Satellite Internet

[fernytickles]

Currently we live where we can get cable internet, and have average speeds of 54.0 Mbps. We use the internet for all communications and viewing - no TV.

I'd like to move away from town/subdivision-ville, but of course, we'd sacrifice the cable internet. Satellite is available, but with caveats - "high" speed is 1.5Mbps and there's a limit to how much you can use per month etc, etc.

Has anyone else living in the US had experience of satellite internet, with the pros & cons involved?

I've read a little about it, but can anyone explain why its so relatively slow, and what are the chances of speeds increasing soon enough to benefit my house hunting?

Thank you.

[planecrazy.eu]

I read about some company offering internet and phone via weather ballon...

Google it, i cant remember the company, but they have had massive success, and are used by the military and commerical companies out in the sticks...

Cant help anymore, as where i live 3mbs is top peak, so 1.5 wouldnt be a massive drop :)

[parabellum]

I used to have satellite internet and the best I could get for a download speed was 400Kbps - was told it was a limitation of satellite technology!

[dusk2dawn]

http://www.google.dk/search?q=satellite+internet+service&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

[fernytickles]

D2D - not quite sure why you posted the link to the google page? I've already been there and looked, hence finding out that 1.5Mbps is as fast as the satellite stuff can go.

Unless there's something I'm missing...

[bnt]

One thing to note is that there is a much higher latency on satellite links, so while you might get high throughput once a connection is going, the process of setting up the connection (handshaking) is inevitably slower. Any "real-time" application will not perform as you may be used to. There's some useful information on this page (http://www.nationwidesatellite.com/HughesNet/order/HughesNet_speeds.asp), from one of the satellite internet providers, under "Limitations of Satellite Internet".

This is down to basic physics: the satellite is 35786 km above the equator, and depending on your latitude, the satellite will be further away, up to 42644 km at the North Pole. Say it's 40000km away, the signal will take 133 milliseconds to get there, the same to get back, and that's before any other routing or processing of the packets. If you play Quake 3, you may be dead a second before you find out... :ooh: