Escaping from the crush of the city to live in a quiet, rural area has a great deal to recommend it. Better air quality, a slower, less stressful pace of life and a greater appreciation of nature are among the many upsides. Until recently, one of the few downsides was the lack of decent internet access.

In many rural areas, the only way to get online has been to use dial-up. Not only is dial-up incredibly slow by modern standards, it also works through the same part of your phone line that you would normally use for voice calls. This means that if someone is trying to reach you on the telephone while you are online, they will get a busy signal.

              In some areas, mobile broadband is also an option. This is quicker than dial-up and makes use of the same networks utilized by mobile phones. However, mobile broadband packages generally come with relatively low data allowances, which means that depending on how you use the internet, you may soon find yourself having to pay penalty charges for having exceeded your limits. A three-minute HD YouTube video can use as much as 50MB and watching a lot of videos, listening to a lot of online music or downloading a single movie can quickly eat up your entire monthly allowance.

                A far better alternative for most rural areas is satellite internet. This is an ‘always on’ service which means you are permanently online for a fixed monthly cost and never have to wait to get a connection. Because of this, you never have to worry about how long you spend on the internet or how long a particular download is taking because your monthly costs will be the same regardless. Satellite internet services tend to offer far higher data allowances for a similar price to mobile broadband packages and have the added advantage of being significantly faster.

                  Satellite internet requires the installation of a satellite dish on your property and you will also need to use a special modem. If you already have satellite TV, then all you need is the modem as you will be able to make use of your existing dish to connect to the internet. Your existing satellite TV provider will almost certainly be able to provide access to the internet for only a small additional payment each month and will probably represent the best available deal.

         With satellite internet not only is your phone line not tied up, but you don’t actually need a phone line at all. If, as with many people, you now make and receive the vast majority of your calls using your mobile phone, switching to satellite internet represents another way you can save money by getting rid of your landline all together, something that simply isn’t possible with dial-up.

High-speed internet is a joy to use and once you’ve experienced it, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it. The internet becomes far more pleasurable to use when you don’t have to constantly wait for pages to load or open. Sending a quick email, checking the weather, finding a recipe or checking an online auction site can only be done almost instantly, allowing you to fully enjoy more of the benefits that the internet brings to modern day life without any of the delay.

Tamara Matthews is the editor of a renowned broadband technology company. Tamara likes to share her knowledge and ideas on broadband and cable providers. You can check her latest articles: internet providers in my area, Satellite TV etc.