A question for Satellite DSL users: How much internet do you use?
Asked by
filmfann (
52255
)
January 21st, 2014
We are moving to an area that is quite remote, and their wired DSL provider says the area is capped, which means no new service can be provided. So, I have to go with a satellite DSL provider.
We are looking at HughesNet, but I understand Dish, ClearWire, and Charter are also options. Most of these seem to cap their monthly service at 5 gig.
My wife streams NetFlix movies at night. I have no idea how much bandwidth this uses. We both use Facebook, as well.
Do you have one of these providers?
How much do you stream?
Have you ever gone over the allowed amounts?
Do you know how much data usage a NetFlix movie runs?
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7 Answers
I would check with netflix to see how much a movie takes. In the long run it might be cheaper to save your internet for email, Facebook and general surfing and break down and get satellite TV with a DVR.
Have you checked to see if you have 4G on your phones? When I first moved off grid it was miserable. We had no internet and only an E on my phone. We now have a community based wireless CoOP and it’s been great. Of course, as soon as we got decent internet the phone company got 4G up here too. We DID have satellite internet for a month and there was a lot of glitches in the streaming video because it’s so slow.
The quality of Netflix varies with downlink speed. It is low res at 1Mbps, ok at 4Mbps, good at 12Mbps. Satellite TV can be full 1080p HDTV. So don’t rely in satellite for Netflix. Satellite internet for cruising and FB is fine.
My wife and roomate watch a lot of YouTube and Netflix, I game, and we average about 16GB/month across 3 computers. And Facebook took my wife’s phone over 2GB, making me thankful that we have shared data and I only used 1.6 GB.
A 5GB cap pretty much precludes video, and may go over if you have more than 1 computer, period. If you can’t find a better plan with more data, expect to pay dearly.
We have Hughes Net and they have the best options as far as bandwidth caps go.
We are currently using their 15GB a month plan. This is 15GB that are used from the hours of 8 am to 2am plus an additional 15GB that are used from 2am to 8 am. There is also a 20GB cap but I couldn’t see paying $135 a month for it.
Like the others said above, video will eat your bandwidth allowance up very quickly. Skype also sucks with satellite internet.
Most providers will throttle you if you go over your allowance until your 30 day allowance period is up. Hughes Net gives you the option of purchasing extra bandwidth until your allowance resets.
We tried a couple of other satellite services out here and they were horrid. Hughes Net has been far and away the best and I wish we would have gone with them first.
(satellite internet service is not going to be DSL. DSL is a different method of providing internet service that happens over old copper phone lines.)
@dabbler I actually knew that, but I wanted to get people to understand the question, without getting too technical.
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