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More Details On ViaSat's New 12 Mbps 'Exede' Service
7.5, 15 and 25 GB Monthly Usage Caps

As we noted yesterday ViaSat's showing off a new $50, 12 Mbps downstream, 3 Mbps upstream satellite broadband service that the company will be selling through WildBlue, Dish and National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative ISPs. As we also noted yesterday, ViaSat was being a little murky about the limitations of the service, which include a low cap, potential throttling, and involves web acceleration. Today the company made most of the details official, announcing that the service will be called "Exede" and will in fact come with traditional usage caps.

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According to ViaSat they're offering Exede in three flavors. $50 nets you a 7.5 GB monthly cap, $80 nets you a 15 GB monthly cap, and $130 will give you 25 GB of monthly usage. Despite very un-fiber-like usage limitations, ViaSat's insisting that their new service offers "feels like fiber" performance (perhaps "feels like desperation in the face of LTE" wasn't marketable).

ViaSat desperately wants this to be a service that seriously competes with landline broadband, but there's limitations in place satellite will never overcome. Since you can't beat physics and magically eliminate the latency that comes with all satellite broadband services, ViaSat's using a new web acceleration technology their press release still doesn't get very specific about:
quote:
The Exede service also includes advanced web acceleration technology to provide an Internet web browsing experience with “feels like fiber” performance. Through a constantly evolving variety of techniques that go far beyond simple caching of web content, this new web acceleration technology quickly delivers pages, even on media and video intensive websites.
In addition to the caps, ViaSat has stated they'll likely explore throttling users should they consistently exceed their allowances, something that won't be too difficult in the age of HD video. The company's new website for the service can be found here. We'll offer some user experiences with the new service once it officially launches next week.
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biochemistry
Premium Member
join:2003-05-09
92361

biochemistry

Premium Member

LTE vs Satellite

That they're offering a 25 GB tier bodes well for those hoping for a more reasonable home based broadband LTE cap. With 25 GB you can watch the occasional netflix movie.
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned)

Member

Re: LTE vs Satellite

said by biochemistry:

That they're offering a 25 GB tier bodes well for those hoping for a more reasonable home based broadband LTE cap. With 25 GB you can watch the occasional netflix movie.

Bullshit their old $80 plan offered 17 GB download and 5 GB upload. New $80 offers 15 GB TOTAL. That's a downgrade. $130 plan should be 50 GB minimum.

Yes let's pay $8 a month for netlfix for the "occasional" movie.
amungus
Premium Member
join:2004-11-26
America

amungus

Premium Member

Re: LTE vs Satellite

Agree.

Latency issues are obvious. Don't think anyone really debates that part of it. Try as they may, physics are physics.

The bigger issue is the cap. If there is little to no 3G, which already has low caps, and wired service is nowhere, this leaves satellite.

I hoped they'd increase, not decrease the allocations. If this were my only choice, I'd feel pretty let down. Surely they could up this to somewhere around DSL level caps (50-150GB/mo.) without too much trouble, at least overnight during "off-peak" hours.
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx to biochemistry

Member

to biochemistry
For $130 you can get 15GB on LTE with Verizon, more if you just tether one of their LTE phones and grab the 10GB package (which gets doubled) plus the tethering addon.
perkqlater
join:2009-07-25
Mechanicsville, VA

perkqlater

Member

Re: LTE vs Satellite

if LTE were available where I am that would make sense...but it ain't. I am only 2 miles too far for anything. Yes it is a little rural but I am only 10 miles out from a fairly decent size community...just happen to be in a broadband hole. I hate the caps but this is still better than dial-up. I'll keep my eye on it and see how it goes. You city folks with your highspeed just don't understand how frustrating it is to be left out. I'll take the latency and deal with it...I don't plan on wasting my life playing games anyway.
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx

Member

Re: LTE vs Satellite

I've been there, done that. Was on dialup, followed by a WISP, followed by 1.5/384 DSL at my parents' house. I've used WB's lowest-end plan. I know where you're at and feel your pain...

