Re: Questions about satellite phones + satellite Internet

[Darin Steffl <darin.steffl () mnwifi com>]

I can't speak much to phone service but between Viasat and hughesnet,
you'll have a way better experience with Viasat. Don't expect it to be full
speed once you hit the caps. It will run slow during peak times once you
hit the caps in the fine print. Off peak hours should be fairly fast.
Latency also is above 700ms so don't expect twitch gaming to work. VPN is
also bad.

I also doubt Comcast is throttling your entire community. Have you
escalated your issue with them? Maybe they have a congested node that needs
to be split. Or their peering points could be running hot so certain
services feel slow to you.

On Fri, Dec 6, 2019, 3:55 PM Yosem Companys <ycompanys () gmail com> wrote:

> Hey All,
>
> I'm new to the world of satellite phones + satellite Internet. I can't
> find an informative guide that will help me figure out the best options.
>
> Anyone know where I could find such information?
>
> Based on my exhaustive search, it seems the best generally speaking are
> Iridium and ViaSat, respectively. (For Iridium, that assumes one has line
> of sight.) But would it be best to do both or get Iridium Go only and use
> one's cell phone via a satellite link or have a dedicated satellite phone?
> More important, how can one assess whether one's geographic location is
> ideally suited for one service vis-a-vis the other?
>
> For perspective, I live on the Silicon Valley Coastside (i.e., Half Moon
> Bay). Comcast and AT&T rely on PG&E's transmission cables for Internet
> access. As such, whenever a power shutdown occurs, many of us on the
> Coastside are left without cable or Internet access. I shudder to think
> what would happen during the Big One. Even when there are no power
> shutoffs, however, Comcast appears to throttle our community on a regular
> basis.
>
> As such, I'm thinking about getting a combo of satellite phone
> and/or satellite Internet both to improve my Internet service and to
> maintain communication during an anthropogenic or natural disaster.
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> Thanks,
> Yosem