ViaSat-1
High speed internet satellites for the most remote pockets of the US.
Internet Anywhere
Courtesy ViaSat
About 15 million Americans living in rural areas have problems loading media-heavy websites because they can’t get access to high-speed Internet. To reach isolated homes—often hundreds of miles from wired connections—the company ViaSat launched ViaSat-1, the highest-capacity satellite in the world, capable of sending data at 140 gigabits per second to ground receivers.
With download speeds of 12 megabits per second, the satellite broadband service delivers faster rates than DSL. Engineers increased the satellite’s capacity by adding a number of small antennas; the extra hardware can transmit twice the usual amount of data-carrying beams, up to 72. Service from $50/month
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Best of what's new? Really?? Have you looked at things like reliability, customer service, customer satisfaction, user experience, price and usability (the low daytime caps for instance)? Why not take a look at their forums or Facebook pages? There are two major satellite providers. Their competition launched an identical satellite. Sure they work in areas where there is no choice, but they are only used when there is NO other choice.
Have a typical "city" person use the service for a month or two, pay the price, and see what they'd say about it. Do you know anyone that watches more than an hour or two of high quality video a month? Not on this service during normal daytime hours. Multiplayer gaming like FPS, not on this service (science magazine should at least mention why I'd think), etc. A title of best is not accurate, a title of "only choice" is. Those of us who have no choice, like myself, would switch to if we had a choice. That fancy satellite you mentioned also only covers about half the country, the rest are on existing satellites, some of which are full, no new customers.
Also, yes it is for remote areas, but in rural areas, about 5 miles out of town, there is no DSL unless the wires are upgraded, and in many cases no cell or wireless. It doesn't have to be that remote.
I got Exede Sat. this past summer and all I can say is, IT'S GREAT!
I live out in the country and was on dialup since the mid 90's with no other options. It had gotten so bad that I really couldn't use the internet anymore so when I received the information that Exede was available here I decided to give it a shot. I have never been sorry. They are so nice to work with and affordable for me as I am on a tiny social security.
I would recommend it to anyone without hesitation. The only problem they seem to have once in awhile is bad installers, but they remedy the situation quickly at no cost to you.
Thanks Exede for being there for we who had no other options. (not even cell towers are here)
We've had it since June and we think it's wonderful.
After moving out here we suffered through 4 years of HughesNet and 18 months of Verizon Wireless before we found Exede.
Under their Recovery Act program we get more service at a much quicker speed. The FAP is reset on a monthly basis, so much better than HughesNet daily reset. Apple and Microsoft software updates would usually put us over.
With HughesNet, I once tried to download a tv show. After 30 minutes it had downloaded 10 seconds. With Exede, I've downloaded a couple of tv shows and a movie in the same month.
Verizon was faster, but we were limited to 10 GB a month.
We get 27 GB a month with Exede. It's not FIOS, but I'm just happy we have some kind of choice.
www.facebook.com/exedebroadband?filter=2
Moj_Desert_Dwelle-You can get 20 gigs of Verizon 4g/3g for $70 with no contract, no tax through a reseller. Hughesnet also switched to a monthly instead of daily reset for Gen4, but their plans aren't as attractive at night, daytime is similar. Did you have Hughesnet at the same address as you are getting the recovery act? It's against the rules if you've already had a fast service at your current address, just wondering. I was looking at the recovery act plans and would have been satisfied had I been able to get them. Luckily a new Verizon tower was put up, and service is sooo much better than Wildblue or Exede, even on 3G only, and 4G coming next year or so.
Every one of my neighbors has satellite, I had it for 7 years, and have worked on many systems with it for probably 15 years or so, whenever Direcway became popular here. Yes there are bad installers, but it also depends on what area you are in. My area is very bad, so are others. Every single neighbor I have has asked if something else is available. Exede was a joke while it was open to new customers, different installers installed the systems, and I looked them over, no problems with the installs at all, everything in spec and good signal. Two of my neighbors got out of contract with Exede due to poor service, and Viasat let them out with no additional charges or cancellation fee because of it. Exede5 area like half of the country, top speed was no little more than the old Pro Pack anyway. SOME areas are fine and it works well. There have been several issues with hardware and DNS problems as documented on several forums, as well as people waiting weeks for service calls (bad installers, but part of the service and should be taken care of).