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Satellite Broadband: 1.3 Million Homes By 2012
And that will be just 11% of total U.S. rural homes

According to a new report by Pike & Fischer, satellite broadband companies will serve nearly 1.3 million homes by 2012. Given the sorry state of satellite broadband (strained capacity, incredibly low caps, poor reviews) that's good or bad news depending on how you look at it. According to the report, the full version of which is available for the rock-bottom price of $700, that 1.3 million number represents just 11% of rural U.S. homes.

Providers have struggled to keep customers happy, given carriers' low monthly caps often result in connections being throttled to speeds that would barely best dial-up (in some cases 14kbps). Worse, many users say a lack of capacity is resulting in slow speeds during peak usage times for several major providers. Still, the lack of options make these customers a captive audience. Pike & Fischer says things could get rockier for these providers:
quote:
...the satellite companies face some significant challenges in gaining market traction, the Silver Spring, MD-based research house concludes. For example, the high costs of launching satellites will make it difficult for satellite broadband providers to keep pricing competitive while still achieving a suitable return on investment. In addition, satellite companies could simply encounter lower-than-expected demand for their services. Compared to urban residents, the rural households that the satellite providers are targeting tend to be less interested in broadband services -- or less able to afford them.
That's where services such as White Space Broadband could come in handy, if the technology's proponents could get gear to the FCC that didn't suffer from meltdowns during testing. As wireless carriers expand 3G coverage, we've seen a growing number of satellite customers ditch their service for EVDO or HSDPA, though these services aren't exactly commonplace in most rural American towns.
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bolt
End of the line DSL sucks.
Premium Member
join:2003-11-11
Charlestown, IN

bolt

Premium Member

Satellite Broadband?

Honesty, I don't think that the satellite systems available can qualify as broadband. The latency sucks (I understand it's because it is on a satellite). Most FAP policies are very restrictive. For years I picked ISDN over satellite for these and other reasons. For rural peeps, wireless is the best hope.

battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000

1 recommendation

battleop

Member

Re: Satellite Broadband?

Their FAP is geared to average joe blow user. I have a relative that uses what ever Dish network resells and he is as happy as can be with it. He gets on. Checks his email, gets some pictures of the grandkids, checks the weather to see what the day is going to be like and gets off. For the "average" user satellite is just fine.

If having access to different types of broadband, cheap and fast, without restrictions then maybe you need to consider moving. Living out in the country has it's trade offs.

bolt
End of the line DSL sucks.
Premium Member
join:2003-11-11
Charlestown, IN

bolt

Premium Member

Re: Satellite Broadband?

I'm good. I have a WISP now. They have moved into areas that telcos and cable cos do not want to service. Far better and cheaper than either ISDN or satellite.
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned) to battleop

Member

to battleop
said by battleop:

Their FAP is geared to average joe blow user. I have a relative that uses what ever Dish network resells and he is as happy as can be with it. He gets on. Checks his email, gets some pictures of the grandkids, checks the weather to see what the day is going to be like and gets off. For the "average" user satellite is just fine.
250 MB a day or less is fine?
If having access to different types of broadband, cheap and fast, without restrictions then maybe you need to consider moving. Living out in the country has it's trade offs.
yes that's the solution everyone should move into the cities. that will help things. Let's make them MORE crowded. Real fricken smart idea there guy.

I guess people out in the boonies shoudn't expect electricity, phone service or paved roads either?

By the way my best friend lives maybe 3 miles from city limits. HARDLY out in the "country". He SHOULD have more choices than dial-up or broadband. For some reason TDS serves his aprt of the county. The MILLIONS they get from the USF they should make DSL available to him. Especially since he paying into the USF in the first place.

CylonRed
MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County
·Metronet

CylonRed

MVM

Re: Satellite Broadband?

quote:
250 MB a day or less is fine?
for many joe blow average person who checked email or grabs a a few pics - yes it is fine for them especially if there is no other choice. If my dad wanted internet it would be one of 2 total choices he would have.

bolt
End of the line DSL sucks.
Premium Member
join:2003-11-11
Charlestown, IN

bolt to 88615298

Premium Member

to 88615298
I live 3 miles outside of town. Just out of reach for DSL. Insight cable ends 1/2 mile down the road. Insight quoted me $9000 to set me up. I understand they are having problems getting cable to some of the new homes up the road and many of them have been going with our local WISP. An Insight rep told me that they have to have 10 houses per line mile to break even. There's never going to be 10 houses per line mile, at least not in my lifetime.
Nuts65
join:2006-04-27
Forest, OH

Nuts65

Member

Re: Satellite Broadband?

