Given Kansas City’s central location on the IP backbones that traverse the US, it should be a heck of a lot easier than it is to get some semblance of decent bandwidth at the church (and other locations). Sadly, the best we can do is 1.5Mbit DSL (even if the line has been tested from our demarc to support 7.5Mbit, AT&T refuses to sell us any more than 1.5Mbit because their computers say that’s the best they can do) or bonded T1s.Even then, there’s a finite limit to what what we can achieve with that, because we have a finite amount of copper feeding the building.

Anything else involves construction costs in the $50K and up range. Even amortized over a 5-year contract, that still tacks on nearly $1000 to the monthly bill. Point-to-point wireless to somewhere with fiber would cost almost as much.

It amazes me that in one of the more affluent suburbs in the country, the best we can do is no better than what you get in and around most small towns in rural western Kansas.