[Hidden-tech] Satellite broadband

[Robert Heller]

At Thu, 14 Jun 2012 18:40:30 -0400 Peter Jaros <peter.a.jaros at gmail.com> wrote:

> 
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> 
> Does anyone on the list have experience with Wild Blue satellite
> broadband (or anything similar)?  My brother-in-law is moving to
> Ashfield.  He works from home currently, and uses VoIP and other
> services all day.  He needs a real broadband provider, and he'll be
> too far from the town centers for cable or DSL.  He should be able to
> get his company to pay for even an expensive plan, but is there one
> good enough?  Or will he need to find an office in town instead?

Generally speaking Satellite internet has too much latency for video
conferencing or for VPN.  It works some of the time for VoIP, but not
really well due to the latency issues (voice is less sensitive to
latency compared to video).  Some VoIP services work better than others.

The other issue is bandwidth use.  All Satellite providers have a 'Fair
Use Policy' which limits the amount of data that can be downloaded in a
given period (HughesNet is measured over a 24hour period and Wild Blue
uses a monthly average).  If you excede the limit, they cut you off for
a while.

Other than an office in town, his only other option would be a T1 line
(about $500/month).  A full T1 is 1.5 MBit -- not terribly fast
(compared to modern cable or DSL), but it is dedicated and has no
latency issues.

> 
> Thanks,
> Peter
> 

-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933 / heller at deepsoft.com
Deepwoods Software        -- http://www.deepsoft.com/
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