Rural Residents Put Up Their Own Wireless Tower

Rural Residents Put Up Their Own Wireless Tower COMPUTERS Tired of having slow internet? You might want to do what a group of rural residents in Pennsylvania did They banded together and put up their own wireless internet tower Internet providers had been telling residents for years that providing higher internet speeds in rural Big Valley was too pricey So a group of folks simply got together and put up their own tower It provides high-speed internet via radio waves instead of cable They set up a nonprofit co-op called Rural Broadband Cooperative The tower was erected on a local farmer’s land which had a high point at about 1 900 ft Anyone who can see the 120-ft tall tower can receive service Users pay an initial setup fee of $300 and $40 to $75 per month depending on speed of service Speeds range from 5 to 25 megabits per second There are 40 paying customers About 25 members kicked in $60 000 for the project in 2017 and all the work was done by members Besides erecting the tower which was formerly used for ham radio they had to clear land and build a small bunker under the tower to house the electronics needed says Kevin Diven a founding member The signal is bounced from town out to the tower and then to small dishes mounted at each home The tower can service a 15-mile radius To receive a good signal the line-of-sight must be clear of leaves branches or other interference

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