Satellite Broadband: Tales Of MediocrityWhen your only broadband option isn't a very good one... ( old news - 09:50AM Wednesday May 09 2007) The Associated Press takes a moment to profile satellite broadband service from HughesNet, WildBlue and Starband and doesn't paint a flattering picture of any of them. Right in line with our user reviews, one Hughenet customer dubs his satellite service "bearable." An analyst opines that the company provides just enough bandwidth "to keep the customer happy enough that they won't quit 'em, but not so happy that they're delighted." In related news, AT&T has announced that they've expanded their WildBlue satellite broadband re-branding partnership into former BellSouth territory.
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 golfgeek
join:2005-11-21
Bryans Road, MD | Broadband? Not! First off let's not call it Broadband..........Satellite is not broadband and at times Dial up is better. Thank god for EVDO | |
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TK Junk Mail
Go ahead, make my day
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Margate City, NJ
clubs:
 ·Comcast
| Re: Broadband? Not! These people choose to live in middle of nowhere and they get internet service that lets them work from home, browse, email, etc. and for max $85/mo. they get access and they get to live where they want.
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powerhog
Stinkin' up the joint
Premium
join:2000-12-14
Owasso, OK
| Re: Broadband? Not! Max of $85/month? You've obviously never used satellite for Internet access- especially not for working from home.
To get consistent connectivity via VPN, you have to subscribe to the higher tiers of satellite service. Before I was lucky enough to switch to a WISP, I was paying $100/month for service. Of course that plan is no longer available and current plans cost even more. | |
| | | | | | | | | CMoore2004
i r teh smarts
Premium
join:2003-02-06
Jonesville, MI
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
 ·HughesNet Satellit..
| Re: Broadband? Not! Now that you've shown us the residential plans with very low data thresholds, how about pricing some of the "business class" plans that are actually usable?
If you average out the data rate for the Pro Pak you posted (17GB download), you manage to get ALMOST 56kbit for the maximum sustainable speed. Even the FCC wouldn't qualify it as broadband, but they do since it helps them with their little maps that show everyone can get broadband!
Just a sidenote: Funny that wildblue.com's title describes it as "Satellite Speed Internet".
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| | | | | | | | | | | CMoore2004
i r teh smarts
Premium
join:2003-02-06
Jonesville, MI
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
·HughesNet Satellit..
| Re: Broadband? Not! I'm about 300 feet from an RT also. My aunt, grandma, and several neighbors are still on dial-up. I'm ok with them not knowing about EVDO. Keeps my speeds steady. 
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Fox McCloud
Ron Paul Enthusiast
join:2006-07-23
 ·Embarq
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
·Verizon BroadbandA..
| Re: Broadband? Not! said by CMoore2004  :I'm about 300 feet from an RT also. My aunt, grandma, and several neighbors are still on dial-up. I'm ok with them not knowing about EVDO. Keeps my speeds steady. yup, I'm in a similar situation; I'm 4250 feet from one RT (sadly, not lit with DSL yet), so, when ADSL2/ADSL2+ is deployed, I'll be able to get really nice speeds...but, that's just the problem, the RT isn't lit yet.
Either way, I have EVDO Revision A, too, and I have been very very happy with it; a fairly consistent 1250-1280k down and 200-250k up (would be around triple this, but the router limits upload speed...it's just a bug) with a ping of around 100ms to www.google.com.
If I play on the right gaming server for Battlefield 2, I can get a ping around 150-160 ms; not the greatest in the world, but it sure beats dial-up!
I just can't wait until Sprint optimizes their network next year to allow gaming and VoIP applications to get the necessary latency they need. (and EVDO can have a ping around 60-70 ms, so that's pretty doggone good). | |
| | | | | Lineage
join:2006-10-19
USA
edit:
May 9th, @12:41PM
| you have seriously never used satelite.
That screen shot doesnt include the 2gb monthly usage cap. and you people think 160gb is ridiculousy low. Hughes is even lower, at 200MB | |
| | | | golfgeek
join:2005-11-21
Bryans Road, MD | VPN? That is nearly impossible..........degrades tremendously using a VPN to the point of not working. I had the highest tier and that doesn't help.......Latency is the key and with satellite latency is horrible. Nuff said | |
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antdude
A Ninja Ant
Premium,VIP
join:2001-03-25
| Re: Broadband? Not! said by golfgeek :VPN? That is nearly impossible..........degrades tremendously using a VPN to the point of not working. I had the highest tier and that doesn't help.......Latency is the key and with satellite latency is horrible. Nuff said And gaming! | |
| | | nasadude
join:2001-10-05
Rockville, MD
·Comcast
| said by TK Junk Mail :These people choose to live in middle of nowhere and they get internet service that lets them work from home, browse, email, etc. and for max $85/mo. they get access and they get to live where they want. Exactly! People that live in rural areas don't deserve fast internet - it's the American way. | |
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pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
| Re: Broadband? Not! said by nasadude :Exactly! People that live in rural areas don't deserve fast internet - it's the American way. If Internet is that important to someone, and said person doesn't take the time to verify access availability at a new location to which he/she chooses to move, and then whines about it not being there, who's fault is that?
