Internet access is always a sore point for rural areas. While several options within the towns of Oakland and Tekamah exist, access in the surrounding areas can be limited. Specifically, the area between Oakland and Tekamah has long been known as a dead spot with the only options being expensive satellite providers or limited cellular hotspots.
Enter Stealth Broadband from Norfolk. They have recently expanded their operational coverage down into Burt county and are now providing P2P high-speed internet access for the rural areas surrounding Oakland and Tekamah. Covered areas include East and West sides of Oakland as well as West of Tekamah.
The Stealth network is a point-to-point wireless one. This eliminates the need for expensive fiber or copper runs to a residence and is also more reliable than satellite connections. As a result, it is an affordable option with speeds much faster than satellite or cellular and better reliability with no data caps.
For speed, Stealth currently offers two packages of 50x5Mbps and 100x10Mbps. The former is adequate for a 2-4 person household while 100x10 is available for heavier data users. In our testing, we were able to easily achieve 100x10 over a 3 mile distance from the closest access point. Service has been reliable over our 3 week testing period with no slowdowns, outages or other issues.
So far, all of this sounds pretty good right? Well, full disclosure, there are a couple drawbacks.
Due to the technology used (point-to-point wireless), a line-of-sight from your residence to an access point is required. This isn't really an issue for the flat areas surrounding Oakland but can be a problem for those in the hilly areas around the Tekamah bluffs. Fortunately, Stealth will come out and perform a free site survey to determine if they can supply access to you.
The second drawback is that they use a NAT'd network. This means your wireless router is actually connected to another router/firewall at their access point. While this doesn't make any difference for internet access in general, those looking to do things like set up traditional surveillance DVRs that can be remotely viewed will be impossible.
Overall however, the availability of a quality internet provider is welcome news for those in the rural areas East of Oakland/West of Tekamah. For more information, you can visit their website.
*This article is not a paid-for promotion for Stealth Broadband or it's services.