The State of Satellite Internet Today

So what to do?

At this point, the only justification for satellite internet is if you're a Bedouin in the middle of the desert and you live with camels, or if you live in the middle of nowhere without any phone lines. It's a third-rate option at best.


HughesNet sucks. It was an average-performer and over-priced before they implemented the FAP / traffic limits this past Spring. After that, they're worthless. Exceed their limits, you're without internet for a full day. Seriously, can you live with that?


Is WildBlue any better? I don't know. If these opinions are to be believed, then it's not; only a different FAP / traffic-limit scheme. To me, it's not worth a few Franklins to find out either, especially when it comes with a 12-month contract. If they, like HughesNet, can change the contract terms afterwards without consulting you, then it's a consumer trap.


THE PROBLEM:
I've added some other articles to show the whole problem is infrastructure-related AND regulatory-related because there is NO COMPETITION. The US has allowed monopolistic telco companies to dictate the terms, and they've effectively locked it down and made the US uncompetitive against the rest of the world in places like Japan; Japan is now the model to aspire to today.

THE US IS NOW OFFICIALLY TECHNO-CONSERVATIVE.
While the rest of the world is progressively moving forward, the US has done a u-turn and has been going backwards for awhile now. As with all things, ideology has ruined reality, which is why the US public now has some of the worst internet options at the highest prices, in comparison with the rest of the industrialized world.

It's a shitty way to do business, even if you think you have a captive audience.


As Mark Cuban said here . . . .
". . . . The internet is "dead and boring," . . . . "We have reached the point of diminishing returns with today's internet. The speed of broadband to your home won't increase much more in the next five years than it has in the last five years. That is not enough to work as a platform for new levels of applications that will require much, much higher levels of bandwidth."

Broadband to the home isn’t fast enough for downloads of movies at DVD quality to be ubiquitous. That means it’s no longer a platform for technological innovation.

Think of it this way. Way back when, electricity changed the world. It was the platform for everything electronic that we do today. Do you get excited about electricity or is it just a utility? Maybe old people who remember the advent of electricity still get excited about it. No one else does.

The internet is in the same position today. It’s no longer an exciting platform for societal and business change. It’s a utility. . . . "

The US invented the internet, and this is what they've done with it. People won't buy yesterday's news. And that's the US today. The last great myth that communications companies don't seem to realize is that people will opt for real life over virtual life. Of course, if you're livelihood depends on a myth, then you want to perpetuate it as long as possible.



RECOMMENDATION:
If broadband is not available in your area and dialup is available, go with dialup, avoid satellite, and save yourself some money and some headaches.

In my opinion, the recently imposed FAP / traffic limits make satellite internet relatively worthless. As I said before, it's overpriced and doesn't perform, no matter what the sales pitch is. Period! It's dialup-over-the-satellite. At 3x to 4x the price of dialup, and and it won't get better in yours or my lifetime.


As I've said, my goal is to be off HughesNet by the year-end. I will continue to look for alternatives to HughesNet, WildBlue, and satellite internet, but I'm not expecting to find them. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.


More to come later!