Who makes these data caps on satelite?!?

[Texas-Rebel]

I'm soon to be a former customer of Viasat/Exede due to them terminating my account because of their infantile claim that I threatened their company after having to deal with what a call a draconian data allowance policy, along with constant disruption of service with what happens to DAPPED users and ViaSat's LNFZ.

If your DAPPED as I would always hit just after the 2nd week of regular usage, and when the LNFZ comes around, your SB2 modem is rebooted twice a day, once at the beginning or LNFZ and the ending of LNFZ, which often resulted in DNS/DHCP problems that required the user to power cycle the modem and or the router too.

I'm already signed up to get the new Hughesnet Gen4, which I hope to have better experience with.

What really gets me pissed off is the extremely low data capping that these satellite providers have come up with, which doesn't at all match up to their marketing videos and written material. After watching videos for both Viasat/Exede and Hughesnet Gen4, you would think, that you could drop your satellite television service and just go with a satellite Internet connection and start using the online video services, which would be great for me. But that's not the case and it blows holes in their marketing lies. With such a low data cap, nobody could honestly use a satellite Internet connection as it's being marketed, especially if it's a family that is expected to use the connection as it's designed to be used.

I don't watch enough television to justify having a satellite television service. I mostly watch videos on YouTube and on a rare occasion a Netflix movie. I listen to various radio stations as well for alternative news.

There has been multiple articles recently about how data capping doesn't have anything to do with fair access, but is instead a means for the companies to gain more revenue. This practice should be banned and subscribers whether they are cable, dsl, or even satellite users, that they are only being charged for their connections and not how much data they consume.

Who are these draconian controllers that come up with these stupid data capping ideas?? A technical networking engineer certainly wouldn't. The only people that I can think of that are responsible are the damn lawyers, and upper management, who are completely clueless on real world data usage...

-Texas-Rebel-

 

[grohgreg]

In a word (or two); bean-counters

//greg//

 

[Texas-Rebel]

And do these 'bean counters' actually use the Internet or their products? Obviously not!

 

[grohgreg]

Well, I'm not sure I'd go as far as "obviously". But "unlikely" certainly fits. I envision them sitting in their glass tower, using their FIOS to make policy on our satellite systems.

//greg//

 

[AlanRT]

All two-way residential and most commercial satellite plans have data caps. Uncapped, two-way data plans over satellite are very expensive. Charging by the amount of data used is a pricing model that has been in place since the advent of satellite communications. Pricing is not set by the end service provider alone, but by a whole chain of providers starting from the companies that own and operate the satellites. Rates vary greatly depending upon which satellite and the type and level of service provided. All of the costs have to be factored in, including build, launch, insurance and ongoing station maintenance.

Fortunately, there is competition, and that will help to keep prices in line. You can see this right now in the way that Exede has already reacted to HughesNet's Gen4 plans and pricing. What is a "fair and reasonable" cap is subjective - one user's ceiling is another user's floor. But most likely, we'll always have data caps on satellite Internet plans. (There's no such thing as a free launch .

 

[wallyhts]

I think dish's new gen4 when adding to a video plan for $39.95 is a good deal. Plus free install

 

[Allen1982]

Dish has dishnet which is gen4 and viasat/wb sb2

 

[Jaeldawn]

I completely agree with you Texas-Rebel. I am now going into my second month of my LONG 2 year agreement with DISH and Wildblue, and I also feel like I was taken in by their marketing schemes. I mean, when the installer came to install my internet he pulled up a Youtube video to make sure everything is "Streaming correctly". Not being used to a data cap at all I did ask him how many of those videos will I be able to watch throughout the month with a 10GB cap. He said "As many as your heart desires." By the next week I had reached my cap. I now ONLY stream with my cellphone because luckily with Sprint I do not have a cap for my phone. I have this nice awesome gaming computer, and I am subjected to playing all offline games now. With the way video games are these days the good offline games are not 100% offline. Unfortunately I moved to the country, and the only option I have for internet is satellite, so until they come up with a cellphone hotspot that can handle gaming, I guess my online gaming days are over. I feel your pain. I have to say I have taken back every bad thing I have ever said about Comcast during my lifetime, and I can only hope that they come out to where I am living by the time my 2 year contract is up.