page last revised
Oct 10th, 2023
| Max Download Bandwidth with a perfect connection (Higher is better) |
Latency (ping time) (Lower is better) |
Installation Price |
Monthly Price |
Monthly bandwidth allowance |
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| ARIS Fiber |
500 Mb/s or 1 Gb/s! |
25ms | $0 |
Home $50 or $90 Business $90 or $200 |
unlimited! |
| Airecast Fiber | 100 Mb/s | 7-25ms | Depends on how far they have to run the fiber. Could be thousands. | $170 | unlimited! |
| Satco Fiber | ? | ? | ? | ? | unlimited! |
Extremely Extremely Extremely EXTREMELY fast. Satco/Airecast only deals directly with businesses, but on June 7th, 2016, Ouachita Electric anounced a partnership with Satco called ARIS (pronounced ah-rise) which has the goal of offering fiber to every electric customer before the end of 2019! Satco buried a fiber cable from Texarkana to Hampton and it passes right thru Camden. As of June 6th 2017, there are 114 customers connected, mainly in East Camden. As of April 2018, they are almost done with Harmony Grove, and started on downtown Camden. As of December 2019, they are starting on the Cardinal area. The reason Aris gives you so much more speed per dollar compared to airecast is because it pretty much shares the bandwidth with the rest of your neighborhood. Cable internet does this too, and it's usually not a problem. Airecast is dedicated lines, so your neighbors can't slow you down. If you are interested, you should put your name on the list NOW because they use the list as a major factor in picking the next neighborhood to deploy fiber in. You can put your name on the list here: Home https://www.arisark.us/order_online/ |
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| Cablelynx Residential | 25-150 Mb/s | 13ms | $0 | $60-$120 | 500GB-2TB |
| Cablelynx Business Standard Cablelynx Business Enhanced Cablelynx Business Turbo Cablelynx Business Extreme |
50/5Mb/s 50/10Mb/s 150/10Mb/s 250/20Mb/s |
17ms | $100 |
$70 $100 $120 $150 |
500GB 1TB 1.5TB 2TB |
Very fast and reliable. Available in most parts of Camden. If you go over your monthly bandwidth allowance, they may charge $15/50GB. Sometimes they try to encourage you to pay for TV service too by making TV only $10/month extra. You can lease a modem from them for $7/month or you can buy your own from eBay for about $30. Just make sure its "DOCSIS 3.0" or higher. I recommend the ARRIS MOTOROLA SURFBOARD SB6182 |
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| SpaceX StarLink (Availible EVERYWHERE since 10/10/2023) | 20-200 Mb/s | 20-80ms | $600 | $110 | 1TB (finally anounced Nov 2022) |
| Fast. This service uses satellites, but at a lower orbit, which helps the latency tremendously. Since the lower orbit is not geosynchronous, the satellites pass over us. It’s supposed to always have line-of-sight to at least 1 satellite at any given time. They are steadily launching new satellites, and there will eventually be thousands. The latency fluctuates as the satellites pass over. The satellites are moving so fast, they go completely around the earth every 90 minutes. Here is a cool website that tracks the satellites. Upload speed is 5-20 Mb/s. The receiver looks like a pizza box sized white UFO on a black stick. | |||||
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| UVerse (ATT) |
3 - 18 Mb/s | 33ms | $35-$65 | $52 | 300GB-600GB |
| DSL (ATT) (no longer available to most customers) |
0.768 - 6 Mb/s | 80ms | $15-$20 | $35 | 150GB |
| Fast. Uses a phone line but does not tie it up. Only available in certain areas. If you want to see if you are eligible, click here. Pricing depends on current promotions. UVerse works the same way DSL does but can include phone service. If you go over your monthly data allowance, it's $10/50GB. $30/month will get you unlimited. (source) | |||||
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| Skyrider (Chidester) | ? Mb/s | 40ms | ? | ? | ? |
| I just learned about this ISP in Chidester. I hope to be getting more info about them soon. | |||||
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| Go Wireless (no longer available) | 1.0 Mb/s | 80ms | $400-$150 | $25-$40 | unlimited |