At least you can get Insight to answer you. I've asked Time Warner what it would take to get service, and never get a response from them.

battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000

battleop to 88615298

Member

to 88615298
Do they expect city water? Do they expect sewer service? What about free garbage pickup? There are some trade offs to living out in the boonies just like there are trade offs to living in the city.

factchecker
@cox.net

factchecker to battleop

Anon

to battleop
said by battleop:

If having access to different types of broadband, cheap and fast, without restrictions then maybe you need to consider moving. Living out in the country has it's trade offs.
The only problem with that oft repeated reasoning is if everyone did that, food production in this country would fall to a point that your bread, milk, etc. products would get so expensive that people would start complaining about it like they complain about gas prices. The people who live out in the country sustain those that live in the city. Until we can fully automate farming, that fact dictates that people will always need to live out in the boonies. Hopefully Wimax pans out for those people soon...

That said, boy am I ever glad that I moved to the city from the sticks, despite having had access to DSL and cable...
jc10098
join:2002-04-10

1 edit

jc10098 to bolt

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to bolt
Honestly, if you live in a rural area but have access to cell towers, I would go for sprint's evdo. Obviously, cell towers are much easier to construct than laying fiber through mountains and such. Hence, the likelihood that one can get a connection using this entity is better. If this were the case, EVDO offers unlimited data usage and speeds ranging from 1mbit / 128 (using your phone with cord). to 3mbits / 768 using a data card. Not too bad if someone has few options. The only drawback of course, is ping, but from my experience using this service on the road, I obtain around 200-300 ms. Nothing that horrible at least.

Hazy Arc
join:2006-04-10
Greenwood, SC

Hazy Arc

Member

Re: Satellite Broadband?

The only problem with that is the vast majority of rural communities do NOT have EVDO or 3G service yet. They are rural, after all.

Island Jeff
join:2005-07-18

Island Jeff to bolt

Member

to bolt
quote:
250 MB a day or less is fine?
With wildblue staying below the 80% mark so I don't have to worry about FAP I get 431 MB per day on the download side.
quote:
Most of my peers would probably better off with EVDO though.
Here we don't even have reliable voice coverage much less 144 kbps cell coverage. EVDO would be nice, but I'm not holding my breath it will get here in the next 12-24 months.
quote:
SkyWay USA is not that way. They offer their base service plan at only $29.95 per month and equipment only costs $49!
The problem with SkyWay as I understand it is that it still requires dialup uplink, which means a reliable dialup ISP and phoneline which may or may not be available, ties up or requires an additional phone line which costs around $25/month here, is not "always on", and has very very slow upload speeds making interactive activities like sending or uploading photos as slow as over dialup. But I'm sure it's ideal for some. For me, I sure am glad to have wildblue (and hughes) that now have fairly fast upload speeds at last in the 250kbps range for a more balanced "broadband linke" experience.

Overall, Satellite isn't nearly as good as any low latency broadband, but it sure is better than dialup. I remember back in 2005 when I signed my wildblue contract after 3 years of starband, a few urged me to wait for the local broadband initive that was just about to get off the ground. Long story short, now 2 1/2 years later after a year of zoning work simply to erect three towers, the local effort is still just about to get off the ground. A year ago cellular one did a demo of their 144kbps data offering, but it didn't work reliably 3 blocks away with a clear line of sight to their antenna at the demo site reliably enough to complete two testmy.net tests in a row, and thats as far as cell has gotten to date. While I'll be as excited as a kid in a candy store when any low latency broadband finally arrives here, I sure am grateful and glad that wildblue and satellite in general has been avaialbe to fill the gap in the meantime.

MoJeeper
The Stig in 2012
Premium Member
join:2000-10-20
Springfield, MO

MoJeeper

Premium Member

Truth Hurts

My parents and a few distant neighbors have Wild Blue and lost their service during a recent ice storm and my Alltel EVDO still ran despite all the ice build up.

