1. Wireless vs Wired. Which one is right for you? Humble Rural Beginnings In 2004, WaveDirect began offering Internet service to rural communities that otherwise would only have access to dial-up. This was defined as a Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP). Since then, the means of providing Internet service to rural residential and commercial subscribers is better known as Fixed Wireless Internet Service. Fixed Wireless Vs. Mobile Wireless Internet Wireless Internet service can be separated into 2 categories; fixed and mobile. The advantage of using fixed wireless over mobile wireless is that it provides a high-quality Internet connection without bogging down a cellular network which was designed only for mobile use. Mobile wireless was meant for light browsing (like a small burst of internet usage), unlike fixed wireless which can be used for entertainment TV packages and downloading. Prior to the bigger mobile wireless giants offering 4G and now LTE technology, servicing a home or business with a mobile wireless service was completely unheard of and mobile wireless companies promise super-fast speeds have disappointed many who've tried their network as their regular internet. Using a cellular 3G, 4G or LTE phone to stream a video is one thing but tethering it to a TV and expecting to get the same resolution is a whole other story. It may work, but it will come at an excessive cost and the mobile wireless provider will slow your speeds down to a trickle or impose high overage charges on you to conserve bandwidth for their mobile subscribers. Again the mobile network just wasn't designed for this type of usage.

2. Therefore, a fixed wireless solution is your best option over a mobile solution if you have a home or business outside of wired coverage areas offering DSL or Cable Internet. Fixed wireless is a great alternative to the outrageously expensive and poor performing satellite Internet as well. Satellite is a good way to reach nearly any home, no matter how remote, but it will come at a huge cost and undesirable compromise for only moderate performance. Fixed wireless is your best alternative when wired service is unavailable and a huge leap in performance, as well as considerable savings, compared to mobile wireless. WaveDirect has different fixed wireless internet packages to meet your current needs and they are designed exactly for today's internet users, who are looking for Rural High-Speed Internet and can handle things like NetFlix and gaming upload and download data with ease. Being in the county doesn’t mean you need to compromise and it doesn’t mean you need to take out a second mortgage to stream an HD quality movie. WaveDirect offers fixed wireless speeds of up to 15Mbps and data caps so high that even avid video streamers have difficulty reaching any limits. And even if they happened to go over their data caps, our overage charges are the lowest in the industry. Compared to wired Internet services, it’s common to see data caps imposed on wireless technologies, whether it’s fixed or mobile. The reason for this is clear. There’s only so much data that can be transferred over any medium until it reaches a point of congestion causing connection speeds to slow down for everyone accessing the network. Wireless technology has surpassed everyone’s expectations over recent years. I remember when 3G was going to be the Holy Grail and everyone thought fixed wireless was going to become obsolete. Soon after the introduction of 3G cellular service, video streaming services such as Netflix began offering streaming services online at an extremely low rate, making it evident that mobile wireless and satellite Internet services were never going to keep up with demand, thereby, confirming the importance of fixed wireless as the best means for Internet service in the county and rural areas. With the introduction of video streaming and higher resolution televisions, Internet Service Providers were scrambling to figure out how they could possibly deliver the amount of required data over their existing infrastructure. This caused engineers to have to re-think infrastructure at a whole new level! As a result, it wasn't long before 4G was to be the next big thing to end congestion. This too only lasted a few years before, once again, there was barely enough bandwidth to deliver a video stream to a smartphone without buffering.

3. 4G technology paved the way for faster smartphones and consequently, higher demand for media-rich content to high-resolution mobile tablets and laptops. Internet Engineers were once again met with a challenge to surpass the current technology in an effort to meet current demands and along came LTE. To date, LTE is still being rolled out, but is already faced with unexpected challenges posed on it with increased appetites for more bandwidth! So, what’s the solution? Fixed wireless is your best choice for Internet service if you're in the county and cable Internet if you're in town. WaveDirect now offers both! Wired - Now Introducing Cable Internet: From 2004 through 2016, WaveDirect continued to be a top choice for many homes and business in the rural areas of Windsor-Essex, Lakeshore and Kent regions, but beginning in Q1 of 2017, in-town folks can now get our service too with our cable internet services! That's right, thanks to deregulation; you can now get WaveDirect High-Speed Cable Internet to your home if you live in town via existing infrastructure. We are also looking to include Businesses Cable Packages and we expect that to be coming soon when we are finished cutting through the red tape. With a Cable Internet service from WaveDirect, you have the benefit of a truly high-speed Internet service delivered to your home, no matter if you live in Leamington, Essex, Kingsville, Cottam, Windsor, Tilbury, or pretty much any town south of Windsor, all the way up to and including Tilbury (and growing)! The main advantage of having cable internet is consistency. There are very few things that can slow down a cable Internet connection other than overall usage levels. Whereas a fixed or mobile wireless connection can be affected by weather and opposing radio interference, these problems do not affect wired cable technologies.

4. Another major benefit of a wired Internet Service is there are usually super high or no data caps (Unlimited). Unlike mobile or fixed wireless technologies, a wired service has few limitations to deliver data efficiently and therefore less of a need to worry about bandwidth hogs congesting a neighbourhood's wired infrastructure: Not to say it can't happen, but a wired network is usually less affected by bandwidth rich activities than wireless networks and making it more tolerant to excessive use. The cost of installation is also less with a wired cable service than a fixed rural wireless one due to the amount of work saved. Most cable Internet installations only take a few minutes. In most cases, it's as simple as picking up a modem or having one mailed to you already preconfigured for a plug and play setup. A fixed wireless installation, on the other hand, can take a couple of hours depending on the amount of work needed to install and point our equipment to one of our nearby towers and run new cabling to your router. Overall, wired and fixed wireless Internet service from WaveDirect each have their advantages depending on your location and both are capable of delivering dependable high-speed Internet service across our entire coverage area. Call a WaveDirect representative at 855.593.9283 for your best high-speed Internet solution regardless of where you live.