Satellite internet connection is seen as something of a last resort for a strong internet connection. In a lot of rural areas, cable and DSL never really caught on. There simply isn’t a dense enough population in most rural areas to justify the costs of establishing a DSL or cable company. Hence, satellite.
Wireless is quickly spreading, though. It’s spreading like the flu, and will probably cover those areas in time… But that could be a year or longer from now. Satellite internet connection is what you’re looking at if you’re sick of dialup, and can’t wait around for wireless to catch on in your area.
So in other words, you’re basically trying to choose between satellite and dialup. Let’s break it down into pros and cons…
SATELLITE PROS
Speed
Obviously, it’s not dialup. That’s all you need to know. You can probably average up to forty Mb per second if you use a shared satellite with a few others in your area, which is actually twice what you can expect from DSL or cable, and somewhere in the area of one hundred times faster than dialup.
SATELLITE CONS
Price
Satellites can be extremely expensive. On a shared network, you probably won’t have to blow too much money, but a portable satellite system can cost you five dollars a megabyte. Top of the line satellite internet dishes can cost anywhere from six hundred to two thousand bucks just to buy and install in the first place. Unless you’re rich, buying a satellite for personal use only is kind of out of the question. It’s the kind of thing where you have to get together with a few of your neighbours and agree to purchase it together.
You might have a TV satellite that only cost you a hundred bucks and a low monthly fee, but the difference is that an internet satellite really has to be a two way dish, whereas a TV satellite only has to receive. An internet dish has to send, as well, which is pricier.
Some providers do offer one way satellite options, wherein your downstream is received from the dish, while your upstream is sent through a telephone line. This can be enormously cheaper if there’s a provider in your area who will do this for you.
Rain fade
Moisture in the path of the signal can pretty much ruin satellite communications. It doesn’t even have to be rain, heavy clouds can do the trick for higher frequencies, such as the Ku and Ka bands, though the lower frequencies, L and C, aren’t quite as affected.
This can be corrected by getting a larger dish… We could mention price again, but it would be a low blow.
DIALUP PROS
Price
Dialup is cheap these days. Dirt cheap. You can get dialup access for ten bucks a month if you shop around.
Reliability
As long as your phone line is working, so, too, should your dialup access. Dialup isn’t subject to rain clouds or anything, like a satellite connection is, so you don’t have much to worry about.
DIALUP CONS
Everything Else
Where to begin? At not even half a megabit per second, pretty much all multimedia is out of the question. It’ll take you all day to download a song, so forget iTunes. You’re definitely not going to be streaming Youtube videos anytime soon. Even basic text pages might take minutes to load, and the internet really just isn’t built for dialup anymore. In fact, try to name five websites off the top of your head that dialup can handle. Can’t do it, can you? You’re basically restricted to email and blogs and… that’s about it.
The Upside…
If you want to look on the bright side… dialup is like that beat up old Volvo you wish you had the money to replace… it’s not the noblest steed on the track, but it will get you from point A to point B. And wireless is on its way. If you’re looking at satellite, it makes sense if you’re running an office and you want a fast, reliable, exclusive internet connection (and if you can get your employer to foot the bill)… it also makes sense if you rely on the internet to make a living and can write it off as a business expense on your taxes! Otherwise, satellite really will take a bite out of your check book, and wireless is on its way… sooner or later.
If you can afford a nice big dish that can pick up signals in the rain, then yeah, satellite is great and worth the price. You’ll get a connection twice as fast as DSL, a hundred times as fast as dialup, and that is generally pretty reliable, but if you don’t really have the cash, dialup might be your only real choice for the time being.
