I was wondering what the cheapest possible internet access one can get in sub-urban south-east Texas? (The Montgomery/Conroe/Lake Conroe area.) The reason being I want internet access, and was wondering if there were some sort of government subsidy, or, almost-free dial-up internet situation or even super-cheap DSL. Maybe even affordable satellite internet? I would be willing to pay a BIT more for broadband or a decent connection bandwidth/ping, but not a whole lot. I was considering NetZero, if they are still alive and kicking. I plan on creating an almost zero-cost living situation, and would like to get my living expenses to be as low as they possibly can be. Although, I do require internet, because it pays for itself. What are your thoughts?
Most of the free/cheap/prepaid internet providers around aren't that great- that is, if it's even available in your area. More often than not, you're not going to find a plan that offers more than, say, 4GB of data a month. Your best bet if you're looking to save money on Internet is if you live in a close neighborhood, or an apartment building. Go ahead and see if any of your neighbors are using wifi. Then ask if you could have their password, and offer to pay half of the bill. Alternately, there are always libraries, hospitals, coffee shops, etc. etc. but I image you'd want it at home.
I live in India and I have to pay a lot for internet access for unlimited data plans. I feel that the cost is lower in places like Korea for your per capita income and hence I think cheapest is something which relates to the income of the households in your country and taking the average of it.
I wouldn't recommend skimping on internet coverage. Most of the best internet plans aren't that expensive anyway and it makes such a huge difference having the faster connection speeds over the slow alternatives. Perhaps if you don't plan on really using the internet all that much, then it'd be worth it to buy the cheaper internet. Myself though, I couldn't stand the slower speeds, especially since I'm on the computer all the time.
Well, I see where you are coming from, but, I am basically an ultra-conservative. I think that 90%+ of what is done online deals mostly with ping, and maybe something that is 2x or 4x dialup speed in BANDWIDTH would be more than what most people would need for most things. Unless all you do is watch YouTube... even then 2 or 3mpbs typically will stream most things, sometimes more than one. Compression is pretty awesome nowadays... in fact that's the only difference between 3g and 4g, I believe... I mean, it's still just data blasted from a microwave tower (cellphone towers use microwaves, a lot like routers/wifi). So basically, what I am saying is that for most intents and purposes that I USE IT FOR, ping is just about everything. Keep in mind that most sites won't load much faster if you have a decent computer setup... also, websites are often bottle-necked by the UPLOAD speed of the website. Meaning, it doesn't matter how fast you TAKE IN information, the website may not give it OUT fast enough for pages to load almost instantly. I have had stupid-fast 4g before when I SOLD it for a living, and, I didn't notice much over 56k, except when I was downloading something massive... THEN it was noticeable. tl;dr pretty much the only thing I care about is price... everything else is just gravy I also recently found out that some carriers offer 9.95 per month to low income households... I think there is a federal subsidy involved. Also, I could maybe get some data from an "Obama Phone."
As of writing the cheapest internet you can get is to share a wifi signal with a neighbor and the two of you split the bill. If you don't mind the possibility of them stealing your financial passwords. I guess trust is a big issue. But if you known your neighbor for a long time, it shouldn't be a problem.
The cheapest internet access would definitely be a free wi-fi from a cafeteria or so. You can get a wi-fi antenna for not that much and you should be able to find a few.
