Exede Bumps Base Tier Usage Cap to 10 GB In Addition to "Late Night Free Zone" Usage ViaSat has bumped their lowest usage cap slightly for their new Exede satellite broadband service. According to user comments in our forums, ViaSat's $50, 12 Mbps tier originally came with a 7.5 GB cap, but has now seen that usage allowance increased to 10 GB per month. This brings Exede in line with a similar plan that had previously only been made available to DishNet and some rural satellite partners. As the Exede FAQ notes, users who cross the company's usage cap find themselves throttled back to around 128 kbps for the remainder of their billing period. The company recently introduced a " late night free zone" (LNFZ) that allows users to download data without counting against their cap from midnight to 5 am.
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 | | CAP Whopping 10GB ! Now I can read a few more e-books and watch some SD 320p videos. | |
|  | pandoraPremium
join:2001-06-01
Outland
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| when will the wireless carriers do this? The company recently introduced a "late night free zone" (LNFZ) that allows users to download data without counting against their cap from midnight to 5 am.
They did it back in the day for voice calls, not sure who came out with it first, but it was quickly adopted by everybody.
As an aside, it should probably be 1am to 8am, or some such. Studies I've seen indicate that peak consumption for internet connections in the streaming video era actually last until nearly 1am. | |
| | | | Re: when will the wireless carriers do this? This is a great idea for consumers, which is why carriers will never go for it.
Back when night and weekend calling allowances came around, the wireless carriers were looking to break into the consumer market. Cell phones were primarily used during business hours by businesspeople, and the paltry buckets of minutes were seen as very expensive. You used a cell only when you had to and for as little time as you could. The result was that these wireless networks were mostly idle after business hours, so the carriers decided to go after non-business users with plans that offered them more minutes at night, which is a time when many people make personal calls. This had the effect of opening up a whole new market for the carriers.
Wireless data is different. Yes, the networks are less crowded late at night, but the carriers don't need to lure in new customers, since they basically have most of us already. So they see data as something that they can monetize--something we need to use. If we're pulling updates late at night, then that means we aren't pulling them during the day, which, under your plan, would reduce this usage that the carriers want to encourage.They could offer nights and weekend calling without a real drop in peak usage because most calls, especially business calls, are time-sensitive in that you often have to make them at a specific time of day. OTOH, data usage, especially software updates, can more often be put off.
So yes, I like your idea a lot, but the carriers won't like it much at all. | |
| | |  BF69Premium
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN | Re: when will the wireless carriers do this? said by ISurfTooMuch:Wireless data is different. Yes, the networks are less crowded late at night, but the carriers don't need to lure in new customers, since they basically have most of us already. Except only 55% of cell phone customer shave smartphones. The other 45% are using basic phones that don't use much if any data. And getting those last 45% is going to be tougher than getting the first 55%. Smartphone upgrade aren't any higher than upgrading to another basic phone so there must be a reason why these 45% choose not to get one. | |
| | | | | Just thinking about free n&w. They could charge a few bucks more for something like free incoming (anyone pay extra for Nextel for this?) They already monitor your usage and what you use it for why not give an allowance for updates and such. | |
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| | | Interesting idea, but who is going to use it? At 1AM or later, most people are at home using their wi-fi instead of cell network or are asleep. That doesn't make it terribly useful.
It would be good on a dedicated product, like HomeFusion, but that will probably never happen because then people won't need to buy as much usage. | |
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| Re: when will the wireless carriers do this? said by silbaco:Interesting idea, but who is going to use it? At 1AM or later, most people are at home using their wi-fi instead of cell network or are asleep. That doesn't make it terribly useful Well, the same could have been said about free nights (weekends are another matter) for voice calls, but some people still found it beneficial.
Some people would use it, and more to the point, phones could be configured to cache large downloads (app updates and the like) during off-peak hours, for use at a later time. | |
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BF69Premium
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN | Fine if one only basic surfs and does e-mail etc if you live in the boonies and it's this or dial-up this is better. However don't expect to be watching videos unless it's between 12 AM - 5 AM. If Netflix and others had a system where you can download to view later that would help. That way you could download your movie during the FAP free time and watch it at your convenience. | |
| | | low data caps for control.. so much for affordable broadband over satellite. Both ViaSat and Hughesnet must be owned and operated by the same cabal of tightwads.
what's sad is these jerkoffs apparently don't watch their own advertising and marketing materials. They claim you can watch HD movies and videos, and do all this media rich internet with their products...
not if you have such low caps that most if not all their users will hit if their satellite connection is serving a family household.
I really wish there was a way that the practice of data capping could be made into a felony and enforced with death to these controller types that just want to limit what we can do..
it has nothing to do with Fair Access.. If Fair Access was really an issue, then they would use QoS, and load balancing to balance out bandwidth to everyone if congestion was detected.. | |
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Williamsport, PA | Re: low data caps for control.. said by TexasRebel:I really wish there was a way that the practice of data capping could be made into a felony and enforced with death to these controller types that just want to limit what we can do.. There should be a limit to how high they can advertise their data speeds relative to their data caps. It is UNREASONABLE to have such low caps paired with such high speeds.
In many cases, it is (technically) possible to use your monthly cap in just a few minutes of use. WTF?
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One nation, under Zod! | |
| | | | What to you mean you can't watch HD? They just bumped up the cap 2.5GB. That means you can watch another 30minutes of HD video per month. Isn't that great!?! | |
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| said by TexasRebel:it has nothing to do with Fair Access.. If Fair Access was really an issue, then they would use QoS, and load balancing to balance out bandwidth to everyone if congestion was detected..
Then everyone would be pissed off because the speedtest was only x amount and they're paying for x and they didn't read the fine print  | |
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