WildBlue ViaSat1 the real scoop

[AlanRT]

I've heard that the cable/sat industry uses a figure of something around 30% to calculate how many people are online at the same time. That's not to say they're all doing the same thing, some are streaming video or audio, but others are just sitting reading Email or surfing the web, or typing up post replies like I'm doing now. Those are not bandwidth-intensive activities, and most of them don't need or notice 12Mbps burst speeds. Not sure what the sustainable total number of users is on Viasat 1 but WB says it will be 1 million users for their 12 Mbps service there. Will everybody get that all the time? Certainly not, but it will be interesting to see what happens as it loads up.

[Stargazer]

I remember having to stay up until 2 am to do the unlimited bandwidth and youtube. In my final days on satellite broadband I got too sleepy and could not stay up until 2 am.

[Stargazer]

I've heard that the cable/sat industry uses a figure of something around 30% to calculate how many people are online at the same time. That's not to say they're all doing the same thing, some are streaming video or audio, but others are just sitting reading Email or surfing the web, or typing up post replies like I'm doing now. Those are not bandwidth-intensive activities, and most of them don't need or notice 12Mbps burst speeds. Not sure what the sustainable total number of users is on Viasat 1 but WB says it will be 1 million users for their 12 Mbps service there. Will everybody get that all the time? Certainly not, but it will be interesting to see what happens as it loads up.

I read that they plan on having 1 million customers on this satellite? In the past I have also read that the broadband industry plans on having something like 10% of the customers on at the same time. Even with only that many on at the same time everybody is not loading web pages at the same time.

At 30% usage there would be a fourth of the 12 MB bandwidth available if everybody was full throttle (if my math is correct). That would be 3 MB full throttle for them all or more than that if some are not downloading/video/etc.

[Chris Conant WildBlue]

Anyone have any speed tests to post up?

[Tyralak]

You never addressed the latency issue, 'Chris'. Have they managed to make it useable for activities like voip, video conferencing, online gaming, etc?

[grohgreg]

You never addressed the latency issue, 'Chris'. Have they managed to make it useable for activities like voip, video conferencing, online gaming, etc?

Perhaps Chris has not, that's not info that management usually extends to sales staff. But I believe I have addressed myself not long ago. Originally Wildblue had normal (for satellite) lag over their consumer connections. 680ms or so seems to be somewhat of an industry average. But in 2006 they screwed the pooch with an ill-advised front end modification, which resulted in 1600-2800ms PINGS.

The new Exede service - which should be noted as under new ownership/management - seems to have remedied that situation. RTTs reported by early Exede subscribers seemed to have settled back to within satellite consumer grade norms. VPN has been addressed recently over at DSL Reports as having improved markedly over "the old WildBlue". VoIP hasn't been discussed in depth yet, but it's still early. And for the record, latency is not the major issue with satellite - it's the inconsistent time between packets. Usually that takes a VoIP accelerator to even out the stream (typically a value-added feature). Gamers however, will continue to be disappointed. There's just no way that first person shooters are EVER going to be satisfied with three digit PINGs.

//greg//

[Chris Conant WildBlue]

You never addressed the latency issue, 'Chris'. Have they managed to make it useable for activities like voip, video conferencing, online gaming, etc?

Pretty sure we stated it would work with Voip and VC but gamers? not so much... especially fast twitch....

[grohgreg]

And for the record, latency is not the major issue with satellite - it's the inconsistent time between packets.

I discovered the omission after it was too late to edit the error. This statement should have read; "And for the record, latency is not the major issue with VoIP via consumer grade satellite - it's the inconsistent times between packets."

//greg//

[bweiteka]

Here's a speed test from a few days ago, I've done 5, all test about the same. It's awesome, I no longer hang my head in shame when showing a custy how fast it is!

[Stargazer]

Faster than my DSL connection especially when it comes to the upload speed. I notice that it is not the 12 MB speed so I wonder how low it will go as more subscribers get onto the service.