Satellite: The 'Rodney Dangerfield' Of Broadband Connectivity > heh

heh

reply to brianiscool

reply to brianiscool
First of all satellites in question are only 22k miles out in space total of a 44k round trip for the signal. Now light goes 186k miles a second the total delay should not be more than 1/4 a second. My Verizon MiFi typically has a delay from 160 to 240. The problem with satellite services like Hughesnet or Wildblue is that they have grossly oversold their bandwidth and care less about customer satisfaction. Typical latencies GENERATED by the satellite companies (on purpose) usually range from 1.1 second to 30 seconds if you try to hold on to a TCP instance too long. I was a Hughesnet subscriber for 6 years and i'd say the best time for me was 2006 when i upgraded to a business account. I could play World of Warcraft with barely a noticeable delay even in 40 man raids and Vent was flawless. fast forward to 2008 any gaming you could do was hijacked by Hughes flagrantly violating net neutrality by blocking and hijacking my port to play the game. Latencies were 30 seconds from 2008 onward. Even to this day 2 years after i told them to goto hell the service is utter garbage. I should know because i still goto my neighbors to see how it works.
It doesn't. Hughes has raised the prices 20% plus and reduced allowable daily download limits by 80% let alone you can barely surf with the service. The satellite companies deserve not a single penny in stimulus funds because they truly care less about service. GET US ALL WIRED BROADBAND i'm begging. I'd even be happy with 4G as long as its unlimited and truly neutral as far as traffic blocking and filtering. I'm using the Verizon service now with MiFi but i feel strangled with a 5 gig monthly cap. I'd move to town to get broadband but no one wants to buy a house without broadband. 6 months of silence while it was on the market is a good hint.

AMEN!!!! I had a satellite connection for 3 years. When it was the ONLY broadband game in town, it was barely accecptable. My best latency time was in the 1 second range. My download speed was a pretty consistent 2.5meg, but the real killer was the low cap. As soon as DSL was available in my area, it was bye-bye satellite. Even though the speed was only "up to 1.5meg" (and I averaged about 1.3), the latency was down in the mid to low double digit milliseconds and NO CAP.

DSL was (and is) a better deal. The satellite companies are a lot like the only large grocery store in a rural area. They provide a service, but don't have to do anything to keep their customers (so their prices and policies reflect a non-competitive marketplace). As soon as ANYTHING potentially better comes along, they get kicked to the curb due to the way the customers feel they have been treated (taken for granted) all along.

The guy who posted the 1/4 second latency is mathematically challenged.

reply to Omega