[BC] Sat Internet Service

[Chris Gebhardt]

Mark Earle wrote:
> Perhaps one of the standard one-way satellite services as used by 
> state-wide networks would be better. I've tried Hughes Net, and 
> WildBlue, two readily available consumer and small business providers. 
> Both have a lot of latency. But further, you must pay for their 
> higher-tier pricing, to get a service that will work at all. Even at 
> best, it's really not suited for streaming. It's fine for "Bursty" uses, 
> such as web page surfing or pulling email.

Actually, the satellite service ought to be BETTER at streaming and long 
downloads.

It's been my experience that for things like general web browsing and 
email, you may as well stick with dial-up.   The reason is simple - 
bouncing everything off the satellite takes time.  About 1/4 second for 
a one-way trip to space, actually.   So if you're on a 2-way satellite 
service and you click on a link, that click takes 1/4 second to get to 
the satellite, and another 1/4 second to get back to the Earth station 
before it actually gets on the Internet and then to the server you're 
making the request from.   Then it has to make the return trip to you 
with that data.  1/4 second from the Earth station to space, another 1/4 
second back to your computer.   So you're adding 1 second to each request.

By way of contrast, using our fiber connectivity here at the datacenter, 
we can make a round-trip to either US coast within 30 milliseconds. 
Australia within 150 milliseconds.

Now, I will admit my last experience with satellite Internet was a good 
7 or 8 years ago.  It was slow, buggy, didn't work in a big storm... 
take the worst of DBS and the Internet and combine them... that's 
satellite Internet for you.  So to say I'm not a fan would be an 
understatement.  Certainly, things may have improved from a service 
perspective, and technology may be much better these days.   But I'm 
pretty sure one thing that cannot change is physics.  Sending your radio 
signal 22,000+ miles just takes a little time.

So to the original question, that latency shouldn't be a big factor in 
streaming, because once the packets start flowing in a stream, they just 
keep going (ideally.)   It's the transactions that take back & forth 
between you and the Internet that will really show the limitations.   I 
would submit that the streaming should work fine, so long as you can 
avoid signal issues, rain fade, and all the other pitfalls consumer 
Internet and satellite communications come along with.

> Be sure to review the terms and understand how they calculate your 
> useage. Unlimited, usually, has a cap. OK, it's not a limit, but you 
> will pay for exceeding it :-) Sorta like on a cell phone data plan.

Correct!  "Unlimited" is not unlimited!  Read the service agreement 
carefully, then read it again for safety.  :)

But before you sign anything, do yourself (or your client) a favor and 
check into T1.   Sure, you'll spend a bit more, but you can be 
reasonably assured it'll be there when you need it.

Chris Gebhardt
VIRTBIZ Internet Services
chris at virtbiz.com | (972) 485-4125