Internet access - and maybe TV too

call choice and Inovate. Choice offers internet. Inovative both TV and internet. Just need to see if they cover the place you are going to live in.

Dish offers TV but I know very little about it.

billd

You can email Innovative. (Don't know whether they'll respond via email or not.) I have DSL with them with no problems so if you can have phone lines with them you'd be able to have DSL, I'd think. I have no idea about shutting it down in the summer.

http://www.innovativecable.com/about.html

I've never heard of a service like that here. It makes sense is a vacation place like this. But I wouldn't want anyone knowing when I'm not here. I guess living on water island that doesn't really matter.

Dishnetwork requires that you fulfill a 12 month agreement. 24 months would get you a 3rd tuner. They offer HD and DVR services, That said......During the first year they will allow you to downgrade the package to the lowest pac they offer and still be honoring the contract. After the 12 months you can do what's called a seasonal downgrade. They hold the account for $5 a month and a simple call gets it turned back on upon your return. Many of my customers do this with no problem.

Hughesnet requires an 18 month contract.

If you have a laptop, use an Air Card for Internet Service. I use AT&T for $60 per month, and the card goes where ever I go.

BroadBandVI has a snowbird plan.

http://broadband.vi/residential.php

Warning on the AT&T aircard, you are capped at 5GB per month....be careful with any aircard if you are a moderate to heavy internet user.

Sean

Agreed, but as an IT Consultant, I am on the net pretty heavy especially with the move in process. I normally do about 50 to 100 megs per day or 1.5 gig to 3 gig per month for my business use, well under the allotment.

With my wife back in CT managing the move, we Skype every morning for about 20 minutes. This averages about 100 megs per day or 3 gigs per month. In this situation, it put me dangerously close to the limit by statement close, so I must monitor the usage as the days near the end of the cycle.

VRoberge, good points, Skype especially can eat into that cap...some people like to turn on their video camera's for extended periods too which ups the data being transferred a bit.

Some other things to keep in mind with the 5GB cap:

1) Because we can't get certain things on TV here people tend to use Hulu and other streaming sites to watch shows...this will chew bandwidth. Also people love to Torrent shows/movies here because they are not as easy to buy legally here. That will VERY quickly eat up your limit as you are uploading and downloading at the same time.
2) Slingbox and other devices are getting more popular, if you want to use one of these DO NOT use an aircard...even if you could get the speed you needed this would really eat up your limit.
3) Windows loves to update things in the background, sometimes pulling 500Megs in service packs/hotfixes etc. Without even knowing it you can eat into that limit quite a bit.

I used to use a Sprint card as my internet but when they put a cap on (in mid contract nonetheless) I gave that up...too risky as I don't want to have to "think" about what I'm doing online constantly in regards to bandwidth. I want to pay for a certain level and get it. I use Innovative DSL right now, 1mbps service and have been extremely pleased. I didn't even lose service during Omar, speeds are as advertised (1mbps up AND down) consistently. I think I have a good connection to the CO up here on Mt. Welcome STX so YMMV.

Sean

Thank you everyone! I appreciate all the input. I've got a lot to think about now.

probably a stupid question, but how many hours is 5GB?
We will need High Speed Internet on STX. Dial up is not fast enough. How fast is the At&T?
Any other suggestions? My wife will need a secure area, no people within hearing range to do her business on the internet and phone, so going to a restaurant in not a solution. We are on the North Shore at the end of condo row just before Judith's Fancy. Is there any Wi-Fi in that area?

GB is not a measure of time. It is a measure of bandwidth use.

For Example: Streaming audio for one one hour at Pandora consumes about 35MB. Downloading 30 minutes of the Daily Show consumes about 400MB.

Sloop Jones

Many of the St.C condos have Broadband VI as their internet provider.