Satellite Broadband Usage CapsAll you need is a clear view of southern sky (and patience) ( old news - 10:11AM Monday Aug 06 2007) tags: satellite · business · bandwidthAs recently noted, satellite broadband is your best bet if you're out of range of other options, though none of the major satellite providers get high marks from our users: see reviews for Wild Blue, HughesNet and StarBand. Aside from latency, a major reason for the low marks is daily rolling usage caps or FAPs ( "fair access policies"), which exist to help manage satellite capacity. The HughesNet FAP states that customers who consume more than the allotted bandwidth within 24 hours (see screenshot) have their connections throttled for 24 hours (this was previously 12 hours). Some users think WildBlue has a slightly more agreeable FAP (pdf). WildBlue's FAP restricts user consumption by the month (see screenshot). An update to users notes that WildBlue will be changing that FAP slightly starting August first: Among the changes: when a subscriber has used 80 percent of the usage threshold for the service level, that subscriber will be notified of a violation of the FAP. WildBlue will slow speeds for that account until usage returns to 70 percent of the usage threshold. The company says they'll also stop terminating customer accounts for FAP violation. Instead, customers who violate the policy for four consecutive months will have their connections throttled to the point where only email and browsing are practical until they cut back on consumption.
Related:- Wednesday Morining Links
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- HughesNet Widens Cap-Free Window
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- HughesNet Promises New Bird In 2012
|
 
sope
@optonline.net | WOW wow little bit over a 1GB is that per hour or 24 hours?
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| jc100
join:2002-04-10
 ·RoadRunner Cable
| EVDO Screw these companies. Odds are no matter where you are, you can get cell service from at least one provider. Your best bet is to get Sprint EVDO (unlimited) or another service. At least you will get decent speeds, at a reasonable price. Best of all, you won't be throttled. | |
|  | BosstonesOwn
join:2002-12-15
Everett, MA
clubs: | Re: EVDO Sprint coverage is not that great outside the major highways in the middle of no where. | |
| | | ydoucare
join:2003-03-12
Rensselaer, IN
 ·Embarq
 ·Millenicom
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
1 edit | Re: EVDO said by BosstonesOwn  :Sprint coverage is not that great outside the major highways in the middle of no where. I live 15 miles from a 5k pop town out in the sticks and I have Sprint Mobile Broadband. Sprint coverage is FAR greater than any other EVDO provider. | |
| | | | avaloncourt
join:2002-01-13
Meadville, PA
·Armstrong Zoom In..
·Windstream
| Re: EVDO You have an odd view of "out in the sticks." Rensselaer, IN
is within 2 miles of I-65 and according to Sprint's coverage map you're getting broadband wireless for two reasons: You're in the broadband footprint for Chicago/Gary and you're next to an Interstate that goes to the state capital. I'm within 20 miles of a city with a population of 150,000 and within 5 miles of an interstate and there is no Sprint coverage at all. | |
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KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK | Re: EVDO This is why the upcoming spectrum Auction was seen as perhaps the United States last, best chance for a widespead 3rd broadband option, that could reach rural areas too.
Too bad it looks like it's failed. | |
| | | | | | | Nuts
join:2006-04-27
Forest, OH
| While I don't disagree with you, I've gone with Verizons National Access. I can get over 100kb. While it doesn't qualify as broadband, it's a lot better than dial-up. My biggest complaint, is that it will go into a domant state, and then requires a reconnect, even if you just got done connecting or opening a web page a few seconds before. | |
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hdman
Flt Rider
Premium
join:2003-11-25
Appleton, WI
·Alltel Axess
·AT&T Midwest
 ·WildBlue
| Re: EVDO said by Nuts :While I don't disagree with you, I've gone with Verizons National Access. I can get over 100kb. While it doesn't qualify as broadband, it's a lot better than dial-up. My biggest complaint, is that it will go into a domant state, and then requires a reconnect, even if you just got done connecting or opening a web page a few seconds before. For my $50 per month, I get a networkable solution that gives me 512K down, and 128 up. Verizons non-evdo plan is more expensive, and slower, along with the problems you are having. So again, in cases like mine and MANY Americans, sat based service is the only service we can get....