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Only SHATNER is Kirk. | |
| zalternate
join:2007-02-22
BC
·TELUS
·Xplornet
| satellite dead And don't forget Xplornet in canada...Uses the Anik F2 satellite that Wildblue still uses too..Uggg..Glad I'm not on it anymore....Dialup is so much better.....But the reviews lead to the point that satellite is going to be a dead medium from overselling bandwidth..
Any Xplornet wireless users here?? Post some reviews.. | |
| PDXPLT
join:2003-12-04
Banks, OR
| Good article Wow, a news article that pretty much gets it right.
quote:
But WildBlue's satellite started filling up, and in November last year, the company changed the way it divided the satellite's capacity. The move allowed the satellite to accommodate more people, but slowed down response times.
"That's when I stopped recommending it," said Cashman.
Which is exactly the same time I stopped recommending it to others, too.
BTW, not everyone on satellite lives in the "middle of nowhere". Alot depends on your telco provider's policies. We have both Qwest and Verizon territories around here. From the looks of things, the outlying neighborhoods in Qwest areas tend to have DSL service (you see those mini-DSLAM cabinets that Qwest uses), but Verizon doesn't bother, even when the neighborhoods are served by modern RT's. This was confirmed to me by a Verizon field crew. | |
| | | | | PDXPLT
join:2003-12-04
Banks, OR
| Re: Good article said by djrobx : Verizon is not big on RTs in general. They don't even service DSL to some very rich, reasonably dense areas out here that would be obvious money makers. They seem to be looking at the longer term goal of FTTH. I think you're right on that. Verizon seems to have deployed DSL where they were forced to, or loose customers to cable. But their big focus is selling TV (like the cable cos., highly profitable) and deploying FIOS in order to do so. Qwest in contrast seems to have made their bet on deploying DSL.
This was confirmed in my talk to the Verizon crew, who told me they are told that they're "not in the DSL business" and that's why my RT won't get DSL (no cable competitor in this neighborhood).
In contrast, my weekend/vacation place, which really *is* in the middle of nowhere, has Qwest DSL (they put it in last year)! | |
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TechieZero
Tools Are Using Me
Premium
join:2002-01-25
Wesley Chapel, FL |  #1 For Broadband Choice!
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| SierraRob
join:2007-01-10
Prather, CA
edit:
May 9th, @01:11PM
| Service seems to have improved somewhat I've been using HughesNet for about 3 years now, and am currently on their highest business plan (1500/512), on satellite IA8. It seems to me that in the past few months their service has actually gotten better, with ping times below 800ms pretty much all day (before, it regularly hit 2000+ in the afternoon). And I've been able to VPN into my company's network using the Cisco VPN client. It's slow, but usable. So I'm not complaining as much now as I used to. | |
| iamfury
join:2000-11-18
Bradford, ON | bearable? The truth will set us free.
The service just sucks.
It's no secret. | |
| | jervin123
join:2005-04-14
Philadelphia, PA | Re: bearable? Until you start paying carrier grade prices for ISPs in africa and the like it's pretty bad but still then it's pretty bad.... | |
| Kenstar15
join:2007-05-09
Brooker, FL
| WTF I had Hughes Net service for about 2 months...........THEN I came to my senses. I was paying 120/month to be on a connection that sometimes was completley out. At least on my dial up conn. i dont dc when it rains. The whole situation makes me sick to think about. I have windstream for dial up provider so there is probably a better chance of me flapping my arms and gettin to the moon than getting dsl, but i believe im fixing to take the matter to court. I have been asking for dates for dsl and it is always about 2 months away FOR THE LAST 4 YEARS. so if you believe satellite internet is an acceptable alternative you should be kick in the damn head. | |
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wilbilt
Pronto Resurrected
Premium
join:2004-01-11
Oroville, CA
| Re: WTF said by Kenstar15 :if you believe satellite internet is an acceptable alternative you should be kick(ed) in the damn head. Absolutely. I installed Starband systems when they first ramped up 7-8 years ago. What a clusterf**k that was.
I tried it, but the latency made VPN/RDC pretty much unusable. The delays in remote response were actually worse than on a 24k dialup connection. Satellite is vulnerable to weather and technical outages, has high latency and is generally unreliable.
My choice, living out here in the middle of nowhere, was ISDN. The cost was high ($130/mo for 128k up/down), but the advantages over satellite were numerous.
Luckily for me, an act of God goosed ATT into upgrading the local RT and I now have 6Mb DSL for $35/mo. Sorry to hear about those still unable to get a cost-effective broadband connection.
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We were taking a vote when the ground came up and hit us. | |
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tim_k
Buttons, Bows, Beamer, Shadow
Premium
join:2002-02-02
Stewartstown, PA
| take what I can get You don't have to live in the middle of nowhere to not be able to get decent broadband. I'm one street way, 1300 ft too far for DSL. Cable runs 100 yards from my house, but they refuse to run service down my street. A local fixed wireless ISP should be expanding service for me to get that. I'm going to try to see if I can get EVDO, but I doubt it. Until then, it's Wildblue. Wildblue actually use to be pretty decent until they went with DAMA traffic shaping. If you looked at the reviews, people were rather happy with the service. Now, they are on par with Hughs, if not worst.
