dslreports logo
 
    All Forums Hot Topics Gallery
spc
uniqs
27
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx to patcat88

Member

to patcat88

Re: I'll beat the 3/768 dead horse

Have you used satellite? Having used both dialu and satellite there are times when dialup is actually FASTER than sat. Latency is actually less than 200ms with a decent dialup connection...sat is 4-10x that. Also, sat internet starts at $50 per month (WB's $40 promo currently going on doesn't count for much...it'll be gone soon enough and your average cost for the length of the required two-year contract is $45). Your garden-variety DSL/cable services run $30-$40 for a standard tier last I checked.

As for equipment costs, they might be "practically" free (aka $6 per month for 24 months, or $140ish overall) but installation is over $100 most of the time (WB's current special for shipping + installation is $125).

In closing, from my LARGE amount of experience with areas where DSL doesn't reach (thank you very much Verizon...the nearby cooperative may charge $70 for 3M DSL but at least DSL is available pretty much everywhere they have phone service) there are still a surprisingly large number of folks on dialup. Sat internet is a luxury at $50+ per month plus setup fees, whereas dialup is about $10 per month. Guess what grandma gets to check her e-mail? Guess what I downloaded several GB worth of software over until my parents got tired of sharing our phone line with?
patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY

1 edit

patcat88

Member

said by iansltx:

Have you used satellite?
As of 3 weeks ago I have.
said by iansltx:

Having used both dialu and satellite there are times when dialup is actually FASTER than sat. Latency is actually less than 200ms with a decent dialup connection...sat is 4-10x that.
Latency means nothing when the average website is 200 or 400 KBs. My thread that I am posting in is 164KB, 52KB of HTML. Satellite will be faster than dialup. I would say satellite is a slow 3G connection in its feeling, or about a 3G connection after average cell tower congestion in an urban area.
said by iansltx:

Also, sat internet starts at $50 per month (WB's $40 promo currently going on doesn't count for much...it'll be gone soon enough and your average cost for the length of the required two-year contract is $45). Your garden-variety DSL/cable services run $30-$40 for a standard tier last I checked.
Close enough, unbundled cable internet with some cable cos can go into the 60s or 70s.
said by iansltx:

As for equipment costs, they might be "practically" free (aka $6 per month for 24 months, or $140ish overall) but installation is over $100 most of the time (WB's current special for shipping + installation is $125).
So they give you a mortgage/subsidy cellphone style, its basically under $10 a month amortized.
said by iansltx:

In closing, from my LARGE amount of experience with areas where DSL doesn't reach (thank you very much Verizon...the nearby cooperative may charge $70 for 3M DSL but at least DSL is available pretty much everywhere they have phone service) there are still a surprisingly large number of folks on dialup. Sat internet is a luxury at $50+ per month plus setup fees, whereas dialup is about $10 per month. Guess what grandma gets to check her e-mail?
Shes checking email, not using the WWW. Shes not a browser. Shes the same as a credit card checker or a MUD player or IM user.
said by iansltx:

Guess what I downloaded several GB worth of software over until my parents got tired of sharing our phone line with?
But you apparently have a few spare days to wait for that to finish, if you use the connection while its downloading, extended that download into a week or 2. Some people have jobs, or will be left behind when they can't see a youtube video that was posted to review for a conference tomorrow.
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx

Member

Heard of TubeGrip? I have to use that to get YT videos to download sometimes over "broadband" connections due to congestion somewhere along the line (possibly at Google's servers).

As far as unbundled cable goes, you can get a basic tier for $20-$35 practically everywhere. Here TWC offers RR Standard for $40, no bundles. DSL from Verizon is $20-$43...if you can get it. So sat internet picks up price-wise where DSL/cable leave of, thus killing adoption.

As far as 3G versus satellite goes, look at any 3G reviewer who has moved from satellite. 99% of the time they'll say there's no comparison; unless you're using an overloaded network (thank you very much AT&T...second-least-predictable 3G network out there behind CricKet) your 3G experience will be miles better than satellite. About 22,000 miles better, to be exact.

As for equipment amortization, you only do that if you're a business. If you're a residential user you see the large setup fee and tend to walk away. Speaking of business users, you're right in saying that they'll go for satellite from dialup before residential users. However not all residential users are business users (far from it) and for many $10 dialup plus a $20 phone line (local only, after taxes and fees) is low enough compared to $50 per month plus that same phone line (you can't do VoIP over sat) that they aren't going to make the switch. Sat internet doesn't do double- or triple-play discounts so people will be paying $40+ more per month for it than dialup, $20+ mmore per month if they had a second phone line for internet only.

Satellite is NOT the new dialup because it's not cheap (I haven't seen a dialup plan anywhere outside of AOL above $22 per month in the last eight years or so) and it's very spendy for the initial equipment, whereas dialup might be $50 for a modem (usually more like $20). If you want to say anything is "the next dialup" it's "lite" DSL in areas that have the service for $10-$20 per month when bundled with a phone line as that service is inexpensive on both setup and monthly charges. However lite DSL isn't available beyond 15-22kfeet from the CO (depending on whether you're talking to AT&T or Windstream).

Lastly, DSLReports is a text-heavy site that has very little in the way of essential content other than the HTML page file itself. That sort of thing (a large stream of data that isn't latency sensitive) is what satellite does fairly well. However a website with multiple page elements will tend to choke more unless optimizations are made, since you get hit with a second or two of latency each time you request a page element. So elements smaller than about 20KB will come down faster over dialup than satellite. Don't get me wrong, I'll take sat any day over dialup when it comes to downloading the newest 30MB game file...as long as doing so won't put me over the transfer cap.