HDMan
--
The proper way to break in a Harley: Grab a fist full of throttle, and ride it like you stole it!!! | |
| | | 
iLive4Apple
Hybrid power
Premium
join:2006-07-13
Helena, AL
·Charter Pipeline
·AT&T Southeast
 ·ViaTalk
| said by hdman :said by jc100 :Odds are no matter where you are, you can get cell service from at least one provider. Care to take those odds to Vegas??? You would lose. The odds are (and the truth is) that most areas in the US are not covered by WiMax nor an EVDO solution.....for many of us, the options are Hughes, WB, or Starband.... HDMan EVDO is not good where there is no CDMA either, my area is iDEN and Analog only, not even EDGE GSM yet. I have slow Nextel WiDEN air card
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I get 29 MPG in my Toyota Highlander Hybrid! | |
| | | | | jc100
join:2002-04-10
·RoadRunner Cable
| Re: EVDO Well Rev 0 is still fine. I think you get 1mbit / 128. At an uncapped rate, thats better than satellite. Might not be as fast, but at least its unlimited with Sprint.
Also, I might have overstated everywhere, but at least if you are on the verge of coverage, this is a viable option. Most likely, if you are a few miles outside the service area, you can still get cell tower and EVDO. | |
|
Displeased
@rr.com | Unreasonable. I guess if you have to reinstall your OS and need to update everything you'll be screwed. | |
| | 
ahedge
Premium
join:2002-05-14
Shepherd, TX
·Millenicom
| Re: Unreasonable. said by Displeased :
I guess if you have to reinstall your OS and need to update everything you'll be screwed.
Your guess is correct. Happened to me in May and my usage went higher than 80% of my limit with WB. I feel lucky that I am not with Hughes anymore... | |
| ncbill
Premium
join:2007-01-23
Winston Salem, NC | Sprint will eventually have go the way of Verizon And start terminating your plan for more than 5GB/month.
There's simply not enough bandwidth over cellular available.
Sprint is so desperate for customers they'll give them the world right now, but that can't last forever. | |
| 
cypherstream
Looking forward to the future of things.
Premium,MVM
join:2004-12-02
Reading, PA
clubs:
| I know hughesnet is not very user friendly My Bosses boss has a cabin in the middle of nowhere and this is his only choice besides dialup. Even with dialup he can't just have the normal cheap phone line plan because the closest earthlink number would be long distance. He has a Cingular pcmica card for internet when traveling, but there's no cell phone coverage at the cabin. Heck his cabin doesn't even have a street number. It's a road, and all of the roads to get there don't even have names. You have to look for those little SR signs which only stick out of the ground 36 inches at most.
So he has the HughesNet. Boy what a P.O.S. At least he can get to our exchange OWA e-mail. He's not very technical so I don't think he'll hit FAP much, if ever. I think he uses the internet is really used for a few hunting / fishing sites and strictly business. | |
| | 
elvey
Spamassassin
join:2001-02-17
San Francisco, CA | Re: I know hughesnet is not very user friendly How sad; I'm sure using a real email client would be way more responsive than OWA!!! | |
| | 
Toadman
How do you like these Apples
join:2001-11-28
Medina, OH
| said by cypherstream :My Bosses boss has a cabin in the middle of nowhere and this is his only choice besides dialup. Even with dialup he can't just have the normal cheap phone line plan because the closest earthlink number would be long distance. He has a Cingular pcmica card for internet when traveling, but there's no cell phone coverage at the cabin. Heck his cabin doesn't even have a street number. It's a road, and all of the roads to get there don't even have names. You have to look for those little SR signs which only stick out of the ground 36 inches at most. So he has the HughesNet. Boy what a P.O.S. At least he can get to our exchange OWA e-mail. He's not very technical so I don't think he'll hit FAP much, if ever. I think he uses the internet is really used for a few hunting / fishing sites and strictly business. Very cool!