MovieLover76
join:2009-09-11
Cherry Hill, NJ
(Software) pfSense
Asus RT-AC68
Asus RT-AC66

MovieLover76 to biochemistry

Member

to biochemistry
$130 for 25GB isn't going to give anyone hope, this product is completely useless unless you really have nothing else available for internet. Satellite has always been that way and I think it always will be, plus with the latency your not getting anything for all that money, you may be able to download a few files quickly but anything with two way communication even loading webpages is laggy.

dib22
join:2002-01-27
Kansas City, MO

1 recommendation

dib22

Member

advanced web acceleration

Let's hope it's not a harddrive doing a web-cache physically located in the satellite... that would be an expensive repair call when the drive failed
LineNoise
join:2006-06-25
Downers Grove, IL

LineNoise

Member

Re: advanced web acceleration

I'll take that job. "What the hell took you so long to replace that hard drive?"
Chubbysumo
join:2009-12-01
Duluth, MN
Ubee E31U2V1
(Software) pfSense
Netgear WNR3500L

Chubbysumo to dib22

Member

to dib22
said by dib22:

Let's hope it's not a harddrive doing a web-cache physically located in the satellite... that would be an expensive repair call when the drive failed

Any kind of web caching is bound to be unsecure, and have issues. I would rather my bank page gets rendered on my computer than some strangers computer and then forwarded to me. Honestly, web accelerators are crap, just look at how many are having issues with Kindles WA, and how much cloudflare sucks.

thegeek
Premium Member
join:2008-02-21
right here

thegeek

Premium Member

Good and Bad

Seems like a good option for those who want faster speed and only have existing sat services available. Bad for the low caps. Plus I imagine the web acceleration involves automatically downloading content to your computer behind the scenes which will no doubt eat up that cap a lot faster.

cableties
Premium Member
join:2005-01-27

cableties

Premium Member

Lasers!

Beam your data to you, faster, with our new "Star Wars" technology (patent pending)!

Customers like our speed and power! Take Mr Organa and his data speed increase on the planet Alderaan. "It happened to fast, like a million downloads, all at once----"

Ofcourse, we aren't responsible if your planet blows up! That is HOW good our Laser is!


baineschile
2600 ways to live
Premium Member
join:2008-05-10
Sterling Heights, MI

baineschile

Premium Member

Whats with odd brand spellings?

Exede? Xfinity? Axess? Cmon.

voipguy
join:2006-05-31
Forest Hills, NY

1 recommendation

voipguy

Member

Re: Whats with odd brand spellings?

If you axess your connexion and reqwest xfinite downloads. You will exede your monthly limit.

compuguybna
join:2009-06-17
Nashville, TN

compuguybna

Member

Re: Whats with odd brand spellings?

Who wants to pay $130 plus $9 lease fee for a measly 25gb of data????????
OH WAIT! You can buy an extra 1GB for $8. DEFINATELY a cash cow for wildblue/viasat.

Like another user stated "kinda like buying a super fast car(eg. 12mbps sat) but only getting 3 gallons of gas per month(eg. low caps), you can buy more but only in small chunks and you have to pay out the nose. a real waste."
nanaki333
join:2010-08-11
Chantilly, VA

nanaki333 to voipguy

Member

to voipguy
dude... you just completely blew my mind!
travelguy
join:1999-09-03
Bismarck, ND
Asus RT-AC68
Ubiquiti NSM5

travelguy

Member

More data please

More details would be nice. Signup/install fees, trial period, early termination fees, etc.

It's also strange if you look at their coverage map that they chose to use the new 12Mbps beams over the eastern part of the country - just where they face the most competition from cable and DSL.

The western US is stuck with 5Mbps service.
davidhoffman
Premium Member
join:2009-11-19
Warner Robins, GA

davidhoffman

Premium Member

Re: More data please

I thought the states of California, Oregon, and Washington were in the Western USA. I think they are going to put into orbit 1 more of these super satellites to cover the area between the Rockies and the Mississippi River.
travelguy
join:1999-09-03
Bismarck, ND

travelguy

Member

Re: More data please

True... On second thought, it looks like the higher speeds are going to areas where the subscriber density is higher.
davidhoffman
Premium Member
join:2009-11-19
Warner Robins, GA

davidhoffman to travelguy

Premium Member

to travelguy
I wonder if they are going to use the second satellite to get into the Canadian market. They might be able to add a third or fourth satellite and provide alternative ISP services to Canada and Alaska. The locations of the spot beams show the potential for service in parts of Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean.
PDXPLT
join:2003-12-04
Banks, OR

PDXPLT

Member

Not Serious about competing w. landline broadband

With those caps, they are obviously not positioning this to compete with landline broadband. So they are sticking with their strategy of targetting customers who are not served by landline. This probably makes sense, since no matter what they do they can't overcome their latency disadvantage. OTOH, LTE is a potential competitor, and the caps are "LTE-like" caps. I seems obvious that they view LTE as The Competition.
rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO

rradina

Member

Feels Like Fiber?

