Satellite Internet access on a Mac, part I: the costs
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Jan 25, 2007 at 3:29am
I’ve had satellite Internet installed, and, after three days of test driving it, I’m pleased. It’s not a cheap option, but some of us have few broadband choices. I live on a small road in a suburb of Nashville, TN, that, though only 15 minutes from a major mall, isn’t serviced by DSL or cable. I can take advantage of Sprint wireless thanks to products such as the Franklin Wireless USB Modem, the first wireless broadband USB modem that supports the Mac. It’s a great product, but I wanted something faster. So, after being dissed by DirecTV I turned to HughesNet.
The company offers five satellite Internet options. The Home plan is US$59.99 per month and offers download speeds of 700 Kbps and upload speeds of 128 Kbps. The Pro plan is $69.99 per month with download and upload speeds of 1000 Kbps and 200 Kbps, respectively. The ProPlus plan (the one I chose) is $79.99 per month with download and upload speeds of 1500 Kbps and 200 Kbps, respectively. The Small Office plan is $99.99 per month and offers download and upload speeds of 1500 Kbps and 300 Kbps, respectively. Then there’s the Business/Commercial plan, which is a whopping $179.99 per month with download and upload speeds of 2000 Kbps and 500 Kbps, respectively. The first three options use a .74 meter with one-watt dish, while the latter two use a .98 meter with two-watt dish.
Speaking of which, another cost of satellite Internet access is the dish itself. The smaller dish is (with HughesNet’s current promotion and rebates) $274.98, while the bigger dish is $549.98. You can upgrade among the first three service/price plans with a software update, but can’t upgrade to the Small Office or Business plan without replacing your satellite. All the plans include the new HN7000s modem (more on it tomorrow). You’ll probably also want to spring an another $125 for a rock-solid pole mount for the dish. It can be installed on your roof, but you’ll have to sign a waiver that HughesNet isn’t responsible for potential problems—such as, if your roof starts leaking. The serviceman who installed my dish said that roof installations usually went well, but pointed out that the dish weighs about 75 pounds. When it’s sitting atop your roof and the wind is blowing 60 mph, that’s like having the dish shaken by two hefty men. You can see why damage is possible.
I’ve found the speeds on my Pro plan to live up to HughesNet’s claims. Neither an overcast sky nor a thunderstorm had an apparent effect on my uploading and downloading abilities. I’ve been able to easily download movie trailers from the QuickTime Movie Trailer site and videos from YouTube, something I couldn’t do with dial-up (though “streaming” video is still jerky). I can download system updates from Apple and sizeable software products with ease—something that would take hours (and hours and hours) on dial-up, assuming my connection didn’t “choke” before the download was completed.
I can use Skype to make calls, even long-distance ones. The audio quality is good, but there’s a noticeable lag in the conversation as data is uploaded and downloaded. Sadly, I’ve been unable to do video chatting with iChat. Though I have 1500 Kbps download speed and 200 Kbps upload speed (which seems to fall within iChat’s requirements), I keep getting a “lack of bandwidth” message. I plan to try another video chat product to see if the results differ. As for online gaming, sorry, but satellite Internet just doesn’t cut it.
So how does its speeds compare to other options? Many cable companies and Internet service providers argue that cable modems are as much as 100 times faster than a dial-up Internet connection, running at 5 million bits per second (mbps). In theory, it’s possible, but a more realistic speed is 1-2 mbps, or about 20 to 40 times faster than a typical 56,000-bits-per-second (kbps) dial-up connection.
One type of DSL technology, VDSL, can match cable’s performance. However, Internet service providers generally don’t offer VDSL, but rather the cheaper and slower ADSL or SDSL services. Your DSL speed can change depending on how you use the network.
DSL providers often advertise speed of their service using a combination of two bandwidth numbers; pretty typically, “1.5 Mbps (downloads) / 128 Kbps (uploads).” The rated maximum bandwidth of a DSL connection often can’t be reached and actual DSL speeds vary between households based on a variety of factors.
Mobile broadband providers claim they can provide users with typical speeds of 300-500 kbps and bursts of up to 2 Mbps. In my experience with Sprint’s mobile service, I’ve found that the latter speed burst never happened.