| Fast, but not as fast as DSL or Cable. It was only available in Camden and surrounding areas. It did not reach Stephens, Chidester, Bearden, or Smackover. There was also a plan where you pay $150 up front and $40/month. | |||||
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Cellular |
0.5 - 60 Mb/s | 80ms | $230 | $100 | 10GB/day |
Cellular |
0.5 - 12 Mb/s | 80ms | $230 | $150 | 10GB/day |
Cellular |
0.5 - 12 Mb/s | 80ms | $0 | $40-$730 | 2-100GB |
Cellular |
0.5 - 60 Mb/s | 80ms | $0 | $40-$395 | 0.3-50GB |
Faster than dial-up, but not as fast as DSL or Cable. Needs at least 50% signal strength. The best option if you can't get one of the above connections. If you have a smartphone, you can save a few dollars by going thru that instead of buying a hotspot. There are no limits to how long you can stay connected, only how much you can download. You can get "unlimited" data plans, but they throttle your speed after a certain amount of usage. I used Verizon 4G at my house in Stephens for years, along with a cellular repeater to amplify the signal. AT&T's coverage area is half what Verizon's is. If you are interested, call your local Verizon dealer at 870-836-7300 or 870-862-3456. |
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| Satellite (HughesNetGen5) |
25Mb/s | 600ms | $0 | $50-$130 PLUS $15/month equipment fee! |
10-50GB (and 50GB between 2a-8a) |
| Viasat (Home) | 12Mb/s 25Mb/s 50Mb/s 100Mb/s |
600ms | $0 unless you have bad credit | $70 PLUS $10/month equipment fee! |
40GB* 60GB* 100GB* 150GB* |
| Viasat (Business) | 35Mb/s 35Mb/s 35Mb/s 35Mb/s 35Mb/s |
600ms | $300 | $50 PLUS $10/month equipment fee! |
1GB* 10GB* 20GB* 50GB* 200GB* |
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Slow. Satellite service is fast enough for streaming audio and video, such as netflix, hulu, and youtube, but you you will be paying more for monthly bandwidth than what you paid netflix to watch the movie. In addition to that problem, the high latency means it will still take longer to move from page to page than dsl or cable. Services that need fast response times like gaming and skype will have noticeable delays, but they will work. Google wrote a VERY nice technical article about why latency is more important than bandwidth. * Viasat's "freedom plan" seems to remain "usable" after you go over your monthly data limit, unlike it was with Exede. |
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| Satellite (HughesNetGen4) |
5-15Mb/s | 650ms | $150 | $50-$130 | 5-20GB |
Satellite |
12 Mb/s 12 Mb/s 25Mb/s 30Mb/s |
650ms | $0 | $70 $100 $150 |
10GB (3a-8a free) 150GB* 150GB* 150GB* |
Satellite |
512 Kb/s - 1.5 Mb/s |
1,250ms | $350 | $50-$80 | 7.5-17GB down / 2.3-5.0GB up |
Satellite |
1-2 Mb/s | 650ms | $400 | $30-$90 | 200-400MB per day down / ? up |
Very slow. If you are still using one of these services, I recommend you upgrade ASAP. Wildblue and HughesNet Gen3 are similar to dial up for surfing websites and checking email, despite their claims of being "high speed". It's actually slower than dialup for protocols such as ftp, remote support, rdp, vnc, ssh, pop3, smtp, and it's completely unusable for some technologies such as voip like skype, and VPNs because of its high latency. Downloading large files like movies and music is faster than dialup. I do not recommend satellite internet to anybody unless it is the only option. HughesNet seems to give you more speed per dollar than Wildblue, but HughesNet is tougher on bandwidth limits. * FREEDOM PLAN - They say this is unlimited data, but if you go over 150GB, it will basically quit working. They claim it's only throttled, but I've seen a "throttled" situation and it wasn't functional because of the packet loss, even for lite web surfing. |
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| Dial up | 56 Kb/s | 250ms | $0 | $15-$20 | unlimited |
| Cheapest way to get online, but unusably slow, and ties up your phone line. Providers are World Lynx, Arkansas.net, Magnolia-net, and Earthlink. Dialup is so slow you can't even do facebook anymore. I dont recommend it for anybody. | |||||
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