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We have a couple of small WISPs in northern New England which operate antennas on mountaintops to offer wide-area wireless (not 4G/5G) internet to fixed-basestation subscribers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ddm2k
Anything live and interactive (phone, FaceTime, Zoom meeting) will and I mean WILL suffer due to the latency associated with ALL satellite connections. It's not even a matter of technology at this point it's physics. The round-trip time for the signal has a theoretical minimum of 500 ms (which you won't ever get) and is already 5x the tolerance for any live session you may be planning on having.
To clarify -- high latency on satellite-bidirectional Internet is inherent in current geosynchronous satellite service offerings, as each packet has to go up 22,000 miles to the satellite, and back down to earth.
Compare to Iridium, which orbits at just 416 miles and has much lower latency (40ms rt), but per-customer bandwidth is too low to be useful for more than voice and text messaging.
Meanwhile, two firms have partially deployed new Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations, with advertised latency and bandwidth sufficient for all but the most demanding twitch gamers. Neither has announced general availability, much less pricing.
I lived for 10 years at my last country home without high speed Internet. For several years all I could get was dial up. The day I saw the Comcast truck headed down my road was a happy happy day!
Thanks. These are helpful suggestions. It sounds like if I can use service through a cell phone, it will be better than Viasat or Hughes?
Our landline phone will be DSL through Century Link. Is this even better?
Next Link sounds great but we're way out surrounded by nothing, not even neighbors. How can I find out if there is a tower way out there?
In order best to worst: (?)
Satellite thru cell phone
Landline DSL(CenturyLink)
Next Link
Viasat
Hughes
NO to Direct or Dish tv (stream using internet instead?)
Does this summarize what you all have suggested? We are waiting for the low earth orbit internet, I hope it happens...
Thanks. These are helpful suggestions. It sounds like if I can use service through a cell phone, it will be better than Viasat or Hughes?
Our landline phone will be DSL through Century Link. Is this even better?
Next Link sounds great but we're way out surrounded by nothing, not even neighbors. How can I find out if there is a tower way out there?
In order best to worst: (?)
Satellite thru cell phone
Landline DSL(CenturyLink)
Next Link
Viasat
Hughes
NO to Direct or Dish tv (stream using internet instead?)
Does this summarize what you all have suggested? We are waiting for the low earth orbit internet, I hope it happens...
Look up Nextlink on the Internet to see if they cover your area.
Not sure what you mean by "NO to Direct or Dish tv (stream using internet instead?)". DirecTV is great, for TV. You can get it anywhere. You can get any and all TV channels with DirecTV. But it is unrelated to streaming. Streaming comes from your Internet connection. DirecTV comes from a satellite dish that DirecTV installs, that has nothing to do with Internet.
Thanks. We watch TV for a few hours each night, strictly streaming or watching "on demand". My husband watches on a very limited basis because he works away from home.
Cable has so many good old shows and movies to on-demand. Dish type TV doesn't have any collection to choose from. It sounds like one can only view a show/movie that is live time airing. We prefer these older shows and also watch Netflix, You Tube etc.
It sounds like it's "the luck of the draw" and "what's airing on TV tonight?", using Dish? We have favorite programs and limited watching time. Dish will be useless if we can't watch them.
I'll put effort towards replicating the streaming/on- demand ability we currently have through Comcast cable. I know this will require good internet and a streaming box of some kind.
Thanks. We watch TV for a few hours each night, strictly streaming or watching "on demand". My husband watches on a very limited basis because he works away from home.
Cable has so many good old shows and movies to on-demand. Dish type TV doesn't have any collection to choose from. It sounds like one can only view a show/movie that is live time airing. We prefer these older shows and also watch Netflix, You Tube etc.
It sounds like it's "the luck of the draw" and "what's airing on TV tonight?", using Dish? We have favorite programs and limited watching time. Dish will be useless if we can't watch them.
I'll put effort towards replicating the streaming/on- demand ability we currently have through Comcast cable. I know this will require good internet and a streaming box of some kind.
You can get a DVR with DirecTV, and record any show that airs. That way you're not stuck with what's on at that very moment. But that won't work with any series that is streaming only.
Had Hughes years ago when we lived in the sticks. No go on gaming because of lag, there were no streaming services then. Hit the data cap often and they slowed the speed and billed more.
Now looking to move and the first thing I check on if I like the house is broadband availability. No broadband, go to next house.
I think djmaxwell hit the nail on the head:
Quote:
Originally Posted by djmaxwell
Your lifestyle is not compatible with where you are planning on living.
We have a couple of small WISPs in northern New England which operate antennas on mountaintops to offer wide-area wireless (not 4G/5G) internet to fixed-basestation subscribers.
To clarify -- high latency on satellite-bidirectional Internet is inherent in current geosynchronous satellite service offerings, as each packet has to go up 22,000 miles to the satellite, and back down to earth.
Compare to Iridium, which orbits at just 416 miles and has much lower latency (40ms rt), but per-customer bandwidth is too low to be useful for more than voice and text messaging.
Meanwhile, two firms have partially deployed new Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations, with advertised latency and bandwidth sufficient for all but the most demanding twitch gamers. Neither has announced general availability, much less pricing.
Line-of-sight, microwave towers will offer better latency, but one cannot expect that they will automatically be within range of one. I just read that Amazon is investing an initial $10B into LEO satellites to provide full-coverage, low-latency satellite internet.
If you really need broadband, don't trust the "prequalification" websites
Quote:
Originally Posted by olds1
Satellite would be my last choice.
See above -- two new low-earth-orbit satellite offerings will be coming online in the next year or so, very different experience from the high-orbit Hughesnet/ViaSat stuff.
Quote:
Originally Posted by olds1
Now looking to move and the first thing I check on if I like the house is broadband availability. No broadband, go to next house.
And don't trust the "prequalification" websites (learned this the hard way)
Pre-qualification (e.g. using the form on the Xfinity website) is no guarantee an address can actually get service; If Internet is really important to you, look for a listing that already has cable hooked up and active.
Line-of-sight, microwave towers will offer better latency, but one cannot expect that they will automatically be within range of one. I just read that Amazon is investing an initial $10B into LEO satellites to provide full-coverage, low-latency satellite internet.
My old Hughes ping (AKA latency) was in the hundreds. Comcast at our condo in Houston (incredibly, fiber all the way to unit!) is around 8-12. NextLink, which we use at our ranch, is the new line-of-sight tower that just came online (and I signed up the first week) typically has a ping of 12-15. Which is VERY respectable for a wireless connection. Heck, it's respectable for ANY connection.
Our Comcast fiber speed is 800Mbps. Our Nextlink is 25-30, but that's all I pay for. And really, that's all most people need. They offer up to 100Mbps. And no data caps, at any level of service.
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If you really need broadband, don't trust the "prequalification" websites
