i haven't seen this touched on in detail, how many have a wired internet connection ( cable, dsl) and like me you have Satellite, in my rural middle of nowhere area in Wv satellite is all i can get, its not perfect but out here i take what i can get anyway here is my take on it. i use hughesnet , 10 gig a month plan which we go through quickly but you dont notice, once you use up your data allotment you speed goes from 20 mbps to 1 to 3 mbps doesn't sound like a lot but we can still stream prime and netflix oddly hulu buffers like its the dial up days but not prime or netflix. file downloads can be a pain especially if its a large file. we also have phone service with hughes net and that is where our issue comes, the service is fine but customer service is bad, they make empty promises. over all i cant whine at least im connected, anyone else have experience with Satellite internet? is there better than hughesnet?
We use the HughesNet, the latest version, version 5, which I am sure it what you are talking about (version 4 sucks). I had 4G before and it became useless as was totally oversold and when I heard they had launch a new satellite I got on it. We get 20Gb for a total cost of $76.76 per month. Actually, it is not too bad for speed and reliability. We did lose it a few times this winter due to storms here or at the uplink site (Seattle). Of course, I would like it to be faster but... We have very limited options given we are in rural Idaho. All-in-all, it's about the best we can do, and I agree that even when one uses all their data you still get a reasonable throughput, enough so you can do your email and read websites. We do not use it for movies or telephone, simply internet activity. Now, HughesNet5 is on a new satellite which is why there is such a great improvement over HughesNet4. I do not doubt that by the time my contract is finish (~1.5 year more) that it will be oversold also and once one uses all their data than it will give you only dialup speeds. It amazes me that I can get better internet in third-world countries than I can get here...Geez, I wonder why that is...as if I didn't know.
HughsNet is about the only thing going in Consumer SAT based IP these days... Starband vacated the market when the Israelis sucked all the US.GOV money out of the REA they could get for rural SAT Based IP.... I believe ther was a Ku Band outfit called WildBlue, but haven't heard about them in a few years so I do not know if they are still in the Business... 10Gig a month isn't to bad, My AT&T "All you can use" Cellular drops out at 20Gig/month, but I can get that on my Hotspot, and again on my iPad, by making it a HotSpot, and on my iPhone, doing the same, for a total of 60Gig/Month, for $159US/month... An local Guy brought in a 30Mbs 5Ghz Microwave, link into My place last year, to supply the USFS Internet at the Neva Lake Salmon Weir, so that they can count the Salmon, remotely from their Office. I get to use some of their Bandwidth, for supplying Power, and Antenna space, for their System, year-round.. and it has No Limits, as it is connected to an Under-Sea Fiber connection to the rest of the world, in town (Juneau, Alaska) There I get 1.5Mbs Bi-Directional, so it is fast enough for 99% of what I do... There is a New Outfit that has promised High Bandwidth SAT Based IP for Alaska, just as soon as they get their Bird up in the Sky, (2019-20ish) but we have heard these kind of things before... The Cannery People here, have a SAT based IP link from GCI, for their Telecomm via VoIP, and used to supply their Data needs until last year, when their Sales Droids oversold the SAT Transponder Bandwidth, by Twice, or Three Times, and told them that they can have only a T1 DataStream (1.5Mbs) and that is it. So last year they piggybacked on the USFS Link, but the Owner, KILLED Himself in a Plane Crash last summer, and his Father took over the Company, and the Cannery IT Guy and the Father couldn't come to a deal, for this year, so the IT Guy cooked a deal with another outfit, (Alaska Communications System) and they were going to install ANOTHER Dish for this New SAT based IP DataService for the Cannery... I have been on vacation for a Month, and will be interested to see what is there, when I get home next Wednesday... I will take pictures, and Post them once I get home...
I use a wireless ISP. I put up a 60 foot tower to get over the trees and then have line of site to a radio station tower on which the ISP has leased space for their acess point. Its about 8 miles away. Not too bad for $30/mo. Generally, fast enough to stream Netflix to two TV sets at once. A friend’s son just started up a rural wireless ISP, several dozen customers and he’s breaking even plus has great service for himself and for dad. It’s pretty easy to do and not very costly any more, those are popping up. You might check to see if there are any wireless service providers in your area. These mom and pop ops don’t always market or advertise well. Watch for 16” dish antennas oriented horizontally and then ask the home owner if it is for wireless internet. AT
