Satellite Inet or Wireless Broadband?

[andreah1]

I'm seriously trying to compare what would be the best for my household. We live in rural upstate/central New York. The only internet I can aquire is dial up(no way), mobile broadband or satellite. I've been using mobile broadband for quite a few years now, by plugging the usb modem into an inside antenna I get "good enough" service for at least 1/2 the year. Once the leaves start sprouting it gets sketchy and slow. I've been told I can put up a small tower, etc (yeah right) to make the service better. Our closest celltower is about 4 miles away. For the most part I'm ok with it, but get super frustrated in spring/summer. I go over my 5gb data cap because I'm constantly reloading pages due to the trees blocking signal, etc.
So, thought satellite might be the answer but I don't know many people around that have it to ask and I'm not the type of person to go knocking on someone's door if I see a dish on their roof to ask them how they like their service, I'm likely to end up with a gun in my face, ha ha. My biggest curiosity (which may seem petty to most) is playing games. I don't play any of the big time 2-3 person games, etc. I'm talking facebook games, like bejeweled blitz, various slots, zuma, stuff like that. Would the lag in signal cause the games to run funky? What IS the actual lag time? Wondering if getting down to the last few seconds on an ebay auction would knock me out because of lag. Does anyone have satellite and play any of the mentioned games and notice any problems?
I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have to worry about going over if I bought a 10gb plan. Wondering if it's better to pay the extra 10 a month and go thru excede (looks like they have unlimited data in the wee morning hours, that I could set up updates or any big downloads to run) or go thru dishnet and get the 10 dollar discount (with only a bonus 10 gb instead of the unlimited).
Any thoughts, comments, hell no's? I'm having a hard time deciding as there is no trial run and don't want to be stuck for 2 years. THANKS!

 

[budhead151]

You might get more of a response here www.wildblueworld.com/forum/forum.php

 

[grohgreg]

FWIW, satellite or dialup were my only options too - until last year. Then Verizon expanded Home Fusion service into the 4 towers that surround me. Dropped HughesNet (was with them since 2001), signed a two year commitment with Verizon, free equipment, free installation. Since then an independent 4G provider sprung up that's cheaper than Verizon and has a more generous data allowance. But I don't know who they buy their tower space from. A month or two before my Verizon contract is up, I'll see if I can get a trial month from these new guys before deciding whether or not I want to stick with Verizon

//greg//

 

[andreah1]

Thanks for the info, I can't see Verizon doing that around my area for years. We only have one tower in the area and it's 4 miles away. I can barely use my cell phone in the house. There aren't alot of people moving into the area, mostly farm land. Did you like satellite?

 

[grohgreg]

Well, it was better than dialup. Hence me hanging on to the lesser of the two evils for so many years. Dialup aside, satellite itself is not good value for money from the customer perspective. The satellite equipment I finally ended up taking down was only good for up to 1200k reception and 200k transmissions. And the daily allowance sucked; couldn't download over 375Mb without suffering a major speed restriction. The newer satellite systems are fmuch aster, but the monthly allowances remain meager. And there's not a thing you can do about the average 700ms latency.

//greg//

 

[andreah1]

Just checked, home fusion not available in my area. You feel a 10 gb monthly allowance is bad? I think it's alot, lol...I'm used to 5 and don't even use that in a good month. If I get close, I tether my phone and use it's data so I don't go over. We don't do any streaming or movies though, maybe you do? I'm a pretty simple internet person, just email, facebook, shopping, banking, etc. Think I'd be ok with exede? I'm just so da*^ afraid to take the plunge. Why could you only download 375mb and then get a restriction? I thought you could go up to 10gb? Or are you talking the older satellite service?

 

[grohgreg]

425/day was my the limit on older Ku-band older account On average, that's <13GB/month. That was the most expensive plan. I think the cheapest was 325/day. The newer Ka-band accounts switched to a monthly allowance vice daily, yet are no more generous with the data allowance; 10G/mo basic plans, 15GB/mo is the max you can buy. Overages are added to your monthly bill at something like $8/GB. Oh; and uploads are counted against your monthly allowance as well

//greg//

 

[andreah1]

So are you saying that even though the plan is 10 gb's a month they go by the day? With my vzw it doesn't matter when and how I use my data, only goes by the month, if I go over in 15 days then I start paying extra for each gb. Satellite breaks the 10 gb's down into days and if you go over by the DAY you have to be ramped down?

 

[grohgreg]

Nope. Not saying that at all. Again, older Ku-band service had a daily limit. I only expressed the daily limit times 30 days to give you an idea of how they compared to the monthly limits of the current generation. If you get the 10GB plan - and use it all in one day watching a couple full length HD movies - that's your monthly allowance used up. Anything over the monthly plan allowance gets added to your monthly bill at the rate of $8/GB. There is a selection of monthly plans, but - unlike terrestrial broadband - more money doesn't get you more speed. Depending upon the generation of satellite coverage in your area, it could be 5Mbps or 12Mbps. What costs more is the data allowance. Monthly plan selections are typically 10GB/12GB/15GB, price increasing with allowance.

//greg//

 

[andreah1]

Ok Greg, thanks for the clairification. Phew! I checked on the exede site and it says the 12 mbps for my area.

 

[grohgreg]

Oh, and just so I didn't mislead you, the 5Mbps and 12Mbps are download speeds only. The uploads are much slower, advertised at up to 3Mbps. But it's the "up to" part that covers their butt. Most folks complain of uploads of less than 1/3 that, especially during peak usage hours. Remember, this isn't dedicated service like DSL. Satellite broadband is shared service. Given the finite bandwidth of the satellite, that means the more users that are online simultaneously, the less bandwidth (speed) each is able to share. If you were the only person on line, you'd get it all. But the more that are online simultaneously, the smaller the individual share.