What marketing genius coined this? Although technical types can probably discern the right euphemism, typical satellite consumers might wonder how digestive regularity is connected with Internet service.

Morac
Cat god
join:2001-08-30
Riverside, NJ

Morac

Member

Re: Feels Like Fiber?

With pings times in the seconds (yes seconds), there's no way this can feel like fiber. Physically it's impossible since the signals for satellites travel very large distances.

MalibuMaxx
Premium Member
join:2007-02-06
Chesterton, IN

MalibuMaxx

Premium Member

Modem

They should bundle a modem/router/proxy device that caches the content most viewed by the user. This way it seems faster than it really is. Though this wouldn't help for everything it would indeed help the latency aspect and keep bandwidth to a minimum.
ShellMMG
join:2009-04-16
Grass Lake, MI

ShellMMG

Member

Just as I thought.

Their caps STILL suck.

There is nothing reality-based about 7.5GB usage. NOTHING. If anything, the cap becomes all the more noticeable and brutal, especially if you have kids who do more than just homework online.

The screws tighten. They've hooked up a firehose to fill a bucket.
chances14
join:2010-03-03
Michigan

chances14

Member

caps

These caps could be manageable if they had a fap free time during off peak hours

BasilAR
WildBlue
join:2006-07-20
Parks, AR

BasilAR

Member

$$$$

There is a sucker born every minute.
They'll sucker in the gullible, lock them in the two year contract and collect the money.

Eagles1221
join:2009-04-29
Vincentown, NJ

Eagles1221 to chances14

Member

to chances14

Re: caps

I wonder if they could put a proxy in the satellite. The way I understand it - right now the land based gateway handles everything. Even a 64GB SSD up there to cache Facebook would would for a lot of their users (and that would be nice if cached content was exempt from the cap)
Chubbysumo
join:2009-12-01
Duluth, MN
Ubee E31U2V1
(Software) pfSense
Netgear WNR3500L

Chubbysumo

Member

Re: caps

said by Eagles1221:

I wonder if they could put a proxy in the satellite. The way I understand it - right now the land based gateway handles everything. Even a 64GB SSD up there to cache Facebook would would for a lot of their users (and that would be nice if cached content was exempt from the cap)

any kind of HDD or SSD in space, when it fails, is an issue. What happens if one fails? also, this satellite could implode under the strain they are gonna run it thru. Dont be surprised if the satellite has issues withing a year.
travelguy
join:1999-09-03
Bismarck, ND
Asus RT-AC68
Ubiquiti NSM5

travelguy

Member

Re: caps

said by Chubbysumo:

any kind of HDD or SSD in space, when it fails, is an issue. What happens if one fails?

Exactly. Which is why commercial sat payloads are kept as simple as possible. Essentially a bent pipe with no onboard processing.
said by Chubbysumo:

also, this satellite could implode under the strain they are gonna run it thru. Dont be surprised if the satellite has issues withing a year.

I'm sure you were joking, but for everyone else, there is no way to overload the sat.

WBripoff
@wildblue.net

WBripoff

Anon

Their FAP is crap

Being one of those on WB now, without an alternative, this new service was so over-hyped. Their sales videos talk about being an alternative to DSL, downloading Netflix's etc. The speeds are better but at the same price the bandwidth allocations are lower. You also, now get to rent the modem for an additional $10/month. Installation will run around $150 and you sign a 2 year contract. So WB/Viasat still remains the choice of last resort.
decifal7
join:2007-03-10
Bon Aqua, TN

decifal7

Member

FB

Fail Boat
05678973 (banned)
join:2011-11-30
Cottontown, TN

05678973 (banned)

Member

Viasat

Well just shoot it out of the sky because its worthless. Are satellite companies this retarded? I would rather have 3G service thru AT&T. Oh and ping forget about using satellite for any real 2012 YES 2012 common household reason.......when will the FCC grow balls and start making the right decisions. Must be a bunch of Democrats!!!
decifal7
join:2007-03-10
Bon Aqua, TN

decifal7

Member

Re: Viasat

said by 05678973:

Well just shoot it out of the sky because its worthless. Are satellite companies this retarded? I would rather have 3G service thru AT&T. Oh and ping forget about using satellite for any real 2012 YES 2012 common household reason.......when will the FCC grow balls and start making the right decisions. Must be a bunch of Democrats!!!

FCC isn't allowed to grow balls to question this sorta activity being the lobbyist have all the power. #1 problem with the industry and with this country if you ask me..

