Darwin, the town trapped by dial-up internet

Just to the west of California's Death Valley, residents of Darwin have been trying to get connected to the broadband internet age.

For some of the 35 residents in town, loading a regular web page at 28kb/s can take several minutes and is not always guaranteed to work out.

While others were able to upgrade to a government-funded satellite system that is much faster, it comes with strict data limits per day which make video streaming nearly impossible.

"We are not saying we want to be given anything," says resident Kathy Goss. "We found our own potential solutions and we are willing to pay what it takes to get the hardware installed."

Ms Goss and others hope that a fiber optic cable meant to be installed along a nearby highway will give residents a chance to tab in.

More than 100 million US residents, mostly living in rural areas, lack high-speed internet service, according to the US Department of Commerce.

Produced by the BBC's Franz Strasser.