Satellite Internet

[Atheistbigred]

This is a little thing I wrote after dealing with satellite internet for nearly 2 years, there is nothing else but dial up in my area until century link comes by area, They have been holding it off for nearly 5 years now, they have the lines up and everything but they haven’t activated the service or notified us how far they are in installing fiber optic lines capable of 10mbps.

Satellite internet is the worst internet service in the world. It has Latency issues, high ping times and a horrible thing known as FAP. Satellite internet is only good for casual users and for people who only have dial up internet service in their area. I wouldn’t recommend this service to anyone who has a soul, because they will eat it.

I’m a heavy internet user, I download large files, play video games online and I watch videos. Ever since I got satellite internet I can’t even download a song without get punished, this punishment is known as FAP. FAP (fair Access Policy) is a hidden policy that basically states that if you go over your download limit they will slow you down to below dial up speeds. When you first get satellite they don’t tell you about FAP until you go over the download limit. This download limit is different with each company and their price plans. FAP is actually unfair and until they get rid of it, they will keep losing customers.


There are two types of satellite connections; there are one way connections and two way connections. One way connections use the satellite for download and a phone line (dial up) for uploads. The only company I know of that has a one way connection is Skyway USA. One way connections have less latency than two way connection because they only use the satellite for downloads. One way connections average about 500ms ping. Two way connections use the satellite for both downloads and uploads which means they have a higher latency. Companies like Hughesnet, Wildblue, and Directway have this connection. Two way connections average about 1200ms ping.

I had Skyway USA about a year ago, I thought that it would be great no having slow dial up, but when they told me about FAP I freaked. Skyway USA has a one way connection, which means its faster and has less latency but their FAP is strict. With their highest package you get 1.5 mbps but suffer with the download limit of 7,500 MB a month. I knew it was going to be costly but not like this. I paid for the self installation which includes everything you need, but the instructions aren’t for the average Joe. The equipment fee is $49.99 and the activation fee is $25.00 USD. I thought I could install it myself, but the instructions were alien to me. So I paid $200.00 for a guy to come out and install it, which is outrageous. If that’s not enough they charged me $80 a month for their 500kbps plan and I only had 4,000MB to use each month. I cancelled it and switched to Hughesnet.


The funny thing about Hughesnet is they have a contract, and it costs $400 to get out of this contract. Hughesnet has a higher latency because of the two way connection, 1200MB average, but the time the guy installed it he said I have a 5 second delay (5000ms ping). The installation is free but you have to lease equipment which is $10 more a month, and the activation fee is $100 so expect to pay through the nose. I have the professional package which is good enough for casual browsing and between 2am and 7am you get to download as much as you want without it affecting the FAP but there is barely any bandwidth in that time zone so it takes forever to download anything. The professional package is $80 a month (including equipment charges) the download limit is 350MB and the speed is 1.5mbps.

Now you know the problem I have with satellite internet and hopefully cable, DSl, or broadband becomes available in my area. Until then I’m still stuck in this contract with no way out until I save up $400 to cancel or wait till the contact run out. So sign a petition for cable to come to your area, use ISDN if it’s available or stay with dial up, but don’t get satellite internet or you will regret it.

Who else is plagued by satellite internet? Who is thinking of getting it? For those of you who enjoy it tell me why? Also tell me your thoughts on it.

Update: i am still stuck with a contract with Hughesnet, but High Speed internet is finally available!!
i cannot get out of the contract just yet.

 

[jugglaj91]

I always thought satellite internet service would suck. You have just confirmed my thoughts thank you. That FAP policy is crap. I hate internet usage limits. There shouldn't be a limit to how much someone can use the internet if they are paying for it.

 

[blubb]

Wow, I always thought that it's us Europeans who get screwed over with high prices and low speeds when it comes to internet. But what you said about satellite connection covers with what I've heard about it. However, prices aren't that extreme.
Some residents of rural areas here too can only choose between 56kbps dial-up and satellite. They often get promises of around 2000 Mbit/s download speeds but there are regular disconnects (slight rain might be enough) and the actual speed is often even slower than dial-up. But I don't think that they do that FAP thing without telling you around here. But 5 to 10 years ago it was normal here that even DSL users could only use x GB/month or y hrs/month, everything above that had to be paid extra then. Nowadays almost everyone offers flatrates only.
In my area (village of 3500 which is ~10km away from the next bigger city of 200,000) DSL is very slow too (only 1024/768 kbps and according to the DSL network monopolist (T-Com), that isn't supposed to change in the next years) and quite expensive (~40€/month incl. telephone flatrate).
But luckily we have cable internet available as well, so we switched over to them 2 years ago and now we pay 30€/month (incl. taxes) for 32 Mbit down/2 Mbit up plus phone flatrate. Installation and cable modem were free, the router (w/ WLAN-N) had to be paid extra (50€).
I'm always getting almost full speed and ping times are good too: 7-10ms to a server which is ~50km away and 100ms to Australia and I can download as much as I want (I'm on Youtube very often and I can watch Full HD videos perfectly, even 4K videos load in real time).
Did you ever consider using UMTS? A friend of mine uses it without any problems, the speed is quite decent (~2-3 Mbit/s down) and it's not too expensive (around 40€/month here).

 

[Atheistbigred]

Did you ever consider using UMTS? A friend of mine uses it without any problems, the speed is quite decent (~2-3 Mbit/s down) and it's not too expensive (around 40€/month here).

I don't think we have UMTS in the US all we have is 3G or 4G i don't know if its the same, but they have a thing similar to FAP. when you go over your usage you have to pay the difference, it doesn't slow you down but it costs a heck of a lot more. In euope from what i read UTMS has more bandwidth offering better service.