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RIP my baby Buttons 1/15/94-2/9/07 | |
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hdman
Flt Rider
Premium
join:2003-11-25
Appleton, WI
·AT&T Midwest
·Alltel Axess
| works for me.... I've had WB since it came out of Beta in mid 2005. It is all that I can get, no EVDO or WISP, and it blows dial up out of the water. Tonight, I downloaded over 55MB, and it took minutes instead of hours. I wouldn't have even TRIED to do that with dial up.
Sure, it is not good for gaming, but I don't game. If its all you can get, it does do a pretty good job for surfing, downloading, and emailing.....
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The proper way to break in a Harley: Grab a fist full of throttle, and ride it like you stole it!!! | |
| 
RR Conductor
RailRoadDude
Premium
join:2002-04-02
Redwood Valley, CA
·Comcast
edit:
May 10th, @04:57AM
| Crazy It seems like these satellite internet companies are taking advantage of people who have no other choice for high speed, that's sad.
In a lot of areas though, wireless is starting to present some serious competition. Here in my very rural county of Mendocino in NW CA, Willits Online has brought wireless broadband to areas AT&T and Comcast (formerly Adelphia) don't serve, like Potter Valley, Covelo and Laytonville, and even in areas they do serve, like Ukiah, Willits, Fort Bragg and Redwood Valley. I am lucky, we have Comcast (formerly Adelphia) HSI here in Redwood Valley, but our CO (AT&T/PacBell) still isn't equipped for DSL, so if not for cable broadband, I'd be stuck too.
Edit-
»www.willitsonline.com/
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webtiger
Rain, hail, sleet, snow and floods
join:2000-07-29
Ravensdale, WA
·Qwest.net
edit:
May 19th, @02:01AM
| Re: Crazy said by RR Conductor :It seems like these satellite internet companies are taking advantage of people who have no other choice for high speed, that's sad. It's like anything you buy in life, do your homework!
Oh, and I don't see any of these Satellite Companies holding a gun to anyone's head forcing them to subscribe!
That said I was on Satellite through DirecWay, now HughesNet, for 7 years. It was better than dialup, especially when dialup is 26.4, right up until Qwest finally delivered DSL to us. Granted, the DSL is 1500/896 but it is truly "always on" and the ping times are 1/10th those on a Satellite system.
I was lucky I got out about 3 weeks before the latest cap insanity began. I can say though, if I were still a customer today and they refused to release me based on their subscriber contract, they'd be class actioned mintues after they said "No releasee for you".
From what I've read in the Hughes Satellite forum this is one company that has ripped it's last customer. They'll be lucky if they don't get sued up the wazoo before the end of summer.
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Webtiger|Qwest DSL
|ZA Pro|3 Windows machines + 1 wirelessly connected laptop | |
| 
NWPAr
@faa.gov
| If it's all you can get I live 18800' from a Verizon hub that provides DSL to the local community. They will not provide DSL to me as I live 800' outside their limits.
I have no cable option.
The Verizon telephone cables provided 24k dialup speed on good days which I used for years because I had no other choice.
Then my wife and daughters decided they needed to use the internet all the time so 24k divided by four systems didn't go far fast so I subscribed to Direcway (now HughesNet) and have the $69 a month 1mb down / 256k up and a 350MB fair use limit. Yes it's expensive and yes at times it's slow and the rain does effect it occassionally however, it works and it's significantly faster than dialup. Until something better comes along, we're content..not always happy but content with the service.
My only complaint with Hughesnet is the service. I needed service and called a local installer and they said because they didn't install the original equipment, they were not allowed to touch it so I would have had to get the original installer who is in Minnesota. I did the service myself.
As far as verizon, they suck. A friend lives in another community serviced by AllTell (windstream) and he's over 30000' from their hub and he has DSL. Verizon doesn't care and never will... | |
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Arion
join:2006-07-09
Marquette, MI
·HughesNet Satellit..
| Re: If it's all you can get It seems like many are trying to equate their dsl, cable, Evdo services to satellite internet. Of course if you do so their is no comparision. Terrestrial broadband is quicker, cheaper, less equipment intensive, on and on. Yet you can't compare the two. It's like apples and oranges.
Satellite Internet is what it is. A high speed alternative to dial up or where their are no wireless or telephone lines at all. Dial up in my area is 28.8 max with noisy lines. My sat box is on 24/7, the only outages I've had have been rain fade related, I consistently get my plan speeds of 1Mb down 200up. It's there when I need it and runs rings around dial up.
Yes it's much more expensive but looking at the players only Hughes has been able to show any profit at all and that's within the last year. If companies can't make some money they are not going to be around much longer. (Ask Ford and GM about that)Sat internet is much more equipment intensive than the terrestrial counterparts. You can minimize the latency issues but you can't overcome physics and the speed of light. For the residential/light commercial user satellite will always be the last option in some areas of the nation. I for one wouldn't move back to town to get cheap highspeed internet. I saw a gray wolf try to take down a deer right outside my window a few weeks ago as I was on the internet. You can't get that in town...
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