I've been replacing satellite Internet systems with Tower Internet for a while now. During one install I asked the customer what kind of speeds they were getting with satellite. He told me 250 Kbps on
a good day and was paying around $79 per month. That's 6 times slower than Tower Internet at over twice the cost.
Quoted below is a section from HughesNet®’s website..
“With the HughesNet Home service plan, you may enjoy download speeds up to 1.0 Mbps, with typical speeds of about 550 Kbps to 650 Kbps during peak times. Upload speeds, which are capable of reaching 128 Kbps, are typically 70 Kbps to 80 Kbps during peak hours.
In all cases, actual upload speed will likely be lower than speed indicated during peak hours.
If you choose to run a VPN over your satellite service, your data speeds may be reduced by as much as 50-75%. In addition, we do not recommend using HughesNet to run time-sensitive applications that require fractions-of-a-second user inputs (such as twitch gameplay or real-time equities trading)."
I couldn’t locate what “peak hours” are or how long they last, but you see that you’re only going to get approximately half of what they advertise in their plans. Upload speeds are even dipping very close to dial-up speeds. Tower Internet also lists the maximum speeds you can obtain, but we keep those figures very close to actual speeds. We do not consider it normal to drop to half of what you’re paying for during “peak” or any other time.
Tower Internet has customers working from home over VPN connections and avid real-time game players. We have worked with both types to ensure our system is compatible with business and home users.
Last Updated (Saturday, 04 February 2012 18:02)