Anyone who has been to Cedar Island, NC has seen its isolated remote location. Many travelers are passing through and taking the Cedar Island Ferry to Ocracoke Island or beyond to the Outer Banks. My family moved here over a year ago and have encountered some difficulties that have caused quite a lot of stress in addition to unforeseen expenses. Cell and internet service are among the top of our list due to remote job status.
Phone and internet service here is offered here by Century Link but the fiber optic cable was only run 2 miles from the end of the island where I live. From there it is twisted pairs that only offer DSL and less than perfect phone service. HughesNet offers a decent satellite internet option but at a high cost and VPN and work involving large data sets pose issues with slow speeds and disconnection. Recently US Cellular introduced a Home Internet that has resolved our issue, although the cost is a little high and the router must be rebooted frequently it has worked well.
The cell service here is about the same and is only made more reliable with the WeBoost Home cellphone signal booster. US Cellular is the most reliable 4G lte service, but phones must also be rebooted frequently. Verizon and AT&T service comes and goes like the wind here, but due to frequent travel we have AT&T phones that work ok on WIFI calling but still drop occasionally. We have one US Cellular phone that we use for most calling where a stable connection is needed for meetings and such. The only issue with US Cellular is that their network does not reach into areas that we travel and need AT&T as an alternate.
The amount of money switching carriers, paying out contracts, and device payouts was outrageous. My best advice if you don’t need to travel much is US Cellular. My hope is one day Century Link will run fiber optic cable for high speed internet to the end of the island where I live and future cell towers will provide better phone service.
thoriron 