Satellite > HughesNet Satellite > Satellite Internet At Gas Stations

Satellite Internet At Gas Stations

Some of those may be used to transmit price changes for items to the cash registers/computers, get inventory and sales data, and update electronic/video sales displays.

oh then why dont they just use a DSL connection for that

Bcause it is a company thing in most cases. One bill for all your stations. At least some of the oil campanies themselves like Conoco either pay for the system or they at least pay part of the bill each month. I imagine they do this because not all of their stations can even get a local connection anyway and plus this make for one bill for the all of the stores instead of thousand of bills from thousands of different telco's and cable co.'s
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HughesNet elite plan/.74 dish w/1watt trans. / 9000 modem / 3 computers on a linksy's wired network

reply to hyelton
There are probably more answers than you can shake a stick at.

One of the important ones is that they almost never go down if you have power. Contrary to some of the reports that you see on these consumer sites, satellite is very robust when properly installed and maintained. If you don't have power you can't pump gas anyway, but if you have power and no credit card connection you are really in trouble. I can't say whether these stations have land connections as well, but it wouldn't surprise me. Satellite is the ultimate backup - just ask anyone involved in emergency communications post-Katrina!

Another reason is that it is by far the easiest and cheapest way to establish a corporate intranet. Highly secure, and without passing through multiple intermediate networks.

The latter is why they are used by a lot, if not all, of the lottery systems.

The amount of data they are pumping is miniscule, so they often only have 64K connections. Easy to have 2-second-or-less credit card approval times with dialup speeds but an always-on connection.

When you are in a small store and the CC transaction takes ten seconds or more you know they are using actual dialup.
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Motosat self-pointing dishes: 1.2-meter XF-3 on 127W, .74 meter G74 on 127W, SL-5 HD DirecTV|idirect 3100|Hughes HN7000S|Verizon UMW190 Air Card|1990 Blue Bird Wanderlodge Bus "Blue Thunder"|Author of hnFAP-Alert, PC-OPI and DSSatTool

reply to hyelton
Some one like 7-11 has 39,000 locations. Imagine the support and billing nightmare of having to deal with hundreds of providers. Nothing they are doing is bandwidth to latency sensitive so satellite is a perfect fit.

reply to hyelton
A lot of them use the 7700 modem with built in dial-up modem...

So if weather becomes a problem it will automatically switch to dial up...

reply to hyelton
I have a friend who owns about 50 chevron stations in random places and actually asked the same thing as in "Why don't you have decent internet for your stores?" His reply was that hughesnet gives him one bill no matter where the store is at and he doesn't need anything faster for what his machines do.

exactly as mentioned, one bill for multiple locations, all sites are on one network, which has other benefits as well. additionally mulitple systems often times use satellite. lottery terminals have 1 dish, pos (inside and outside credit) systems will be on a separate dish that also has tank monitors hooked to it...there are multiple uses. some sites may have a cable/t1/dsl connection and hughes may serve as a backup, some sites are hughes primary with dial back up. there are a few different options.

reply to hyelton
The rate a credit card merchant services co charges a business to process transactions varies depending upon a number of factors.

One variable is what network used to transfer the data
Satellite is the most secure and as a result get a tiny bit better of a deal
A fraction of a percent for each transaction adds up to real money when spread over thousands of transactions a year