What options are there for rural, fast and uncapped internet in 2024 in the Netherlands?

My parents live in a rural area in the Netherlands. So they don't have coax-cable via the monopolist player Vodafone/Ziggo, nor can they take an internet subscription via copper wire (POTS) on ADSL or VDSL. Well, technically they can, but the speed would be roughly 6/1 Mbps which was pretty good in 1996, but that was long ago.

Growing up, we had a dial-up at 56 Kbps (remember those?) and then ISDN that was, if you were willing to pay for the use of 2 phone lines, faster at 128 Kbps. For kids today, that means our home internet was about 0,1 Mbps. Yes, that is slow. Very slow.

My parents are currently using Odido (until recently called T-Mobile) "4G for home" which is a solution of sorts. It's advertised as 30/5 Mbps at € 43,50 per month. Too bad that it's way slower when the air is charged (in a storm), when the leaves of the trees are wet (like in the rain) or when there are many people visiting the nearby area because they are now all sharing the one antenna that covers the area. 

You might think that that is expensive. And it is. The lack of competition in Europe leads to higher prices for internet connections, especially in countries that only have 3 large players in the market. See the Rewheel reachers paper here: The state of mobile and broadband pricing – 1H2024.

But nowadays, next to the option of using 4G/5G internet, there is another option for rural areas: satellite internet. 🛰️📡

A comparison chart for uncapped internet with at least 50 Mbit/sec download speed, both for 5G and sattelite options:

Provider and bundle name	Max speed?	Up-front costs	Comment	Price per month	Price after 2 years including upfront costs	Price per month, all-in after 2 years	Source
KPN Unlimited50, but via Ritel	50 Mbit/sec	You need to buy a 4G/5G router *1	I am shocked at the price difference. This reseller Ritel offers €5 per month discount.	21,50	816,00	34,00	https://www.kpn.com/shop/mobiel/sim-only/
KPN Unlimited50	50 Mbit/sec	You need to buy a 4G/5G router *1		26,50	936	39	https://www.kpn.com/shop/mobiel/sim-only/
Odido 4G voor Thuis Sim Only	30/5 MBit/s	A router is supplied with this subscription	This is the "official" way to get a SIM-only card for home internet	43,50	1056,00	44,00	https://www.odido.nl/shop/product/wnc-dl5m2/22036020
Odido Unlimited Basis	300/80 Mbit/s	You need to buy a 4G/5G router *1	This is the un-official method. Every day you get 10GB, when you need more you have to request extra (free) data in the Odido app.	32,50	1080,00	45,00	https://www.odido.nl/mobiel-abonnement/sim-only
Vodafone Red Unlimited	360 Mbit/s	You need to buy a 4G/5G router *1		32,50	1080	45	https://www.vodafone.nl/abonnement/mobiel/sim-only
Odido 4G voor Thuis Sim Only	30/5 MBit/s	You need to buy a 4G/5G router *1	This is the "official" way to get a SIM-only card for home internet	35	1140	47,5	https://www.odido.nl/shop/product/4g-voor-thuis-sim-only
Starlink Residential	±100-300 Mbit/s	249	Standard Actuated antenna and WIFI 5 router for €249 + 23 shipping	50	1472	61,33	https://www.starlink.com/nl/service-plans
Starlink Residential	±100-300 Mbit/s	349	Standard antenna and WIFI 6 router for €349 + €23 shipping	50	1572	65,5	https://www.starlink.com/nl/service-plans
ASTRA2CONNECT *2	20/2 Mbit/s	489,5	The speed is below the minimum 50Mbit and there is a 50GB/m data cap	72,91	2264,34	94,35	https://www.arobantennebouw.nl/thuis-vakantiewoning/internet/astra2connect-internet-via-satelliet-set/
SkyDSL2+ Home L with premium	75/6 Mbit/s	99,8	You rent the sattelite antenna	50,075	1301,6	54,24	https://www.skydsl.eu/en-NL/Personal/Internet-via-satellite/tariff/details/345
Tooway Connect	30/6 Mbit/s	Both the speed and data cap discuallify this internet provider from the comparison					https://www.deschotelshop.nl/tooway-internet-via-satelliet-complete-set
	* 1  Bring-your-own-router, so about €300 if you buy one like: https://www.coolblue.nl/product/948628/acer-connect-x6e-5g.html
	* 2  I meantion this option even though the speed is below 50 Mbit/s and even though the data plan is limited to %) GB/Month

My conclusion is that if a 4G/5G router with a subscription is not an option for you, then Starlink is your best choice. They are by far the cheapest option for hardware, as well as the cheapest per month subscription price. You can also cancel anytime, so you aren't stuck with a data plan for 12 or 24 months.

Europe and USA Yearly eSIM by MobiMatter

I use an iPad Air with built in LTE, so, whenever I'm traveling and don't want to use tethering I'll just buy a one-time eSIM and load that into my iPad. 

Where do you get those data-only eSims? I usually use bitrefill but I just discovered mobimatter which is cheaper in some instances (and they sell eSIM cards that are good for more then 30 days) 😊 

I'm considering just buying a big chuck of data (say, 50GB) and just have it on head for the next 365 days for whenever I need it. 

Pro tip: on new iPhones you can use an eSIM next to your nano SIM card as well. So even when your provider has technical problems , you can use another second SIM card in your phone as backup which could use roaming and just switch over to another provider that's still functioning. When SHTF this could be a useful option. Prepare accordingly 👍 

DB Browser for SQLite

DB Browser for SQLite (DB4S) is a high quality, visual,open source tool designed for people who want to create, search, and edit SQLite database files. DB4S gives a familiar spreadsheet-like interface on the database in addition to providing a full SQL query facility. It works with Windows, macOS, and most versions of Linux and Unix. Documentation for the program is on the wiki.

A lot of apps use SQLite for storing in-app data. For example, the JWPUB file format is a compressed SQLite database file. 

By the way, did you know that SQlite is pronounced as See Queue Lite (not See Queuel -ite) because it's supposed to be a wordplay on rocks (Granulite, Perlite, Rhyolite, Kyanite… you get it).  

Mataroa on the madness of using AI

I Will … Piledrive You If You Mention AI Again — Ludicity

An executive at an institution that provides students with important credentials, used to verify suitability for potentially lifesaving work and immigration law, asked me if I could detect students cheating. I was going to say "No, probably not"... but I had a suspicion, so I instead said "I might be able to, but I'd estimate that upwards of 50% of the students are currently cheating which would have some serious impacts on the bottom line as we'd have to suspend them. Should I still investigate?"

We haven't spoken about it since.

Read it all here: https://ludic.mataroa.blog/

Avalon Nano 3

For about €125 you can be the proud owner of an electric home heater that earns itself back (a little bit) when being used, by mining for Bitcoin. 

The Avalon Nano 3, by Canaan. 

WatchParty

Watch videos together with friends anywhere. 

https://www.watchparty.me/

What if my video is an MP4 file but hosted on a site that's blocked in Russia, say www.jw.org. Can I watch together with a friend over there, yes or no?  

We throw around "anywhere" a lot, but the free world is shrinking 🤔 

Zapper - send tips to any event on Nostr

I want to embed an iframe into all my blogs to enable "zapping" aka Bitcoin Lightning ⚡️ payments. 

It seems this company has an easy solution for this: https://zapper.nostrapps.org/