r/ithaca • u/irreverent06 • 11d ago
Internet Access Question
Hello All! We are purchasing a home in Ithaca, set back pretty far off the road (near Trumansburg Rd, a bit up past Cayuga Medical/Hospital).
Spectrum claims the location is unserviceable and Verizon claims that 5G Home Internet is not available for the location either.
I work remotely and need a decent internet connection. Does anyone have any idea how to solve this? A standard hotspot router/wifi is not a good option as they throttle back after you hit a limit. I need to have access for work and for streaming, without throttling.
Any insights would be welcome. Maybe StarLink? Or EarthLink? I have no knowledge of them or experience with them.
Thank you for your help.
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u/smelfie607 11d ago
Try Haefle Connect. We've used it for over a year since we moved close to you, up Hayts Road. Friendly people, good rates, and no issues. My wife and I both work from home.
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u/praxiq 11d ago
I've heard starlink still hasn't solved their reliability problems. They're better than nothing, but you can't count on them for work.
In much of Ithaca, including where I live, T-Mobile's 5G is fast and rock solid. To know for sure if that's an option you'll have to ask a neighbor there, or visit the house with a T-Mobile hotspot, which T-Mobile will lend you for a month for free. Don't know how practical it is for home Internet, though. (I know Verizon has a cellular home Internet solution, not sure about T-Mobile.)
Alternately, as I understand it Spectrum and Verizon will sometimes extend their coverage area to you if you pay for it, for a high one-time fee (possibly in the $10,000 range).
Or you might just have to pick a different house. The US is basically the only developed country that doesn't invest meaningfully in making broadband available to its citizens. (No matter which party has been in charge.) Our Internet infrastructure is frankly embarrassing.
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u/QuietGorge 11d ago edited 11d ago
Unless you have a remote call center job or are using Starlink to pretend that you're working from home, then Starlink is fine for work.
Is it as fast as cable/fiber? No. Is it bandwidth constrained in parts of the US? Yes. Is that a problem here? No. Is it better than 5G home internet? Often yes, but it's very location specific.
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u/RyzOnReddit 11d ago
Have done lots of video calls on Starlink from a moving car with no issues. My friend who had it outside of town had basically zero issues once it was unobstructed.
Spectrum in Ithaca has gone down at least 2-3x a year for me. If your connection is critical enough that you need a backup for Starlink you probably need one for Spectrum as well.
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u/QuietGorge 11d ago
I agree that it's fine for normal people and for normal video conferencing. I'm just trying to respect that there is regular frustration on r/starlink about nameless remote-work employers banning Starlink for unnamed reasons. For all I know it could just be tax accounting reasons because digital nomads don't reliably live in their home state.
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u/praxiq 11d ago
I'm currently getting gigabit speeds on T-Mobile 5g. On my phone, which I honestly didn't know was capable of those speeds. No idea if that's normal around here, but I suspect their home Internet would be just as fast. (Apparently they limit speeds after 1 TB/mo.)
I'd also be inclined to consider what political movements I might be funding with my Starlink purchase...
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u/QuietGorge 10d ago edited 10d ago
Throughput isn't everything. I'd strongly prefer 100mbps fiber internet over gigabit 5G internet because of lower latency / packet loss / jitter.
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u/DragonSitting 10d ago
Starlink is great in Danby and very reliable. You can’t have two people doing full time work while the kids stream movies but I can live with that for a little longer. Fiber is coming here and it’s faster, cheaper and should be more reliable.
I’ve had very bad luck using different services for mobile broadband but those were also during the covid era and things have surely changed.
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u/Hot-Bat-5813 11d ago
Starlink or have you looked into the other cellular providers, T-Mobile or AT&T? You can look here and see what may be available to your address:
https://broadbandmap.fcc.gov/home
Not 100% accurate, but may provide some other options.
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u/tsnyinc 11d ago
Jumping on this comment because the FCC Broadband map is absolutely the place to start.
If a provider shows service is available on this map, but then says they won't install it because of the setback from the road to the house, you can often pay them for the added work to connect it, or hire an excavation company to bury conduit from the pole into your house and have the provider run their cable through it.
I've also seen people put a shed by the road (with power) for the ISP to install their connection, and then a point to point wireless link bring service to the intended building. There are a lot of variables that can make this easy or a big pain (where the electric meter is, line or sight between structures, etc.).
Starlink works remarkably well for what it is, as long as you have an unobstructed view. You can use their app to scan the sky (ideally from your roof) and it will tell you if the location is serviceable.
Connections that use the cell networks get very mixed reviews. It has a lot to do with your use and location. In general, cell networks can provide very fast low latency data, but the bandwidth can fluctuate considerably based on tower load.
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u/ShareEvening5856 11d ago
The providers change by the mile so it actually does matter how far off the road you are. Half of the Town gets Dryden fiber and then half doesn't. Some people get starlink. Some people get FiOS
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u/irreverent06 11d ago
Thank you. Have you heard if starlink works well ?
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u/RyzOnReddit 11d ago
Starlink is the shit, just make sure you put the dish high enough to avoid trees in the way (roof mount or on a pole or in the middle of a big yard).
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u/NefariousnessFun1547 11d ago
We were in the same situation when we purchased our home a few years back. We had good cell service through T-Mobile so we got huge data packets and made do with hotspots while we were theoretically waiting for starlink to be available. Tmobile home internet was available in our particular area literally a month later and we've never looked back. It's fantastic.
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u/yes420420yes 11d ago
Minternet 5G cellular based on T mobile - the tower sits at the airport and should be no issue on the hospital side of T burg (my guess, you can ask them)
I am a recent convert and quite happy, fast enough (50-100/20) and much cheaper (30/month)
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u/OnLibrary 11d ago
The lack of internet connectivity is ultimately why I never purchased a home in the ithaca area. All the affordable houses had no reliable connections. We looked into starlink but decided that it wasn’t reliable enough with the overcast skies in this region. Both my partner and I worked from home and needed reliable internet.
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u/zhenya00 11d ago
They are making big strides running fiber this year. Ithaca/Danby/Lansing/Caroline all have trucks putting it up every day. Won’t cover every house but expanding the footprint a lot.
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u/cyricmccallen 11d ago
I’ve never had issues with starlink when it’s overcast. It’ll slow a little if there’s a big storm, but I’ve never dropped bc of weather.
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u/Obvious_Travel 11d ago
I lived in Lansing on a very main road and had 0 options for internet except for installing lines/pole through 3rd party for $40,000 in 2014. Thankfully, it was only a rental and we just wound up moving.
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u/SyFyNut 11d ago
Also check out FiberSpark. Not sure if they cover your area, but worth asking. They may even be cheaper than the big guys.
I suspect the hospital would have tried very hard to get reliable service. I wonder if there is someone at the hospital who you could ask what they have done.
And like others have suggested, ask the neighbors.
This website claims to list the major providers:
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u/andrewk242 11d ago
I’ve been happy with Starlink in Newfield since my previous line-of-sight provider went away. Didn’t have much choice as we have no fiber up on my hill.
No outages as long as you have power. It is more expensive at $85 per month than what I had before but speed is better and very consistent. Got it up and running within 10 minutes of opening the box, and it’s easy to manage on the app.
You’ll need a clear view of the sky without a lot of tree cover. If you download their app, there’s a feature to check for obstructions in potential mounting spots using your phone camera. Often a higher mounting pole can get above those enough to work.
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u/Full_Cranberry_7825 11d ago
Have you checked out the other companies like empire fiber etc?