from 10 GB to 50 GB.
HughesNet offers 50 GB additional data free of cost with all the plans. This is also called the Bonus Zone data and can be used between 2 am and 8 am. There is a contract of 24 months, and the plan prices will not hike during this time. The dish antenna is included in the price of every plan. However, the built-in Wi-Fi modem/router is not. Customers can lease the modem for $14.99 per month or buy it for $449. Free standard installation is offered to users who lease the modem/router.
Viasat
It is a little more on the expensive side. However, if you want to go for higher speeds on a satellite connection then Viasat is what you can opt for. The offered internet download speeds range between 12 Mbps and a maximum of 100 Mbps. The plans are priced between $50 and $150 per month.
Viasat offers variable plans that customers can select as per requirement. Every plan is different from the other in terms of data limit and price. There is a two-year contract with the ISP. The downside or the worrisome part is that after three months of staying on their plans, the price goes up. That is never a good thing, especially if you are new to the market and haven’t researched your options well.
The state of California has ranked for being the 33rd most connected in the United States. There are still many households that aren’t connected to any kind of internet service. This translates into multiple drawbacks. The major one among them is price control. ISPs offering telecom services can charge whatever amount they want.
With more customers subscribing to services, these prices are bound to come down because the cost is then distributed among those residents. Until that becomes a reality, you have only the above-mentioned choices.
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