Tomorrow, we’ll look at the HughesNet 7000S modem.
J. Scott Anderson Says:
SmokeOnIt:
DSL is fortunately not *much* faster than US DSL. Like in most places, your performance is very dependent on where you live. For example, where I live, I get 6Mbs/768Kbs for US $24.95 a month. My mother, on the other hand (living in another part of the US) gets 1.5Mbs/256Kbs for about $40 per month. Then we have Verizon rolling out optical fiber to the home that has speeds up to 30Mbs/5Mbs for about $180 a month.
The US is overall behind a lot of countries in total broadband right now. That is part of the problem with being early with any technology. You get first advantage, but they have to pay back that investment and get a profit before they’ll upgrade. The variable there is competition. If there is a new disruptive technology or just a new young competitor that is in the investment period for their offering, then the established player may decide to go ahead and make a new investment, if they are financially able to. Otherwise, the competitor will gain the new business.
So…while I don’t like the feeling of being slower that many countries with my internet access, I have faith that the vendor offerings will continually improve over time as the natural evolution of a competitive system continues to work. Dennis is paying a lot right now for his satellite connection. However, when and if the broadband-over-powerline technology gains traction or if the cable company and/or phone company gets off their duffs, Dennis will be able to switch to them for what is probably a lower price and better performance. In fact, I expect that the powerline approach to put the satellites out of business.
Posted on January 25, 2007
Doug Shey Says:
Dennis, make note of you sat. internet speeds when it is clear, sunny and warm. I found “bad weather” offered better performance that balmy summer days here in Bend, OR. DSL became available last summer just as our 15 month HughesNet contract ended. I am much happier with DSL, but the sat. internet worked much better than dial-up. Since we had the $60 option, we couldn’t download an entire BSG episode from iTunes with out going over our fair use restrictions. I’m sure your faster connection is well worth it.
Posted on January 25, 2007
Nick Says:
The problem with gaming / ichat and similar applications has little to do with bandwith, but everything to do with latency. Satelite internet just cannot provide the low latency required for those types of apps. Some other VPN / VNC/ remote desktop apps have issues with that too. Infact, some regular dial up connections can do the remote desktop apps better than satelite. Thanks though for a great write up.
Posted on January 25, 2007
Greg Alexander Says:
Glad to hear you’ve got satellite going. A friend of mine was in a very similar position to you and almost got satellite (in Australia) though he managed to get ISDN (at a much higher cost than ADSL).
It made me wonder why he wasn’t allowed to have ADSL, actually. Sure, his line couldn’t handle 1500/256 (which is the minimum standard), but he would have been close enough to get 512/256 if they’d let him get the best his line could manage.... and would have been faster than ISDN, or more responsive than satellite. Damned rules and regulations
Posted on January 25, 2007
Ekkehard Says:
The reason why iChat is not working on your HughesNet is latency. The signal goes to the satelite and back and that takes some time so iChat and things like vonage have problems.
Posted on January 25, 2007
smokeonit Says:
how far is the nearest dsl customer from you? if it’s with a couple of miles and you have direct view it should be possible to set up a wifi link, the hardware is very inexpensive, cheaper than the hughes stuff. a permanent wifi link can be as far as 8-10miles in your case. latency is very low, so that should be a thing of the past. if your neighbors agree it would cut costs and give everybody in the neighborhood a good way to get real broadband;-)
Posted on January 25, 2007
M White Says:
Thanks for the install info. Have you attempted, or read about, using Apple Remote Desktop from your location to another?
Posted on March 07, 2007
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
smokeonit Says:
dsl in germany is much faster than the US now. for approx. €40, $50 i get 6mbit dl/768kbit ul. which is a good deal, for €5 more i get 16mbiit dl, 1mbit ul. VDSL is coming in the bigger cities @ 25-50mbit. cable is slow to respond in germany. normally speeds vary from 4-10mbit dl, 50mbit possible, but @ +€200 too expensive. netcologne just started offering cable service @ 50mbit speeds for €40, now that’s a good deal, but it’s limited to 1000 households in cologne, germany.
Posted on January 25, 2007