Inmarsat CEO Andrew Sukawaty talks to the Washington Post and seems upset that satellite broadband didn't get more attention in the FCC's recently released national broadband plan. Sukawaty downplays the success other nations have had in deploying 100 Mbps as a product of geography, argues the country is just gosh-darn big, and then unrealistically pushes satellite's role as a broadband niche filler even above and beyond technologies like Mobile WiMax and LTE. Meanwhile, Viasat CEO Mark Dankberg talks to SpaceNews, and at least realizes that some of the satellite broadband industry's problems are self-inflicted:Dankberg goes to note that even new Ka-band satellite launches haven't been enough to help the sector, something made evident by the high prices, inconsistent connectivity, slow speeds and ultra-low usage caps common in the satellite broadband sector. The SpaceNews story goes on to quote White and Case lawyer Maury Mechanick, who does a lot of work for the satellite sector; Mechanick calls satellite the "Rodney Dangerfield" of the telecom sector, and goes on to lament the FCC's obsession with 100 Mbps:Mechanick's apparently a little confused. The government's perception or fascination with speed isn't the problem, the satellite industry is the problem. Satellite broadband customers, long-held captives in under-served markets, have grown used to service that's slow, expensive, and inconsistent. These "ordinary people" have never asked for 100 Mbps -- they've just asked for reliable, relatively inexpensive connectivity -- and rarely even get that. What they get are connections that barely qualify as modern broadband, cost an arm and a leg, and come with daily caps as low as 200 megabytes.

These users have spent a decade hoping that the next satellite launch will cure what ails their connection (the launch of the high-capacity Viasat 1 next year being the latest hope on the horizon). But satellite technology can't defeat physics to improve latency, and until the capacity is in place to satisfy demand, the industry's reputation won't be getting any better. The problem isn't perception, the problem is the satellite industry has spent a decade delivering a low-quality residential product.

Mechanick and satellite industry executives should spend some time in our HughesNet or WildBlue forums listening to satellite users if they really want to know why they're considered the Rodney Dangerfield of connectivity.