I would think in that setup internet access would be my last concern if that was my week / weekend getaway place. Now if the Miller truck was far away, that would be a concern. Time to stock up! | |
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TechieZero
Tools Are Using Me
Premium
join:2002-01-25
Wesley Chapel, FL |  Latency?
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vpoko
Premium
join:2003-07-03
Jamaica Plain, MA
| Re: Latency? said by TechieZero :Isn't Satellite asynchronous? Why are ppl expecting low latency from an async connection? More importantly, what does latency have to do with it being asynchronous? The latency exists because satellites are far away. | |
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TechieZero
Tools Are Using Me
Premium
join:2002-01-25
Wesley Chapel, FL
| Re: Latency? Essentially it was never to be used in a conversational manner. It is not a priority to acknowledge data packets being sent and received as the data is meant to be streamed in long bursts is my understanding of it.
Which makes sense for this method of broadband as you are right, the distance makes for a huge lag anyway and would time-out any other connection. | |
| | | |
vpoko
Premium
join:2003-07-03
Jamaica Plain, MA
| Re: Latency? said by TechieZero :Essentially it was never to be used in a conversational manner. It is not a priority to acknowledge data packets being sent and received as the data is meant to be streamed in long bursts is my understanding of it. Which makes sense for this method of broadband as you are right, the distance makes for a huge lag anyway and would time-out any other connection. Ahh, thanks for the good explanation. | |
| nasadude
join:2001-10-05
Rockville, MD
·Comcast
| another reason it's not a substitute just another reason satellite is no substitute for wired broadband and shouldn't even be counted - it's a niche solution for people that are SOL for a wired internet connection and that's all it will ever be.
If "broadband" ever changes from the ludicrous FCC definition of 200kbps, satellite won't even be considered broadband. | |
| | | 
Richard B
Fur It Up
join:2007-06-22
Portland, OR | Not Unreasonable When you have to consider you have so many users pointing to the same bird. | |
| | 
BF69
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN
| Re: Not Unreasonable said by Richard B :When you have to consider you have so many users pointing to the same bird. WB just launched a satellite a few months back that they themselves would increase capacity 6 fold. Yet the cap is the same. Sorry does not compute. It's not like tons of people are clamouring to pay $600 down and $60 a month for 512 kbps. | |
| | |
Richard B
Fur It Up
join:2007-06-22
Portland, OR
·Comcast
| Re: Not Unreasonable It does compute satellites carry more than internet in addition there bottle necks at uplink and downlink sites that connect you to the internet.
The only reason caps are an issue is a minority of users are crying that caps interferes with their bit torrents. Frankly, they can go to the devil. They can get a real job and buy the DVD or a Netflix subscription like the rest of us. | |
| | | rahvin112
join:2002-05-24
Sandy, UT
| Judging by DirecTV it takes around 3 months for the satellite to reach it's final position in Geo-Stationary Orbit, deploy it's panels, test up-links, finalize the firmware and test the bird fully before it's handed over to the provider. And that's in a rushed situation, if you don't pay the fees to rush deployment it can probably take 6months to get hand off from the launch group to the company.
So if WB shot the bird a couple months ago, figure on at least a month and probably more before you will see availability. | |
| 
dslwanter
Why would I want DSL? I have FTTH
Premium
join:2002-12-16
Lowellville, OH
·Armstrong Zoom In..
·AT&T Midwest
| This is rediculous As if the people in extremely rural areas aren't screwed enough by their local telco or cable company (if they even have cable service) by not giving them broadband, now they have to put up with service caps from the only method they can get broadband, and for the price. I have DSL from AT&T at $19.99 a month right now and I can download however much I want, but for a satellite service that more than exceeds $50 per month, not even counting installation and equipment fees, I see no reason why they need to impose such caps. Is it because the network is sensitive to heavy use? If so, add more capacity! I only bitch about the broadband around here because you really can't consider it rural and there is a strong demand for it that the company's aren't seeing because they don't realize how many homes have went up around here since 2000.
