Now back to the satellite plan. The problem is that the bucket, the amount of kilobytes of data that you can download, is pretty small. Once you’ve used up your bucket within a certain time, say one 24-hour period, you can only get what comes through the leak, and that’s much, much slower. It’s a dribble.
Using HughesNet ™ as an example, their most basic plan gives the user a 200 MB bucket. The dribble is a sub-dialup speed. The refill time for the bucket is 24-hours. (What I’m calling a bucket and a drip, the satellite carriers call FAP, for “Fair Access Plan.”)
There are other problems with satellite internet. One is the amount of time it takes to send a stream of data from the earth to the satellite and down to the user. It can take a second or two to respond to a clinked link. And it’s expensive - $40 to $160 per month. You may even have to purchase the modem and dish.
Something that I do find interesting about satellite internet is that most users report getting more than the advertised download speed. This varies a lot, though. In general, you can expect a satellite system to turn in between 500 and 2500 kb/s.
Thus my theory is that if you actually needed satellite internet, you’d already have it. I would not recommend considering a satellite plan as a backup internet connection.
Yes, it’s dreadfully slow, but your DSL provider may already be providing a backup phone number to connect to the internet. If you’re lucky enough to have a PC or laptop with a modem, this could be considered a last resort (if you still have a dial tone). Check with your DSL provider to see if you have this option and a local access number.
Finally, if you have a smart phone (Windows Mobile, Palm, maybe others) and a data plan, you can tether your PC or laptop to the internet using the phone as your modem. This offers slightly less performance than a wireless card. Tethering usually makes sense only for folks who are online infrequently, like to check email or the company website. However, in an emergency, you can use your smart phone to provide a backup internet connection for your PC or notebook.
Most carriers want to ding you a monthly fee for tethering (even though the ability to tether is already built into the phone). You can bypass this nuisance fee by using PDANet, an application that lets your PC or notebook use the internet connection on your Windows Mobile Smartphone or Palm OS Treo. Best of all, with both Treos and Smartphones, it works through the sync cable.
And, sure, your carrier won’t like it if they find out, but in general, just don’t tell them, and everybody stays happy.
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