Satellite Internet connection

[tigger]

Not sure if this is the right section, or indeed if anyone can help

I'm considering changing ISP as the one I have now is not only about the worst service I've ever had but very expensive - anyone living in Spain will know about Telefonica

As all the other ISP's use Telefonia lines its pointless trying others - a friend has started using a satellite ISP (skyDSL) that offer a service right across Europe

There charges are less and the speed is faster - but I was wondering if anyone else had used this company or had any involvement with satellite ISPs

[tigger]

anyone with some feed back ?

[phranque]

a friend of mine was using satellite a few years ago when he was too many miles of copper from the switch for dsl sevice.
the major problem with satellite is latency due to distances - even at speed of light there is a noticeable delay that can't be fixed by bandwidth.
don't know what they do now but then the solution was to use a combination of satellite for "downlink" and land-line modem for "uplink", the idea being that your outbound traffic is typically requests and smaller messages/objects vs download when you are streaming or requesting media resources and other large files.
hope that helps somewhat, if not specifically to your question.

[tigger]

cheers - I'm doing some further research as I need to get away from my current and the only line provider here

The speeds are quite good - 10meg up and 6meg down but I understand what you are saying about phone use and thats something I would need to use it for

[Rugles]

I know somebody who uses it at home here in Canada. It is relatively expensive but the only high speed option they have. The only trouble they have is during bad weather(the same as with satelite tv).

I thought the upload was the slower part for them, maybe I am wrong on that.

[tigger]

I've found out about the latency as I will be using the phone quite a bit and its 700 milliseconds - which means nothing to me ! - I understand bad weather could be a problem but as the telephone lines in this part of Spain are so bad I normally loose connections anyway grrrrr.

But its half the price I'm paying now and double the speed "if" they offer 10mg

[creative craig]

A few years ago I worked in a tech support call centre for an ISP in the UK and we gave basic support for satellite broadband - people were happy with the upload/download speeds, the main issue was the latency!

I am not sure how things have progressed since then, but I am sure that the technology has come on alot!

[tigger]

latency does seem to be the main problem here and I just spoke a friend thats involved with IT/hosting and he says 700 milliseconds is too slow for phone use

[rocknbil]

I was on it for years, if you have nothing else, it's not bad. I was on Hughes then switched to BlueSky - funny fact, the installer told me Hughes owns the BlueSky satellites.

Both have bandwidth throttling, (exceed it and it cuts you back to a few bits per second or something) but Hughes is just awful in many ways.

[tigger]

this is using a new satellite called "tooway" and its offering access up to 10mg 6mg down - although I'm getting conflicting information on different sites, some say its limited for both up & down others are saying unlimited - I'm still trying to get to the bottom and also work out if phone use is going to be a problem as I've been told its too slow

[phranque]

any level of technology improvement won't move the satellites closer, which is the only way to reduce the latency.
if that latency measurement is per-trip, that means when you speak the listener hears your voice about 1.5 seconds later, so that doesn't work well for conversations.
with a web request you wait 1.5+ seconds to get the html document and then another 1.5+ seconds before style sheets and/or images start arriving.

[tigger]

cheers - I'm beginning to think this is not worthwhile

thanks for the feedback guys

[denisl]

Interesting - have been in Spain some years using Iberbanda, which involves a microwave link. I know it is not fast but it is ok for me. I have heard that customer service has gone downhill since it was taken over by Telefonica but have not needed support recently.

Am looking to move house and may not then get Iberbanda so need to consider Satellite.

I have been told about a service under the name of Tooway - which appeared to have reasonable speed and price.

Anyone used this one?

[denisl]

Oops - I see i missed the mention of Tooway in the post 3 above

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Activate internet on your cell phone or tablet, the power of cell towers awaits.

Expect the number of spam emails you receive to grow dramatically however, all mysteriously about things you're involved with too.

[tigger]

Oops - I see i missed the mention of Tooway in the post 3 above

quite a few places are reselling tooway connection and it seems some are offering unlimited down & uploads whilst others seem to be restricting - but what I have found is using viop / skype will be hard going if you plan on using the phone - if you find anymore info on this let me know

Also prices seem to go between €50-€120 a month

Getting away from Telefonia would be worth spending that, but not at the loss of phone calls and limited on down & uploads