A couple of areas in our state offer 1 Gig up/down, mainly where electrical co-ops installed it in their lines, and it's reasonable, $70 for 1Gb up/down, $50 for 500 Mb up/down. Wish we had that option but we don't need it enough to relocate. We spoke to the co-op fp;ls last spring and they were amused, since their business customers have it but never get close to using 1/4th of that speed (bragging rights are cheap for that price).
MediaCom (cable), Centurylink and ATT (telecoms) offer 1 Gig fiber in a few urban areas, but only if one subscribes to their phone and other services. Ours is a rural area out in the county with only a couple of options, if one doesn't count a smartphone data package, which is advertised to be 4G but isn't. There is a local 'high-speed' wireless provider who offers 1.5 Mb up and 384 Kb down, yawn, and an $85 per month package for 5 Mb down, 1 Mb up, with yearly contract renewals. The phone companies never built-out in the state, but still have a few customers that like their dial-up, but only offer it to customers who have a landline. We asked, and they wanted a pile of Benjamin, just to extend the phone cable to our property.
Thankfully, a few years ago a regional cable/ISP bought out a mom/pop analog cable system which was falling apart, and upgraded their systems and tied into a fiber cable last year. We now have options of 100 Mb down 10 Mb for $150 per month, if we bought into a cable TV package, but went for their 25-40 Mb down with 3-5 Mb upstream for about $60 per month, including taxes/fees, with no contract required. We don't need cloud service so it speedy enough for the middle of nowhere.
Internet access and development in our state hasn't had any significant investment in years, and no one is counting on the so-far non-existent 5G future, which may never arrive in rural areas, not that we'd want to live near a tower. We supposedly already access to 4G, at least according to those who have a smartphone plan, but there have been nothing that indicates it's faster than 3G, with only three over-sold, shared towers in the count. What most hope is that the providers don't return to their practices of the good old days, when rates doubled without warning. It's happening in some places. One cable ISP operator we talked to are worried because of cable-cutting, so they try to subsidize internet access somewhat if customers keep their TV service.
This year the satellite providers have pumped large sums into advertising their internet service in rural areas, raising downstream speeds which were always historically astronomically over-priced and over-subscribed. We called them after looking their website over. They tried to stick with the language that they no longer enforce (strict) data caps during certain hours every day for each month, but as with cable and the telecom operators, you have to take their TV package as well so it's still an expensive proposition for those who have another option. Hope this helps, Happy Holidays