As EVDO and 3G continue to expand it will put Hughes and Wild Blue in the hurt locker.
skywayusa
join:2008-01-10
Louisville, KY

skywayusa

Member

Re: Truth Hurts

Another option for rural communities that fewer people know about is SkyWay USA. I have heard a lot of people complain about Wild Blue and Hughes Net being so expensive. SkyWay USA is not that way. They offer their base service plan at only $29.95 per month and equipment only costs $49! That results in a huge saving overall per year. Also SkyWay only requires a one year service agreement rather than a two year service agreement with Wild Blue and HughesNet. Another advantage SkyWay has over these competitors is that their internet will not go out during a huge rain storm, ice or snow storm, or even heavy cloud cover. If you all live in rural communities, you should check out their services.

DHRacer
Tech Monkey
join:2000-10-10
Lake Arrowhead, CA

DHRacer

Member

Re: Truth Hurts

You're neglecting to mention that according to the Skyway website, "SkyWay USA requires dial-up access to the Internet."

So it's cheaper, but you tie up your phone line to use it. However, "Nationwide Dial-Up Internet Access -- Included" at least they're nice enough to include the dialup you'll be needing. Too bad it probably entails long distance charges...

Still, it is worth a look for those with the need for the most basic of access.
skywayusa
join:2008-01-10
Louisville, KY

skywayusa

Member

Re: Truth Hurts

You are correct that it does require dial up, which is stated on the website. However, it does not entail long distance charges. They make sure that you have a local dial-up access number in your area before they allow you to sign up. Making sure that a local access number is available to each customer they sign up is a number one priority in their sales process.
JDP13
join:2008-01-15

JDP13 to skywayusa

Member

to skywayusa
said by skywayusa:

Another option for rural communities that fewer people know about is SkyWay USA. I have heard a lot of people complain about Wild Blue and Hughes Net being so expensive. SkyWay USA is not that way. They offer their base service plan at only $29.95 per month and equipment only costs $49! That results in a huge saving overall per year. Also SkyWay only requires a one year service agreement rather than a two year service agreement with Wild Blue and HughesNet. Another advantage SkyWay has over these competitors is that their internet will not go out during a huge rain storm, ice or snow storm, or even heavy cloud cover. If you all live in rural communities, you should check out their services.
Have you fixed the Bronze plan yet?

Yauch
join:2005-06-24

Yauch

Member

So....

said by Karl Bode:

that's good or bad news depending on how you look at it.
Like whether or not something is better than nothing?

All the little-old-ladies I know love it. Most of my peers would probably better off with EVDO though.

dslwanter
20 years on this site
Premium Member
join:2002-12-16
Mineral Ridge, OH
·Armstrong
Ubiquiti UniFi AP-LR
Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X SFP

dslwanter

Premium Member

What a joke

For the price, the performance, usage caps, you may as well stay with dial-up. If they really want to get into a market they should figure out some way to hard wire these rural communities in another form. I looked at it when DSL wasn't available here back a few years ago and decided to stay with dial-up. Now I'm one of only a few lucky houses to have been close enough to the central office when it was lit, but I know people who are suffering with satellite that live not to far up the road. Actually for them, they think it's broadband because they've never used better but they say the price just isn't worth it, only reason some still have it is because they're locked in contract. If they didn't commit to a contract, they would've been paying $99.99+ a month.
SierraRob
join:2007-01-10
Prather, CA

SierraRob

Member

Re: What a joke

"For the price, the performance, usage caps, you may as well stay with dial-up."

This is based on the mistaken assumption that dialup is ALWAYS available. It is not. Where I live, my phone calls are clear as a bell, but a modem connection reaches 4800 baud if I'm lucky, and frequently disconnects. There are many homes that are strung miles away from the central office, with their phone lines running through coils/repeaters/whatever. Those things are modem killers.

For us, satellite IS the only option.

dslwanter
20 years on this site
Premium Member
join:2002-12-16
Mineral Ridge, OH
·Armstrong
Ubiquiti UniFi AP-LR
Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X SFP

dslwanter

Premium Member

Re: What a joke

said by SierraRob:

but a modem connection reaches 4800 baud if I'm lucky, and frequently disconnects.
But, dial-up is still "available", they're not going to tell you "you can't get it". I'm sure there's some troubleshooting or perhaps modems that handle noise better for situations like yours, you probably have to do a little research but it probably wouldn't hurt.