--
"You're as worthless as a screen door on a submarine!" Check out my Internet Radio Station & DJ Service, »www.thebomb102.com. | |
| |
hdman
Flt Rider
Premium
join:2003-11-25
Appleton, WI
·Alltel Axess
·AT&T Midwest
·WildBlue
| Re: This is rediculous said by dslwanter :I see no reason why they need to impose such caps. Is it because the network is sensitive to heavy use? If so, add more capacity! The reason is because you only have so much bandwidth through a MULTI MILLION DOLLAR satellite. Addin capacity means lauching another bird, and the formula for Hughes or WB to make money is SO tight, it can't be justified. If it were as simple as "adding more capacity", it would be done. But it is a much larger project than you imagine.
I do pay the price for living in the sticks, thats for sure, but the real culprits are the phone companies who sign deals with sat providers to hide from further buildouts, or cable companies who make silly rules about houses per mile in order to justify building out.
I live on a road that is 3 miles long. Charter ran cable down BOTH ends of the road, past numerous cows, trees, etc. and serviced ONE person on each end. The funny thing is, they left 16 homes in the middle unserviced and they want $20K to run it further.....
Who is the real scumbag? AT&T, Charter, etc.....IMHO of course....
HDMan | |
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See 7 replies to this post | |
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TechieZero
Tools Are Using Me
Premium
join:2002-01-25
Wesley Chapel, FL
| said by dslwanter :As if the people in extremely rural areas aren't screwed enough by their local telco or cable company (if they even have cable service) by not giving them broadband, now they have to put up with service caps from the only method they can get broadband, and for the price. Ummmm so? No one *has* to buy it or *has* to have broadband. | |
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dslwanter
Why would I want DSL? I have FTTH
Premium
join:2002-12-16
Lowellville, OH
·Armstrong Zoom In..
·AT&T Midwest
| Re: This is rediculous said by TechieZero :said by dslwanter :As if the people in extremely rural areas aren't screwed enough by their local telco or cable company (if they even have cable service) by not giving them broadband, now they have to put up with service caps from the only method they can get broadband, and for the price. Ummmm so? No one *has* to buy it or *has* to have broadband. Yeah? Well you're lucky to have Verizon FIOS and wouldn't know what it's like to be in an area with a serious potential for business development but can't because it's deprived broadband by it's telco and cable company. There are some small businesses out there that do depend on broadband in order to operate and by no means bring in the revenue to purchase a partial T1 and need far more usage than satellite would permit.
--
"You're as worthless as a screen door on a submarine!" Check out my Internet Radio Station & DJ Service, »www.thebomb102.com. | |
| | | |
TechieZero
Tools Are Using Me
Premium
join:2002-01-25
Wesley Chapel, FL
| Re: This is rediculous said by dslwanter :Yeah? Well you're lucky to have Verizon FIOS and wouldn't know what it's like to be in an area with a serious potential for business development but can't because it's deprived broadband by it's telco and cable company. There are some small businesses out there that do depend on broadband in order to operate and by no means bring in the revenue to purchase a partial T1 and need far more usage than satellite would permit. 2 Things. First off I didn't start off w/ FIOS here. In this one address alone, I too had to go through Dial-up, then ISDN, Digital cable, DSL, and then finally fiber.
I don't doubt that a biz benefits from having broadband. But if it was that mission critical to begin with, perhaps those business' should not have picked that location to begin with. Hmmmm? 