Rx8Driver
@direcway.com

Rx8Driver

Anon

Pure Disappointment

Coming from a current HughesNet user, the 15GB/mo cap that we also deal with is horrendous! That's a mere 525Mb/day (and when I say day I mean literally a 24hr period!). There is virtually NOTHING I can do when usage caps are calculated on a per day quota...my playstation 3 game updates can't even download without the throttling kicking in and reducing the downstream to dial-up speeds! Makes doing anything impossible. And forget about 3G for the same cap issue (which in my area is also BARELY existent), LTE isn't offered here, and even with the 3G (my androids mobile hotspot picks up the satellites slack most days) my local service's signal strength combined with the type of NAT used makes two way communication almost impossible...Combine it all together and you have two services, both of which cost over $100/mo each, that simply cannot get the job done as well as the SLOWEST dsl landline that's available for $20/mo!!!

When will these satellite providers realize that if the consumer already has to deal with latency that makes two way communication practically impossible (no online gaming, barely works for Netflix, and think again if you think you're skype'ing anyone!) eliminating the possibility of using today's latest and most popular internet applications that they simply CANNOT be MORE expensive than a superior service!?!?!?!? If they want any real segment of the broadband (can you even consider 15GB/mo "broadband"????) market then they need to be CHEAPER than FiOS and have usage caps that are REALISTIC and EXCEED that of 3/4G wireless services...Otherwise, the only market share they will get are the poor schmucks like myself who's only other option is dial-up! Dial-up actually doesn't sound that bad when you consider the MUCH lower latency...at least online gaming can function...and for $10/mo where's the line get drawn? This is long winded but lets compare a moment:

Sat: $100+/month, no gaming, no skype, no netflix, ridiculous usage cap

Dial-up: $10/month, BARELY gaming (so that's better), no skype, no netflix, NO usage cap

So unless all you like to do is email and surf the web really quickly it would seem that dial-up is the smarter choice....you could consider bittorrent and just download your movies and music (because you should DEFINITELY have to BREAK THE LAW WHEN YOU PAY OVER A HUNDRED A MONTH JUST TO SEE THAT EPIDOSDE OF LOST!), but lets face it, with 525MB/day, you're not even doing much of THAT!

So I wrote a novel to express one point, one word, and everyone already knows it: PATHETIC....WORTHLESS...(ok, that's two words!)

I suggest everyone takes the months of Feb thru June and BOYCOTTS the satellite companies because of their FAP's....Maybe if ALL of their subscribers DIDN'T PAY THEM A DIME UNTIL THEY REMOVED THEIR RIDICULOUS FAPS they might get the point that their customers are TIRED OF BEING ANALY RAPED FOR A SERVICE THAT DOESN'T DO WHAT IS ADVERTISED!!!

compuguybna
join:2009-06-17
Nashville, TN

compuguybna

Member

Re: Pure Disappointment

HOLY CRAP. cry us a river. Complain about HUGHESNET over at their forum.
said by Rx8Driver :

Coming from a current HughesNet user, the 15GB/mo cap that we also deal with is horrendous! That's a mere 525Mb/day (and when I say day I mean literally a 24hr period!). There is virtually NOTHING I can do when usage caps are calculated on a per day quota..
I suggest everyone takes the months of Feb thru June and BOYCOTTS the satellite companies because of their FAP's....Maybe if ALL of their subscribers DIDN'T PAY THEM A DIME UNTIL THEY REMOVED THEIR RIDICULOUS FAPS they might get the point that their customers are TIRED OF BEING ANALY RAPED FOR A SERVICE THAT DOESN'T DO WHAT IS ADVERTISED!!!

ExoticFish
join:2008-08-31
Zebulon, NC

ExoticFish

Member

Feels like fiber huh ?

Since when do 100ms+ ping times "feel like fiber" ?

And those data caps certainly "feel like fiber" don't they ?

pleased
@ca.gov

pleased

Anon

Looking forward to this

I currently use Wildblue with the 512kbps plan. A proposed jump to 12mpbs for the same price sounds great to me, and if VoIP mostly works - it's better then not working at all for me now. I know some of you have issues with the bandwidth cap, but I'm currently living with it, and i'm looking forward to a connection that is quicker.

I'm using satellite service because I don't have any other option. This move by viasat makes it slightly less painful. Overall I'm happy with the trade - I have the joy of living outside the city with 40 acres to call my own and beautiful sunsets and mountains to look at. The internet isn't everything, but it is a very useful tool when it works.