So Satellite isn't the only "option" for you, it's the best.
GMFreak8
join:2005-11-17
Malone, NY

GMFreak8

Member

Windows Updates

A guy I know who is stuck with satellite just ran into the FAP limitations. Guess what he was trying to do? Yup download Windows updates. You can't even download a Service Pack without running into issues with the FAP. He called to complain, and all they had to say was too bad, if you want to download Windows Updates, you have to do it between the hours of 3AM and 6AM when the FAP is temporarily suspended. You get that excellent service for a rock bottom price of $80 per month!!
satellite68
join:2007-04-11
Louisville, KY

satellite68

Member

Re: Windows Updates

Two words: Automatic Updates, set to 3 a.m. everyday.

Oh right, it's easier to complain.

CylonRed
MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County

CylonRed to GMFreak8

MVM

to GMFreak8
Last time I looked that is a good amount cheaper than ISDN - when I had it for work it was over $150/month. There are trade-offs that people have to work with and decide what is best for their usage.

Island Jeff
join:2005-07-18

Island Jeff

Member

Re: Windows Updates

ISDN isn't available everywhere either. It has never and probably will never be available here.

CylonRed
MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County

CylonRed

MVM

Re: Windows Updates

True as I would bet the equipment is being removed from CO's in favor of DSL or nothing. It is at least possibly more available than DSL with a lot less issues with distance that DSL has.

Island Jeff
join:2005-07-18

Island Jeff

Member

Re: Windows Updates

quote:
It is at least possibly more available than DSL with a lot less issues with distance that DSL has.
Very true - I think we are the exception not the rule in not ever having ISDN available here, but I also think there are probably lots of other little town exceptions too. I'd take ISDN in addition to satellite if it were available here and set my router as a proxy in a browser so I could download and stream music over satellite at 1500 kbps but do email, ssh, etc. over ISDN.
Island Jeff

Island Jeff to GMFreak8

Member

to GMFreak8
quote:
A guy I know who is stuck with satellite just ran into the FAP limitations. Guess what he was trying to do? Yup download Windows updates. You can't even download a Service Pack without running into issues with the FAP.
On wildblue I've downloaded every single Windows XP and Vista update in the last 2 1/2 years running 3 computers on the same wildblue connection and I'm only at 1/2 of my FAP and have never had an issue. This includes bringing a new vista box online last month and running all the updates since vista was released and also listening to an hour of streaming music a day and buying a couple albums on itunes. I realize wildblue and hughes work differently (a rolling total so low days even out with high days vs. the fap free window and daily reset) and I realize having limitations is more of a pain than having no limitations (fap) but every time I try and use dialup I am thankful it's not my only option.

DrModem
Trust Your Doctor
Premium Member
join:2006-10-19
USA

DrModem

Premium Member

1.3 Million People...

Getting scammed.
Clint3200
join:2007-06-20
Ada, OK

Clint3200

Member

Re: 1.3 Million People...

I can promise there will be one less satellite user by 2012.

Right now Sat. or Dial-up are the only 2 options, even though there are 80+ houses within a mile radius of me, even though I can throw a rock and hit a house that has cable, even tough less than a mile away there are DSL users.

It is not like I am in the Sahara Desert. Should I get a Laptop card? Perhaps, but what if they get DSL here 2 months after I am into a 2 yr contract?

That's what really stinks. No honest evaluation of when, if ever, DSL will be available. Thanks a lot At&T for shooting straight with your customers....

DrModem
Trust Your Doctor
Premium Member
join:2006-10-19
USA

DrModem

Premium Member

Re: 1.3 Million People...

I live in a WISP area, but I can't get it because of the hill in my front yard >_>

For now I'm just going on dialup but I plan to remedy the hill problem sooner or later lol.

netwire
Premium Member
join:2001-04-27
Dallas, NC

netwire

Premium Member

Re: 1.3 Million People...

said by DrModem:

I live in a WISP area, but I can't get it because of the hill in my front yard >_>

For now I'm just going on dialup but I plan to remedy the hill problem sooner or later lol.
Just buy an antenna and place it on your roof - should fix that problem depending on how big the hill is. If the hill is too big you could always rent a bulldozer.