Satellite broadband - what speed do you get out of usage + does it work with Vonage?

darrenforster99

I'm looking at getting satellite broadband after being so fed up with internet round here, I moved to Ludlow in December from Warrington. There I was used to super fast always on broadband from Virgin Media, now I'm having to put up with 2mbps super-slow broadband, with constant disconnections, constantly having to reset the router, having to wait, unable to use things like Grooveshark, or Youtube without having to wait 2 minutes for the song or video to load, or have a jumpy track all the way throughout.

The only thing that is making me think twice about satellite broadband is the limited data usage for the same price I'm paying Plus Net (at present I pay Plus net £17 for the enhanced pack, although I only just manage to go over the usage for the cheap pack due to stupid data speeds here - about 12Gb a month, where as their limit is 10Gb on the cheap pack) and also whether or not Vonage will work on satellite broadband.

Firstly I asked the satellite broadband firm what happens if I exceed my data usage, and the only answer I can get from them is that you go onto a slower mode. I then asked how much slower, and the only information I'd get from the rep is that it'd be slower, and it didn't really matter how many times we went round in circles on that one it was still just it'll be slower - which ideally I need to know, are we talking 56k speeds here or 2mbps speeds? 2mbps speeds I'd go for it 'cos it's not really going to make much difference to what we have today.

So has anyone who is on satellite broadband gone out of their usage, and if so how slow does the connection go if your out of the usage?

Also does anyone use Vonage on satellite broadband, and if so does it work fine? I've heard two things about this one, the firm say VOIP works fine with satellite broadband, and yet some places say there is a problem with VOIP and satellite broadband due to the way the data has to travel so far (although I don't really remember there being a problem with satellite phones and I presume they'd work the same way, only slower 'cos they were sending analogue data rather than digital).

Mark_In_Hampshire

VOIP will be laggy on satellite. The "latency" time - roughly put, the length of time it takes for your speech to start being heard at the other end - will be noticeable. Indeed you can notice it on the news when they interview people overseas by satellite phone.

You may find this link useful:
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/category/satellite-broadband

Satellite has come a long way and the installation costs aren't horrendous now, the speeds are better (and getting better), it works upstream as well so doesn't need a phone line, and usage allowances are better - but still, very, very low.

We live in an area that has only 20CN ADSL and a line that's useless, so the same sort of speeds as you (worse actually). We get around that by using 3G instead. It is very much quicker, but perhaps because it is not heavily contended (rural area), not that far from the cell (2.7km) and we get a good signal.

This is our best downstream result, "normal" is about 5.4Mbps



About the only major downside is that the data is more expensive, unless you have a very long contract. What you could do - if it worked for you - is keep both, and use 3G when you want "quick" and ADSL when you can "leave going overnight". Coverage map on Three website is useful, and you can return it (quickly) if it doesn't work for you.

Satellite - perhaps, but as a last resort after 3G, I'd say.

Buzby

Satellite servces can be one way or two way. Most use one way, where the speed of the downlink is broadcast to your dish, BUT the uplink will be by modem or even BB - which kinda defeats the effort. Satellite is really a belt & braces approach, if you have any other means - even slow ADSL, it will always be preferable.

Mark_In_Hampshire

I knew I'd remember reading about a possible WiFi provider in Shropshire

Bottom of page 2 of this thread

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/fibre/4011434-shropshire-bt-hate-the-county.html?page=1&fpart=3&vc=1

That would probably outperform ADSL, satellite and 3G.