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Originally Posted by n8nagel
Edit: now that I think about it, I should look into getting them a cell phone booster for their house. I want to say they have either AT&T or Verizon and have "OK" coverage, often when I visit I have to go outside to get a signal (I have T-Mobile). I know that cellular internet is starting to become a thing - when I got my last new phone the rep mentioned it - maybe it would be cheaper/faster than HughesNet for them, if they had a roof antenna.
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My parents live in a similar neighborhood. Their house is new, and my dad put all kinds of fancy insulation in it. Some of that stuff in the attic has that shiny foil-looking stuff on it, and while it works great as being a heat barrier for the attic, it also ends up working as a signal barrier. Getting radio or cel signals in their house was impossible (but go out the door and you're just fine). We ran a cel booster in there... stuck the antenna on the side of the chimney... worked great. Their internet was having two hotspots. Those work great, but have limitations if you want to have anything more than just wifi for the pc.
During covid, one of the things The White House noticed was people in rural areas had horrible internet capabilities when they realized many kids were unable to go to school on their computers at home... not enough bandwidth or a large enough data plan for all that video streaming back and forth with the rest of the class. I remember them talking about it on the news one week. The White House said they were going to give the internet companies subsidies to put real internet in these areas. Well son-of-a-gun... they actually did it! My parents' neighborhood was one of the first in our area to get it. Got them hooked up 2 months ago. Now they have fast internet, all kinds of tv stations for a lot less money, the house is now tricked out with all kinds of Alexa devices, and no more cel phone issues. And those hot-spots are now all in the garbage.
Speaking to a internet rep in Walmart one day... he showed me on a map where my neighborhood will be getting the same thing in the next year! That means I can stop relying on hot-spots as well!
Now that they have all these capabilities in their home, I will likely look into hooking them a house phone up via the internet. There has been a time or two in which I was there, but since no one was home, there was no phone for me to use.