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satellite internet...good...bad...or indifferent??


kfeusse
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If you read my recent post about a week or so ago...we are being charged per GB used for our internet by our provider.  So we are looking at other options.  There are no other companies in our area that service our rural town...but I know that DISH and Direct TV will...but I do not know anything about that service and how good or bad it is.  If you have had any experience with it , I would greatly appreciate it.  Currently we have fiber optics.  Thanks.

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When we looked at it:

besides storms:

You have to live where there aren’t trees or mountains or tall buildings blocking reception (a problem in our little valley)

it was expensive 

it may be very slow/limited  if you are used to fiber optics  — though certainly a huge improvement compared to dial-up

Compare the upload and download speed to what you have now and realistically what you can get in terms of gb

If we had fiber optic available but with a charge by gb, I would probably just try to limit use and gb consumption rather than going to satellite     

 

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nothing will be as fast as fiber -(though a provider can throttle that.)

we have friends with satellite because that's what their rural town can get.  The son does notice a difference, and it does make some things difficult.  (gaming/live-streaming)

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We hate DISH internet for all the reasons Pen stated and more. They were constantly "updating our firmware" on the equipment but it counted against our data allotment which would be fine if it was just a few kilobytes here and there but it was eating full gigabytes from our allotted data every month. We even unplugged it while we were gone one weekend and were charged for usage that weekend we couldn't possibly have used as it was unplugged the entire weekend!

We have cellular internet. Right now we hotspot our phones so everyone has their own connection and their own data. It is technically unlimited but at a lower speed. Our provider is currently test marketing home internet where we wouldn't have to tether. It's $50 a month for their new home internet plan. If you can get a TMobile signal (we can in our rural area even though the nearest TMobile store is almost 2 hours away) you might look into their home internet that they are rolling out.

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thank you guys!  I am just trying to figure out what is best for our family and our budget.  We don't game, but we do stream Netflix, Hulu, You Tube and Amazon.   The "updating firmware" thing is concerning.  I never thought to consider celluar internet....although I do know Direct TV uses AT&T and they did NOT service our address.  But I will look at others.  Please keep the opinions coming....thanks

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2 hours ago, kfeusse said:

thank you guys!  I am just trying to figure out what is best for our family and our budget.  We don't game, but we do stream Netflix, Hulu, You Tube and Amazon.   The "updating firmware" thing is concerning.  I never thought to consider celluar internet....although I do know Direct TV uses AT&T and they did NOT service our address.  But I will look at others.  Please keep the opinions coming....thanks

 

You might contact your provider (especially if they are a smaller/regional one) and see if they have another plan (or are considering updating their pricing structure) that would better meet customers needs at this time. Everyone is online at home so consumption has increased. Fiber lines can handle that traffic. They may simply need to update their consumption expectations. There is no way I'd go from fiber to satellite tho. I'd ration household Internet use before that happened.

Edited by Sneezyone
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Satellite internet connection is SLOW.  I mean - it's faster than dial-up but that's not saying a whole lot. 🙂  We have both a satellite connection and a cellular connection.  We keep both as my business is run from home and if one goes out, I have the other for back-up.  The cellular is faster than the satellite but neither is going to compare with fiber.  If you do a lot of streaming, I think you might be disappointed - particularly with the satellite connection.  You'll get maybe 2-3 minutes of something and then it will stop to re-buffer.  And then repeat that ad nauseam.

Note: I'm in Canada so my experience may not compare with the US experience.  You guys have a much greater population density and so probably have better infrastructure overall than we do. 🙂

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We lived somewhere recently for 2 years where we thought the only option was satellite internet, which if you look at plans, is really not ideal (low speeds and low caps). We ended up getting dedicated hotspots on our AT&T cell plan. We had an unlimited plan and the two hotspots were just considered the same as any other extra line on our plan. They allowed us to basically use internet for normal things, like streaming netflix and standard internet searching. They technically had the caveat of speed slow downs if the network got busy after something like 20gb, but we lived in the middle of nowhere, so the network never got busy and we never had problems. We routinely averaged 300+ gb a month. The only irritating thing was that each hotspot had a limited number of devices it could connect to (like 10 or so?) and with Kindles, Rokus, Google Minis, and Sonos, that added up fast. But we were so happy with that solution compared to satellite internet.

We actually set up a Roku in our minivan connected to our dvd player screen and would just bring one of the hotspots with us when we traveled. It was awesome. And we did occasionally experience slow downs when driving in the downtowns of very big cities, but even normal cities we stayed in (Orlando, Myrtle Beach, Draper, UT) had no issues with speeds. 

