Broadband access abroad

I am in the military. What are my options for getting on the Internet anywhere I may be sent?
-- Bryan.

Your options will vary greatly depending on where you are stationed. The good news, from those I know in the military, depending on the local commander and current regulations, you may get some access for personal use during "off" hours. That can change at any time. If you want a little more reliable or faster connection, that will depend on where you are.

Stateside will be easy. Depending on how long you will be at a particular duty station, you might be able to arrange for a short term connection or find some "for pay" hotspots that might save you from the hassles of trying to get conventional service installed, especially if you are living in military housing. As long as your duty stations are stateside, you also have the option of a satellite based Internet
connection. The costs will range from $60 to about $150 per month depending on the bandwidth you would like to use.

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I am in the military. What are my options for getting on the Internet anywhere I may be sent?
-- Bryan.

Your options will vary greatly depending on where you are stationed. The good news, from those I know in the military, depending on the local commander and current regulations, you may get some access for personal use during "off" hours. That can change at any time. If you want a little more reliable or faster connection, that will depend on where you are.

Stateside will be easy. Depending on how long you will be at a particular duty station, you might be able to arrange for a short term connection or find some "for pay" hotspots that might save you from the hassles of trying to get conventional service installed, especially if you are living in military housing. As long as your duty stations are stateside, you also have the option of a satellite based Internet
connection. The costs will range from $60 to about $150 per month depending on the bandwidth you would like to use.

When being assigned to an international duty station, your options will probably be more limited and expensive. With GSM phones, you have the option of getting a chip from an in-country provider. That will help control the costs over using the SIM card from your US provider. You may not be able to get much more than dialup speeds. For this option, you will need some type of local ISP that provides dial up service in the country which means additional per month costs. You may be able to find some providers that have faster Internet access speeds - the trick will be can your phone be used for those services. If you think that most of your duty stations might be stateside, you can look at Sprint's EVDO data network - which, unfortunately, won't work outside of the US. There are other cell phone options from carriers such as AT&T that have Internet connectivity options that might translate to overseas use with change in SIM cards.

In the US, parts of Europe and areas where there are significant population concentrations, you will have access to some type of broadband. In other areas, you may be lucky to find dialup access. I get the impression that this is something that you would like to be able to take with you. In that case, your best bet on what I have been able to find will be satellite. There are two satellite options that you can look at - one is the Iridium type phone that is readily available for use as a data source and is very compact. The other is a small portable collapsible dish. Here is one vendor that I found that might be a candidate for pursuing.

The bad news is that you will be paying a lot for what could be very limited bandwidth. The cost per minute can get a little pricey based on what the government of the country you are in requires the satellite provider to charge. From what I have been able to find, I wouldn't expect to be able to do much more than e-mail. With the cost per minute or a plan (if one is available), I wouldn't suggest that you even try to do much web surfing if any. I remember seeing press releases several years ago about Bill Gates and some other individuals trying to put together a satellite based Internet setup but never heard any more about that venture. In time your options should improve as technology improves and changes.