The need for stable connectivity has never been greater. While some rural businesses turn their attention to the benefits of increased yield through smart farming, many are still just facing basic issues with having a reliable connection.
Therefore, rural connection challenges are far from solved, but do we have the solutions for them?
Internet reality for rural-dwelling Australians
The overall connection problem your rural business faces can sometimes be as simple as getting the best connection ever, even for the most basic online tasks.
And these tasks are not just work-related.
We know the dramas that come with your kids needing decent internet speed and latency, both for distance learning, and that’s before we even consider the scene that unfolds if they are unable to stream their favourite TV shows once school is done for the day.
“We are so remote, we rely on telehealth. But what good is that when you lose your connection in the middle of a chat with your doctor?” says the Gulf of Carpentaria mayor, Bawden.
“Our businesses can’t do transactions because the EFTPOS machines are always down, you can’t do remote learning, run meetings, because online connections are always dropping out.
It drives you insane – it stifles business, it stifles everything.”
We have seen this problem has been further exacerbated with the COVID lockdowns, where everyone had to stay at home and share the same connection.
From low bandwidth to zero connection
Such unreliable connectivity brings its unique set of challenges.
For some rural Australians, you might have to worry about streaming services and video calling using up a lot of bandwidth. Your available data runs out quickly, and you’re left with very little for essential tasks like sending emails.
Even worse, once the data bandwidth is gone, it’s hard to get anymore.
But some rural businesses struggle even to get connected in the first place, burdening families with the stress of getting a unique connection set-up just to tap into the local broadband.
And suddenly, a simple connection is showing copious dollar signs. Cost is so often unforeseen and unmanageable. And there are not many rural businesses with technical knowledge or spare time on hand to get things up and running when things go wrong.
In fact, it’s safe to say that it is perhaps one of the biggest challenges to finding decent technical support when a connection-related problem arises.
Often, your only option is to call up a helpdesk where you get put on hold for hours before you get any help – leaving you with subpar and patchy coverage and a slow issue resolution time.
This is the last thing you need when you have to drive 30km just to log a call to a support team and the issue can’t be resolved for another two weeks.
It’s safe to say that rural based Australians need and deserve not just a decent internet connection that can handle the load from both work and home activities, but also dedicated help support that can help resolve any technical issues in a heartbeat.
Remove the stress of poor connection and get back to running your business and family
The confusing part for consumers, is that there are so many providers out there, making promises to regional Australian families and businesses but who are ultimately unable to deliver.
So, we can imagine what your first question would be – why are IPSTAR different from all the other connectivity providers?
As a long-established rural satellite solutions provider, IPSTAR is a trusted household brand. But did you know we are part of a network of satellite specialists that cater to different connectivity challenges and needs?
Some of our plans even give you the option to purchase additional data blocks if that is something you need. This provides much greater flexibility too, reducing the headaches caused by slowed services.
Only VPNs and streaming services count towards your monthly bandwidth – leaving you with plenty left to keep your business running.
We know that something going wrong can sometimes mean driving kilometres to the nearest phone reception point just so you can make that call to fix it. Which means that you are relying on resolving your issues on the spot, so you don’t have to drive back again.
Our Australia-based support staff standing by 24/7, and not only are they ready to quickly help you with any connectivity issues you might have, but they are also obligated to resolves issues on the first call.
Ross lives in a remote spot in Western Australia and he vouches for the prompt and helpful response he received:
“So easy to get the right information, what I need, when it will be done, nothing was a problem, returned all my calls and the most I was on the phone was about 10 minutes.”
And did you also know we are experts in satellite connectivity? If you’ve got concerns about satellites, then take a read of these blogs where we bust myths about satellite connections.
It’s worth considering that satellites will mean you can have excellent coverage, even if you live 15 kilometres away from the nearest radio tower.
“Excellent product and just in time for lockdown, kids schooling, wife working from home and home entertainment. I have had no dropouts or bad connections. Once the initial set up was established it has been faultless” Chris, WA.
