What Is Satellite Broadband?
Satellite broadband uses a satellite dish to provide two-way access to broadband services. The main advantage of satellite broadband is that it can be provided virtually anywhere in the world. It is becoming more popular in the UK, mainly to provide broadband coverage in rural locations.
| What Speeds Can I Expect?
The latest satellite technology can provide up to 20Mbps download and up to 6Mbps upload speeds. However it is important to know that satellite connections carry a heavier latency rate, making the broadband seem slower when loading a website, particularly for the first time. For this reason satellite broadband is not considered a good solution for web based applications or Internet based telephone systems (VoIP)
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Who is this type of service ideal for?
Despite being branded “unlimited” by the supplier satellite connectivity packages often have a fair use policy applied to them and as such satellite broadband needs to be carefully considered before adopting as a viable option
Typically, if a user or organisation is excessively consuming resources and having a negative impact on other users their connection can be forced down to a lower speed for a defined period of time, usually for an hour or so but with some providers this could be for longer periods. For this reason we often advise that this would not be the best connection type for most businesses that use a large number of hosted applications, such as those provided to FSA regulated organisations due to the amount of latency experienced with the solution. Similarly, schools with a high number of students and a dependency on remote access for all students are also not advised to use a satellite package.
However, satellite broadband has been successfully improving over the years and can quite adequately provide a good, solid broadband connection for very small rural schools. If you are severely limited when it comes to connectivity choices and satellite broadband is a real contender OIS are happy to provide a free consultation to make sure that you get the right package – satellite or otherwise.