4 ms·

In the US, most satellite internet providers also have data caps. ~$50/10GB/month around me, and each additional GB/month is $10.

Loughla 11y ago
That's exactly right. The main complaint I have with satellite isn't the latency or speed. Although the latency is awful. It's that 15GB costs ~$100 and comes with an automatic next throttle on next month's bandwidth if I go over. Or, purchase additional GB for $10 each. It's like having a Porsche with a thimble sized tank of gasoline.
- earlz 11y ago
  Yep, I have a friend who pays $150/month for 50mbit/s satellite with a 20G data cap. He makes heavy use of the unmetered time from 12am-4am though. And yea, I did some look ups before about this issue and it's ridiculous the cap structure some of these providers have, like this bit from Wild Blue: > After exceeding either of the usage thresholds, which vary by service package, we may significantly slow and/or restrict your service, or certain uses of your service. Your full service will be restored when your data usage in the prior 30 days falls below 70% for both usage thresholds. So, if you go over, then for the next 30 days you're throttled UNTIL your volume stays under 70% of your cap over a 30 day period... Like, how is it even legal to sell one thing, but punish for using more than 70% of it sometimes
- A_Beer_Clinked 11y ago
  They have sold 100k Porsches on to an information superhighway that has only room for 1000 at a time so they only let each one use it for a relatively short amount of time each month. i.e the do contention management over a month. Most providers sell consumer broadband access based on headline speed because that's what the fixed line providers do. When buying "professional" satellite broadband; users can buy un-contented at much lower speeds. A Ford Transit with a dedicated lane perhaps...

4 ms·

In the US, most satellite internet providers also have data caps. ~$50/10GB/month around me, and each additional GB/month is $10.

by bsilvereagle 11y ago

Loughla 11y ago
That's exactly right. The main complaint I have with satellite isn't the latency or speed. Although the latency is awful. It's that 15GB costs ~$100 and comes with an automatic next throttle on next month's bandwidth if I go over. Or, purchase additional GB for $10 each. It's like having a Porsche with a thimble sized tank of gasoline.
- earlz 11y ago
  Yep, I have a friend who pays $150/month for 50mbit/s satellite with a 20G data cap. He makes heavy use of the unmetered time from 12am-4am though. And yea, I did some look ups before about this issue and it's ridiculous the cap structure some of these providers have, like this bit from Wild Blue: > After exceeding either of the usage thresholds, which vary by service package, we may significantly slow and/or restrict your service, or certain uses of your service. Your full service will be restored when your data usage in the prior 30 days falls below 70% for both usage thresholds. So, if you go over, then for the next 30 days you're throttled UNTIL your volume stays under 70% of your cap over a 30 day period... Like, how is it even legal to sell one thing, but punish for using more than 70% of it sometimes
- A_Beer_Clinked 11y ago
  They have sold 100k Porsches on to an information superhighway that has only room for 1000 at a time so they only let each one use it for a relatively short amount of time each month. i.e the do contention management over a month. Most providers sell consumer broadband access based on headline speed because that's what the fixed line providers do. When buying "professional" satellite broadband; users can buy un-contented at much lower speeds. A Ford Transit with a dedicated lane perhaps...