Edited by MeaganS
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7 minutes ago, MeaganS said:

We lived somewhere recently for 2 years where we thought the only option was satellite internet, which if you look at plans, is really not ideal (low speeds and low caps). We ended up getting dedicated hotspots on our AT&T cell plan. We had an unlimited plan and the two hotspots were just considered the same as any other extra line on our plan. They allowed us to basically use internet for normal things, like streaming netflix and standard internet searching. They technically had the caveat of speed slow downs if the network got busy after something like 20gb, but we lived in the middle of nowhere, so the network never got busy and we never had problems. We routinely averaged 300+ gb a month. The only irritating thing was that each hotspot had a limited number of devices it could connect to (like 10 or so?) and with Kindles, Rokus, Google Minis, and Sonos, that added up fast. But we were so happy with that solution compared to satellite internet.

We actually set up a Roku in our minivan connected to our dvd player screen and would just bring one of the hotspots with us when we traveled. It was awesome. And we did occasionally experience slow downs when driving in the downtowns of very big cities, but even normal cities we stayed in (Orlando, Myrtle Beach, Draper, UT) had no issues with speeds. 

we use tracfone for our cell phones, so I don't think what you are doing would work for us.   But it is interesting to say the least.  To me it seems most cell plans are so expensive, but if it takes away an expensive internet plan, it might balance out in the end.  Right now, we hardly pay $20 a month per phone with tracfone....so I don't know...but it doesn't cost to look into it...so I am going to.  Thanks for idea. 

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1 minute ago, kfeusse said:

we use tracfone for our cell phones, so I don't think what you are doing would work for us.   But it is interesting to say the least.  To me it seems most cell plans are so expensive, but if it takes away an expensive internet plan, it might balance out in the end.  Right now, we hardly pay $20 a month per phone with tracfone....so I don't know...but it doesn't cost to look into it...so I am going to.  Thanks for idea. 

 

Yeah, we only had a fairly limited plan before that house, but the numbers worked out better with a cell plan for internet and cell than a satellite plan and the cell plan.  And it functioned infinitely better too. Good luck!

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1 hour ago, Sneezyone said:

 

You might contact your provider (especially if they are a smaller/regional one) and see if they have another plan (or are considering updating their pricing structure) that would better meet customers needs at this time. Everyone is online at home so consumption has increased. Fiber lines can handle that traffic. They may simply need to update their consumption expectations. There is no way I'd go from fiber to satellite tho. I'd ration household Internet use before that happened.

they don't and a lot of customers are very unhappy about it.  It hasn't been a year since they switched from unlimited bundle (they offer cable TV and phone too) to this plan with fiber optics.  Our bill has increased with careful monitoring of usage and  changing the quality of video playback.   The company doesn't seem to care too much because they know we really have no other easy choice.  So I am trying to think outside the box to see if I can come up with a different solution.

I appreciate all of the responses I am receiving. 

 

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5 hours ago, sweet2ndchance said:

We hate DISH internet for all the reasons Pen stated and more. They were constantly "updating our firmware" on the equipment but it counted against our data allotment which would be fine if it was just a few kilobytes here and there but it was eating full gigabytes from our allotted data every month. We even unplugged it while we were gone one weekend and were charged for usage that weekend we couldn't possibly have used as it was unplugged the entire weekend!

We have cellular internet. Right now we hotspot our phones so everyone has their own connection and their own data. It is technically unlimited but at a lower speed. Our provider is currently test marketing home internet where we wouldn't have to tether. It's $50 a month for their new home internet plan. If you can get a TMobile signal (we can in our rural area even though the nearest TMobile store is almost 2 hours away) you might look into their home internet that they are rolling out.

I am looking at T-Mobile....it appears to be the only one that might possibly work (without us getting cell phones)....but I am not sure yet.   I think I need to make a phone call.

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We live in the country and use Exede satellite internet.  Over the 6.5 years we've been with Exede, they have only improved their service.  Although Charter cable internet was our favorite at our former residence, we are generally happy with it.

Currently, we have 100 GB to use each month, and we usually make it 3/4 of the month with that.  Afterwards, we still have functional internet, yet competition for bandwidth becomes noticeable at peak times. There are five of us almost always online.  Four of us are schooling (high school and college) because of being home.  It is even raining (storming at times) right now, and we still have internet.

We do have to limit streaming.  This is probably the hardest thing.  It isn't that we can't stream, but streaming eats GBs. We usually watch a Netflix or Amazon Prime movie nearly every night though. 

We're on the Unlimited Silver plan for  $160/month.  I'm not really sure how this compares with other services.  Given our location, though, I am thankful to have it.  I would highly recommend.

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Satellite wasn't a great choice for us. It was slow and would periodically go out because of weather. I had to have the company come out a few times to re-position the receiver thing on the roof due to wind moving it.  We were really happy when fiber arrived here.  If your household depends on internet for work or school, satellite will likely not be a great choice for you. 

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