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Many of us were familiar with this sound back in the era of dial-up, but in this age of gigabit fiber connections,

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streaming 4K video, and cars that connect to the cloud AI in real time, seems like dial-up should be a distant memory.

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But did you know that people still use old-school dial-up as their main home internet connection?

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As of 2021, well over a quarter million homes in the United States relied on dial-up,

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and in 2020, it was estimated that around 1% of Canadians, or around 38,000 people, also dialed in to connect.

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But hold the phone. How is this possible?

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Well, it turns out that quite a few folks in rural areas don't have many other options.

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The main alternative to dial-up in many of these places is satellite internet, which is much faster than dial-up.

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All you need is a clear view of the sky to get a broadband signal, so it's available from at least one provider in most remote locales.

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But that's about where the advantages end. Although satellite internet is high speed in the sense that it isn't dial-up,

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it's still much slower per dollar than the average fixed connection like cable or fiber.

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Basic plans tend to start at around 65 bucks a month, just for 10 to 25 megabits per second.

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Plus, you often have to pay initial and or monthly costs for the equipment.

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SpaceX's Starlink promises faster speeds, but at even higher rates, and an initial $600 fee for hardware.

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Guess Elon has to come up with that Twitter money from somewhere.

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Satellite internet is also notoriously sensitive to the weather, much like satellite TV, and usually has high latency,

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making activities like online gaming a real chore.

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But even if you can put up with that, it's simply cost prohibitive for some folks in underserved areas,

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especially considering some dial-up providers now even provide a fixed number of hours of internet access for free each month.

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The low cost of dial-up also means that devices like ATMs and card readers, which don't need much bandwidth to begin with,

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still often have a dial-up connection at least as a backup.

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But hopefully, what about DSL?

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It runs over planned old phone lines and is much faster than dial-up, so why don't people in remote areas just use that?

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Although higher speed DSL can run over phone wires, it requires specialized expensive equipment at each end compared to traditional dial-up.

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Because it's slower than cable or fiber, many ISPs are killing off DSL because they don't want to deal with the upkeep costs,

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which has caused some controversy since there are people in outlying areas that rely on it to connect to the internet at respectable speeds.

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Not to mention fiber deployments tend to reach wealthier areas first.

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Cost is also the reason rural areas tend to be underserved in the first place.

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The low population density and vast tracts of land mean that cable companies have hang-ups about building expensive infrastructure to every home.

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It's the same reason many of these same houses can't even get cable TV as if they'd want to these days.

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And of course, this isn't the late 90s where the internet was a mere novelty or luxury.

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It's a practical necessity to participate in modern society.

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So many areas with limited options for internet access are losing population,

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giving the ISPs even less of a reason to serve the folks who stay behind.

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But the hope is fixed wireless technologies where an internet signal is delivered to a home via a cell network

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could help bridge this digital divide in the years to come as large mobile carriers continue to build out more towers.

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It'll take time and money, but it could end up being more cost-effective than laying cables everywhere.

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And a lot quieter than listening to Google pick up your backyard.

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Thanks for watching, guys. Like, dislike, check out some of our other videos, comment with video suggestions down below,

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and don't forget to subscribe and follow. Thank you.