//greg//

 

[andreah1]

Last night I did a speed test because I was having a good mobile broadband day - everything was moving smoothly, and my upload was 2.33 (down was 7) - so satellite would be worse than what I consider to be a really good day. I don't think I'll ever be able to make a decision. Maybe I'll have to wait til spring and do another speed test and see how bad the numbers are, I know they don't even come CLOSE the the great day I was having yesterday. To open up any page can take at least 30 seconds if not longer when the leaves start coming out.

 

[grohgreg]

I'd stick with the 4G, better coverage will eventually make it your way. I say this because you can't get a satellite broadband connection without a service commitment. Lotsa folks have been financially disappointed when they realize that terrestrial broadband moved into their area while they still had months or years left on their satellite service commitment. I'd make a one time investment for an external 4G signal booster like one of these.

//greg//

 

[andreah1]

I've been hearing the better coverage coming our way for years, lol. I can't believe I've held out this long. I was afraid you were going to link me to one of those antennas, we tried one last spring, didn't work (may have if we knew better what we were trying to do). After my husband trodded back and forth all over the roof while I yelled out the window no, keep moving, etc he about threw the thing and told me to be happy with what I have. So, I'm on my own and I'm certainly not going to try to climb on the roof myself and then have to keep climbing down to see if it's working or not. AND, I'm not savvy enough to know actually how it's supposed to hook up correctly, etc.
Think at this point it's a rock in a hard place situation and not sure what I'll end up doing. I hate only have 5gb's each month and not willing to spend 30 more to get 10gb's with 4g if it only works for 1/2 a year. I can't even download the windows 8.1 update because it's too big. While I bragged I rarely go over the 5gb's it's because I really police what I do on the internet, would like to have more freedom to watch a you tube once in awhile, etc. I don't watch ANY videos.
Ok, now I'm whining, lol..that's a sign to stop while I'm ahead.

 

[Stargazer]

Do you live on a hill or in the valley? If you live on a hill, are there any clearings on the hill? Have you checked on any wireless internet service providers or other cell phone services?

 

[andreah1]

We are not technically on a hill, we live in an elevated area but it's really all up and down, think rolling hills but not so romantic. No place on our land is high enough to put up something that would get a better signal and I'm not willing to put much more, if any money into wireless for a lousy 5gb's a month. Verizon is the ONLY available wireless in our area. I've checked, tmobile, sprint, att, virgin, etc. Nothing here. It's very rural. We're lucky to have any service at all, just 3 miles down the road there is absolutely none. They get windstream there, I've even called that company and begged and they laugh.

 

[grohgreg]

You state that you already have a Verizon 4G signal and a 5GB/month plan. I have Verizon also, and am using a contract iPhone. When I started the contract, only 3G or slower was ever displayed on the phone as the data connection. Then one day I started noticing 4G/LTE popping in and out. Within weeks my phone showed a fulltime 4G data connection. I what I was seeing was Verizon upgrading the towers in my area. At that point I checked on Home Fusion to replace my HughesNet satellite. It was available, I signed a Home Fusion installation order. I kept both Hughes and HF for a month, while I still had a Verizon escape clause. It worked, so I dropped Hughes and tore down my satellite dish. Been on Home Fusion ever since. It's a two piece system; an antenna/signal booster outside, and a wireless router inside. No hardware fee, no installation fee, no need to get up on your roof.

So to the point: have you actually put your physical address into this Home Fusion coverage locator? If not, you might be surprised. If it still reveals no HF coverage, just bookmark the webpage and check every month or so.

//greg//

 

[andreah1]

Yes, I did put my entire address in. My phone (galaxy s4) never gets 4g at the house. The usb modem picks it up in the winter but not in the summer. The best speed test I've clocked happened the other day - 7.84 down and 2.33 up, it lasted almost one day then went back down to 2.5 down and .63 up. The latter is more typical. I've contacted verizon to see if there is any hope of home fusion but get no answers (wish they could connect genuinely interested people to someone that has an actual clue). I'm just so tired of screwing around with it, between wasting time doing research and reloading pages all the time because the service sucks I've about had it. I'm so irritated about all of it I've even begged to move, even though we love where we live. And of course the housing market now is kaput.
I don't see Verizon upgrading our towers anytime soon, to be honest I NEVER see any verizon (or anything that looks like a contracted company) in the area, never. When we first moved there about 9 years ago, it was new construction, we're the only house on the road and it took months to get even the landline working correctly. The verizon guy back then told me our area is on the bottom of the list for everything, just sparsely populated and within 10 miles to larger towns where they put all their emphasis. They don't care about us country folk,lol.
Driving into work this morning in the 1/2 dark about 10 miles away (into deeper country) I saw quite a few homes with more than one dish which lead me to believe they have exede or hughes. But none in my area for some reason. We can't even get local tv thru an antenna at my house.

 

[al]

Have you checked to see if there is a WIreless Internet Service Provider (WISP) in your area? If not, check www.wispa.org.

 

[harshness]

Most Facebook games typically aren't real time so you can get away with almost anything. You may frustrate someone if you're playing head-to-head games like Farkle but because it is turn-based, it will still work.

I'd be doing some serious research into Excede or DISH (who resells Excede and Hughesnet). If you're already a satellite TV subscriber, you may be able to get a discount on satellite Internet.

If you're truly rural, there may terrestrial microwave service available that will cost a lot but have almost no latency.

Trees are going to be serious issue with most technologies but satellite may have a look through the trees that Wi-max or microwave doesn't.