But the Telcos or any biz for that matter owes nothing to anyone other than their paying customers and their shareholders if they have any. To think otherwise makes no sense. | |
| | | Ecuintras
join:2006-10-06
Tulsa, OK | Look at where you are, this is BBR. Yes, everyone here MUST have broadband. I would seriously kill someone if I had to live in an area without broadband. | |
| | | | | | ctutt
Premium
join:2007-07-11
Columbia, MO
·HughesNet Satellit..
| I'm in the same boat! I'm only 2 1/2 miles from the city limits of a good sized city in mid-Missouri and cannot get either cable or high-speed fiber-optic.
My satellite (hughes.net) only rarely (very rarely) delivers the performance I pay for. What can I do? I cry... bleed... for blessed options. Please... someone, there is surely an opportunity here for you. | |
| Edward1978
join:2007-07-23
De Soto, IL |  Wow, limit your throughput where you can only browse & email
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| bohn
join:2006-05-30
Scarborough, ON
| Beats the pants off of Canadian internet These companies should be actively pursuing the Canadian broadband market. Up in Canada our internet prices just keep on climbing while they keep falling in America. We have broadband caps far lower than anything on American satellite internet. In the near future all American satellite internet will be far cheaper to the consumer than Canadian broadband. This will spell the death of all Canadian broadband and open up Canada to the American satellite internet market. Canadian broadband will exclusively be satellite internet from America while the people on constrained budgets in Canada will be on dial-up also from America. America is Canada's future for internet subscribers. | |
| | Lineage
rawr?
Premium
join:2006-10-19
USA | Re: Beats the pants off of Canadian internet you ignore the fact that the canadian ISPs will adapt when they see the $$$$ leaving them in droves. | |
| | | Viscer
join:2005-07-25
Sandy, OR
| Huges I recently cancelled my subscription through them. The FAP use to be that if I used more than like 186meg in a certain period of time, it throttled me down to dialup speed....then they changed it. It was changed to terminate my access for 24h...at which time I could use the connection again.
I looked into Verizon's EVDO. I found that I can get national access with an evdo card that has an external antennae jack and an antennae. Also, I purchased a EVDO router, so I can use several PC's on it.
Its not DSL/Cable, but its better than 4second latencies and FAPS...or the 28k dialup I was getting. | |
| |
wbsucks
|  Re: Huges
| |
| | | DemonChicken
join:2006-10-15
Boon, MI
·Alltel Axess
| Re: Huges ATT ****ed me. Charter is 5 mi away. Stopped at a local school. ATT went to Harrietta Because they have a CO therefore less cost to them. Also you said multi million dollar sateillite with a few of those gone they could pay to extend to the ****ing places their not servicing in michigan. Im only 10 miles from town. Less probably.
Harrietta has 120 people living there. We have 600.
Good night and **** you AT&T | |
| | | |
TechieZero
Tools Are Using Me
Premium
join:2002-01-25
Wesley Chapel, FL | What's the Point?
Are people being held at gunpoint to buy Satellite broadband? Did they unknowingly sign up for this to be screwed by the TOS? | |
| | DemonChicken
join:2006-10-15
Boon, MI | Re: What's the Point? True | |
| 
metachronos
join:2005-01-26
Green Bay, WI | wow As much as I complain about charter, their 5m/512k unlimited is like FiOS compared to these horrible plans. | |
| 
RR Conductor
RailRoadDude
Premium
join:2002-04-02
Redwood Valley, CA
·Comcast
4 edits | What about WISP's? Here in Mendocino County (a very rural county, 3800 sq.miles of mountains, valleys, coastlines, small towns, remote locales, vineyards, ranches, wilderness and forests (some are Redwoods hundreds of feet high), only 88,000 residents) in Northwestern California, many are out of reach of either cable or dsl. I am lucky to have Comcast (formerly Adelphia) HSI here in Redwood Valley (8000/768 package, with Powerboost I see a steady 15000-18000 down and 2500 up), but there is no DSL.
However, there is a WISP here, Willits Online, which is serving many areas, like Laytonville (where my sister and many nieces live), Potter Valley and Covelo who have no choices for broadband (outside satellite that is), and in many areas where broadband is limited (like Redwood Valley and Fort Bragg). They even offer a service to connect people that lie beyond the normal range of the signal, long haul connect.
