As a rural dweller, I’m heavily dependent on my satellite Internet access, and I’m alarmed by the growing file sizes of important documents: overly detailed PDFs, PowerPoint presentations with excessive use of graphics/photos/sounds/movies, large video programs...
Why am I alarmed? Because satellite Internet providers have comparatively low thresholds for their fair access policies (FAPs, to the uninitiated).
HughesNet sets its FAP levels on a 24-hour basis: 200MB a day for home users. That’s about 50 songs a day.
Compare that to residential DSL users on Qwest’s network, who apparently have no “hard” limit on the amount of data they can download. Qwest’s Website offers these examples as “usage that could be deemed excessive”:
300,000 to 500,000 photo downloads in one month
40,000 to 80,000 typically sized MP3 music downloads in one month
15+ million unique emails each month
Online TV video streaming of 1,000 to 3,000 30-minute shows each month
2 million to 5 million Web page visits (approximately one every second, 24 hours per day)
Still, those of you feeling all warm and fuzzy about your astronomical DSL FAP limits shouldn’t get too comfortable. With more and more people abandoning their landline phones, some are bound to think that they’ll just switch to mobile Internet as well. Brace yourselves: Verizon offers only 5 gigabytes a month on its best consumer level plan. That’s even less than I get with satellite Internet access.
I realize that the overall bandwidth of satellite transmission (indeed, any communications technology) is limited. I realize that there are some users who are truly excessive in their use, to the point of obstructing others. But isn’t it time that the satellite Internet providers did something to either expand their capacity, or to offer additional grades of service with higher limits?
We content creators also have to look at what we’re putting out there: One of the PowerPoint slide decks in Internet Evolution's 60 Days of Executive Education presentations was 25MB, in large part because of many “glossy” photos. Did those photos actually add to the understanding of the participants? I won’t judge, but personally, I got as much out of it as I did some of the slide decks that were under 1MB.
The days of unlimited access to bandwidth are limited. It’s a scarce resource, and there are only two rational responses to scarce resources: rationing, or pricing appropriately. The rationing approach isn’t working for me. I hope that some company can come up with a new product with higher limits, or a new price plan.
— Leland Dirks has worked as an employee and consultant with companies ranging from a Belgian telecom startup to three of the so-called Baby Bells and three of their competitors. He lives in a green/off-grid home in the middle of nowhere in southern Colorado.
Princess_dascho, you are very correct... I am extremely thankful for my internet connection... without it, I wouldn't have been able to build this house... and I wouldn't be able to earn a modest living out here in the middle of nowhere... it is indeed a blessing... I'm just greedy and want it to be better!
Leland, You are right to claim better internet connectivity. However, you have to rejoice with your satellite internet access; in some rural areas people don't have internet connection.You are very lucky to have internet connection in rural area even if it is limited.
rjacksix: Rant understood and appreciated... If you find a good alternative, let me know... in the meantime, I guess I'll just stick with WildBlue, and try to control how much bandwidth I use, both up and down.
And belated thanks to you for optimizing websites for dial up customers... at one point, I was traveling in a camper van and the only internet access I had was by dial up.... standing at a phone booth in the rain, waiting for a big honking page to load did NOT make me appreciate the owner of the site, nor did it make me feel good about the designers...
Homesteadtraders: I'd be interested in how happy you are with the MyFy or whatever it's called. Make sure you read the fine print in the contract and see what their FAP is, and what happens if you exceed your allowed monthly bandwidth... Dial up is also not an option for me... there aren't any landlines for miles around here.
Lsiegal, have you considered an extended wifi network? Save pain and agony of installing and maintaining all those ethernet cables... but honestly, you're right... the local buy-in of such an arrangement is probably not likely... and for some of us, the possibility of getting a T1 connection is non-existent, so we're back to square one. I keep wondering what happened to WiMax....
Someone else who understands and has experienced the REAL digital divide.
<rant>
Rural America feeds this country and the world. They could be the biggest users of the Internet just because of WHERE they are, and yet the options afforded to them today are atrocious, costly and the "digitally privileged" don't think about these constraints anymore.
When I first bought the first Web Hosting/Design company in Montana we had to be sensitive to load times, speed, file sizes, and even screen resolutions because everyone had 28.8 modems (at best). Today nobody thinks anything about this because EVERYONE has broadband, right?
Tell that to a Wildblue, Hughesnet or even a rural dialup customer that is trying to keep up.
I think our best alternatives are in the WiMax and white spaces area although there are some good possibilities with on station unmanned aircraft as well.
The problem is that no one (that I know of) is working these angles. They think that pulling fiber is the answer. It absolutely isn't when you are talking miles/subscriber instead of subscribers/mile.
I don't buy the "not profitable" story that most providers give. As I have stated in other comments on other posts, while I do live in a rural area and I can't get cable anything, on either end of my short road there is.....yep...CABLE!!!! Plus, I can't even get broadband from the companies who offer it.
Although I don't want government getting involved in internet access, something has to give with these providers. We are expected to do more and more by computer, yet a large percentage of us can't even download a 5 minute YouTube video in any time less than an hour, because all we can get is dial up. (I do realize there is sattelite, but I've known 2 seperate families who had it and went back to dial up after a year.) And, there are many businesses in rural areas, that, due to the type of business they have, could not operate in city or urban areas.
The one thing I am worried about is when those of us in rural areas do finally get real internet access, providers will hike the prices up on us to make it "worth their while". So we will either be held hostage by unfair pricing in order to obtain internet access we can actually use, or stay with dial up and have bare bones access.
I am, however, going to be trying the new Verizon MyFy (I think it is called). Basically a portable wireless device that my WiFy is supposed to be able to work with. We'll see if it is worth the price.
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