Internet/Land Line Phone?

[scrotcaster]

Hey guys,,

Just moved to a place east of Bismarck,, only intenet provider out there is BEK.. Callin to get services they told me that I am required to have a land line for $40/month.. making my internet bill essentially $90/month because I wont really use land line for anything.. I kinda feel like iam getting bent over.. but maybe it just the norm.? my question is do I have any other options that's worth a darn to get internet being there the only provider in the area?

 

[DirtyMike]

If your phones are through verizon, I'd check into their hotspots.

 

[SprayNPray]

Ive been dealing with bek for a few years now and its absolute garbage what they charge for internet service. I was told it would cost me more to get rid of the lan line and just have internet. I use to have there whole package tv/internet which wasnt that bad of a deal but there tv was so shitty had to get rid of it. Wish i could have midco back.

 

[jr2280]

The reason you have to have a phone line there is due to the government tariffs. BEK is a cooperative and their hands are tied in that situation. If you would have not moved quite so far east you could have been in BEK's rural Bismarck exchange then you would not have had to take phone due to that not being in the cooperative.

 

[deleted member]

Dish or direct or cell hot-spot are all options for internet.

 

[honkerslayer]

the tariff thing is BS. The reason they force a landline on you is that their government subsidies are based on the number of phone lines they have. Landlines are eroding because of cell service so they take an actual product you want (Internet) and tie a mandatory phone line to it. I think it is legally a bit shady, but I don't think they've ever been challenged on it. This is very popular amongst the rural phone companies. It is 100% about subsidies.

 

[Joe]

I would just pay bek, the other options will still cost the same plus the speed, latency, and caps makes the their services nearly unusable. Satellite should only be considered as a last resort, and all it will take is one bill with $500 worth of overage charges before you abandon cellular.

 

[gonefshn]

the tariff thing is BS. The reason they force a landline on you is that their government subsidies are based on the number of phone lines they have. Landlines are eroding because of cell service so they take an actual product you want (Internet) and tie a mandatory phone line to it. I think it is legally a bit shady, but I don't think they've ever been challenged on it. This is very popular amongst the rural phone companies. It is 100% about subsidies.

Isn't it those subsidies that help pay for the running of those rural lines? I believe they were created years ago in order for people in all areas of our country to have phone service. Without those, it would be cost prohibitive for most in rural America to have any service at all. So, it's probably cheaper to just pay the monthly fee.

 

[Vollmer]

If your phones are through verizon, I'd check into their hotspots.

My brother does this and he says it easily does what he wants.

 

[deleted member]

i've got a verizon mifi that i use for work. got it when i still had straight talk. i am pleasantly happy with it. that being said, it still runs me $70/month and there are caps on usage. so, $90 isn't too crazy. however... if you already have cell service, you can use your phones as a hot spot and then just pick a data plan. pretty sure you would be money ahead at that point as long as you don't watch a lot of porn of course.

 

[Auggie]

If you stream, cell phone hot spots are terrible. We had Verizon internet at the cabin. It worked good, but always went over the data. Now the internet is hard wired and no data overage fees.