Cell service in several areas is spotty, though it's good if you are in the main towns, and for the most part main roads are covered well, though there are bad and dead spots on 1, 101, 20 and others. US Cellular and Edge Wireless (affiliate of AT&T) being the coverage leaders, and Verizon bringing up the sorry rear. We still don't have 3G, though Verizon says we will have it by the end of the year, and Edge Wireless is testing their 3G as we speak, USCC is still in the future.
Edit-Our three cell carriers-
Verizon
Edge Wireless (wireless affiliate of AT&T)
US Cellular
Willits Online does have a FAP, though I can't tell if it's better or worse than satellite-
"WillitsOnline defines 'Residential' service as being used by the customer no more than %15 of the maximum sustained useage, and 'Business' as no more than %30 sustained useage, 'Commercial' as no more than %50 sustained useage, and 'Dedicated' as up to %100 sustained useage."
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| Ren_Rivers
join:2004-11-02
Louisville, IL
·Wabash Networks
| DSL in Rural Areas. I may be one of the luckiest in a rural area from what I am reading. Never realized that it was such a problem, although some in nearby larger city don't have DSL so guess what you are all saying is logical.
I live near a little town, population 900, in southern Illinois called Louisville. Here we have a telephone coop called Wabash Telephone Coop. The company is pretty old for a coop, going back to the late 1940's, and is now completely self sufficient. Several years ago, they decided, after much encouragement from people like myself, that they would install fiber optic cable for all of their customers, and offer both DSL, and cable TV, using copper feed from the junction boxes to the residence using 6 pair cable. What a project it was, they installed hundreds of miles of fiber optic, and installed control boxes every 5 miles, they even bought their own fiber optic splicing trailer to do the work. There were some problems along the way, and some downtime too, but as they began to learn about it in depth, they ironed out most of their problems, and today we have 99% uptime.
As for speed, I average 1.5 MBS down, and 384k up, which is nearly T1 speed, and sometimes I can get as good as 1.6mb. The service they have provided our community is immense. On top of that, being a member of the coop, means that I share in the revenue that they get. In the last 2 years, I have gotten over $2600 back in dividends, on capital gains that they got 10 years ago. Today, I get my internet, cable TV w/HBO and Starz, and unlimited phone service for about $200 a month. While that might seem high, on the one hand, if you take the dividends I got this year, and subtract that, I get all of those services for about $67.00 a month. How can I beat it?
Here is a link to the coop. www.wabash.net, if you want to look it up.
The reason I make this remark is because I wonder why more rural communities haven't done this kind of investment in their communities? | |
| | pythoncoder
join:2007-03-19
Brookhaven, MS
| Re: DSL in Rural Areas. I live in `rural` (5 miles out from town) America myself. I have no broadband option besides satellite or ISDN.
Funny thing is, our neighboring county has their own telco. My brother-in-law who is a linesman for AT&T says that the entire county belongs to the telco and all their cable is buried.
The neighboring county in general is very rural compared to ours. However, I know a handful of people living in locations far more remote than mine who get DSL service.
Sure it's an anecdotal story but it's funny that a local telco can provide better rural coverage than the new AT&T.
pc | |
| |
JeezyCreezy
@direcpc.com | Your little telco coop spent a metric shitload of money on installing fiber to all of their customers... and the speeds they are offering are only 1.5/384?
What a waste of fiber. | |
| | 
mrkevin
Premium
join:2007-08-07
Aurora, ME
| They have, and are.
The company I work for (a rural phone company; 1500 customers X 400 sq miles) is planning in the near future to implement to most of its customers FTTH.
as Copper becomes more expensive, the fiber option is becoming a cost effective alternative.
it has a lower over-all maintenance as well as a platform to offer increased services.
win-win for everyone. | |
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