We live off-grid on solar electric in Arizona. Right now all we can use is a cell phone which is costing us way too much money. The closest phone lines are 2 miles away and the cost to run the lines to our property line is $27,000, which we can't afford. Does anyone have any suggestions or know of some independent phone company that can help. Also, we need internet access (to run our home-based business) which you can't use without phone lines.

-- PEGGY TITUS (travelinggirl@juno.com), August 16, 2000

Answers

How far do you live from town? Perhaps you can rent office space with full phone access and an answering machine. Is there a motel nearby on the verge of going out of business which will rent you a room with phone access on a monthly basis? Do you know anyone on the line which will let you build a small utility building there for phone access? OK folks, let's help her brainstorm possibilities.

-- Ken S. in TN (scharabo@aol.com), August 16, 2000.

We are in the same position. We have 3 cell phones. we start with one and watch our minutes. When the free time is about up we "call forward to phone #2 and then #3. We usually only pay the monthly charge which is lower than when we lived where phone service was available. We still haven't found a solution for internet yet.

-- L.A. (lromsa1@state.wy.us), August 16, 2000.

Dear Peggy, Where in AZ. are you located? I am in Kingman and I have had a telephone service here through Citizen Communications Division when I had no electricity. It was a sort of satelite or microwave type that operated on a battery system of its' own. I do not know if it is feasible or not but it might be worth looking into. It hooked up to regular jack and phones. Have fun. Wish you luck.

-- Lawannea S. Stum (Whitedov1@citlink.net), August 16, 2000.

You could use two-way Direct PC and do voice-over-internet. Its a satellite dish and should be available everwhere in the US (I think). Direct PC used to need both a landline and the dish to work but I've heard that the newest version only requires the dish. You could then do all your calls using a free phone service like dialpad.com, Im not sure how you would go about haveing somebody call you though..

Dave

-- Dave (AK) (daveh@ecosse.net), August 17, 2000.

As Dave mentioned this selfcontained internet dish service should be interesting. I'll be curious what it costs. If cheap enough, phone companies will hate it. As to how somebody can contact you by phone over the internet, use a free voicemail service such as UReach.com offers. People call on regular phone and leave a message. You can then access the message by phone, or by email(soundfile). UReach offers free email and will forward messages to whatever email you are using. They do limit free phone time per month. You can buy more. There is also another free voice mail service that gives unlimited free time, but you have to listen to an ad everytime you retreive messages. Cant think of their name. Probably went with them if I had known about them first. I only signed up with UReach to avoid a second phone line for computer. People without internet service were complaining how hard it was to reach me. So far UReach.com works very well for me.

-- Hermit John (ozarkhermit@pleasedontspamme.com), August 17, 2000.

The sattilite may be the best angle. I saw a trucker at the plant I work at with an uplink in his rig for dispatch connect, internet and phone. He didn't say the total cost, just that it was cheaper for him than cell phone roam charges.

-- jayblair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), August 17, 2000.

Hey Jay, did you happen to catch the name of the mfg. of his setup? I know a driver / wife team that would LOVE this! Especially since they would then be able to do the email / fax via email / vmail via email / etc.

-- Eric in TN (eric_m_stone@yahoo.com), August 18, 2000.

A Wireless Local Loop, WLL, system may be your answer. This sytem offers voice, fax and computer options. information on the system is found at http://www.offgridknowhow.com after getting to the home page, the 5th paragraph has a weekly newsnetter called Offgrid Online, click on it, go to the archives section under the parent directory, 20000301.txt, click on it, the article does a great job explaining how WLL works. good luck wally

-- Walter Turchyn (fad0503@hotmail.com), August 18, 2000.

First re-evaluate your cell phone provider. Find out what plans are available. There are lots of companies competing these days. While not everyone is in every nook and crany of rural US, you may have a choice.

You might look at private wireless. Since you only have 2 miles to go, consider a wireless link between your site and a friendly neighbor. Put a phone line at their home and connect it to the radio link. While this will only get your 9600baud for data, it will work well for voice and fax.

As for internet, Wait a month or so. Internet at home via dishnet will be available. It will be a full 2 way (no phone line needed) service via satellite at a "somewhat" reasonable cost. ~$80/month. Radio shack will also be selling this service.

-- Gary (gws@redbird.net), August 22, 2000.

Thanks to all of you who responsed to my need. Sorry it took so long to answer you all back. I live 4 miles to the nearest town (Mayer, AZ) and I have to go into my husband's office to use his computer and internet access. We have the radios for phone access but no where to hook it up(No neighbors willing to help us). We will check into the wireless local loop, and ureach.com. As for the direct PC and the dish net, etc. It's pretty costly to set yourself up at first. We will see what happens in the future with the cost. Especially if Radio Shack starts selling the service. Well, my husband and I will be busy checking out all the options. It's nice to know at least there are some...Will let you all know what we fine!! Thanks again!!

-- peggy (travelinggirl@juno.com), August 22, 2000.

Peggy, Skip directPC, it requires a phone line to work. Dishnet at home will require none. It is somewhat expensive, but will work. I doubt even if radio shack sells it it well be any cheaper. You might get the hardware onsale but the monthly service charge will be pretty constant. About the only saving on internet cost is if you get dishnets video servives as well. As for making the radio hop into town. Put a note in the local paper or on the bulletin board at church or at the town store. "Want to rent 1ftx1ft are on your house. Doesnt take much room for a telphone interconnect. I have a friend that rents 3 "squares" so he can get intenet connectivity to his home. Usually offer some lumpsum payment and be done with it.

good luck.

-- Gary (gws@redbird.net), August 23, 2000.