Has anybody ever used satellite broadband for their internet access ? If so, which or who do you recommend. I dont know a great deal regarding this subject so any help would be more than appreciated.

Cheers !

Ricky !

 

hope u have deep pockets m8

cheers

big sinky

 

As I said... I dont really know much about this. All I can say is that broadband isnt available on my bt line and I was curious about other ways to get a faster internet access. Can anybody enlighten me on the cost of satellite, or indeed tell me anyn other options I might have ?

Thanks !

Ricky !

 

If you're outside BB - you essentially have 3 options...

1) ISDN. Either a dedicated ISDN Line or Convert your home phone to Home HighWay. Gives you 2x 64K channels (c.f. about 40-45K download/28K upload with a modem). Most ISPs will let you use only 1 channel. Some are now available that let you use 2 together to give 128K but unsurprisingly you pay more.

I have HH and it costs approx £25/month (including "normal" phone rental) with an extra £13.99 for an anytime dial-up account.

2) Satellite. Offers faster download speeds but at a cost. The "latency" of the link is very large. (the time it takes for information to bounce between you and the internet). This in prcatice can make it feel as slow as a modem. Some services also use a modem for traffic to the internet - making it as slow as modem if you're trying to upload files. The high latency make on-lines games impossible and things like VPN connections unworkable.

IMHO its only really a sensible option if you *really* need better download speeds.

3) Buy a business style leased line to get guaranteed bandwidth (typically 256K or 512K) - but you need deep pockets

Deano

 

These guys are launching soon but I needed a reasonably high speed link for work so I signed up with these guys. You need the £18 a month option box. This gives you 300 hours a month at 64K or 150 hours at 128K with no more charges. On top of £25 a month from BT for ISDN it's not a bad deal and about the only option I have as BT are unlikely to ever ADSL-enable our local exchange.

Cheers
Kav

 

BT are going to launch "mid-band" sometime this year by the look of things. Reading the info on or linked from adslguide website, it appears to be a rebadged ISDN line thats always "sorta" on, or at least you can receive email. (can't remember, but there is a low BW channel on ISDN which will probably provide that function).

Its not broadband as such, but at least the monthly charge should be static.

 

Bad thing about sattelite broadband is the insanely long latencies. i.e. download a large file and it's fine once it started, load a web page and it takes ages (back to modem equivalent speeds) - and forget using it for 'net gaming