[Techtalk] Satellite Internet

[Alvin Goats]

Since this is an international group, what country, state/province are 
you in? What's available varies between countries and regional entities 
inside the country.

As for the cost:

The transmitters for satellite uplink are expensive. Typically gallium 
arsenide power amplifiers (silicon doesn't operate that well at these 
high frequencies), the wafers thinned after fab with brittle "air 
bridges" that frequently are damaged during the thinning process. You 
are paying for that and an extra set of circuitry to transmit as well as 
receive, typically in the 12-22 GigaHertz and 27 to 32 GigaHertz 
frequencies (consider this to be about the same as 12-22 Gigabit/s and 
27-32 Gigabit/s and you might be able to understand the cost better).

Beware that as other people in your satellite viewable area use these 
uplinks, you'll start experiencing the same issues that exist with 
locall wireless lans with reduced speed, though it should never be as 
bad as 14.4k.

Alvin

Maluvia wrote:
>  
> Hi,
> Just wondering if anyone has satellite internet access, and if so, could tell me how it is working for them.
>
> After the past few weeks of truly horrible dial-up connections (averaging about 14.4kbps on a good day, and unable to connect at all on the bad ones), in addition to the growing tension of trying to juggle internet access time between several family members all wanting to spend more time online, I'm at my wit's end.
> (Just to be clear: we live in a remote area, and cable and DSL are not available out here.)
>
> I've been reading up on Starband, but it is a big hardware investment: $500 for residential installs, and $1500+ for mobile access, and ~$70+/month.
> I'd like to know it's really going to work if we're going to sink that much money into it.
> (I'm also unclear exactly how the multi-user aspect of it is implemented.)
>
> Any feedback would be appreciated.
>
> -Maluvia
>
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