Residential Satellite Broadband Provider Feature Comparison
Here, we compare the three major consumer-grade satellite-based services. Pay particular attention to Usage Limitation and Contention Factor comparisons. These two items in general and contention factor in particular can be make-or-break issues for your internet usage. If remote access or telecommuting capability is a must-have, then look closely at the VPN and Citrix comparisons. You should also take a look at the business and enterprise class services - and take special note - speed alone does not determine how well a satellite-based broadband connection works.
| Feature | StarBand by Spacenet | WildBlue | HughesNet |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Yes | |
|
Static IP Addressing
|
Nova 1000 - $4.95 Nova 1500 - 1 free - Additional IP address blocks available. |
Residential - No Commercial - Yes |
Not Included
|
|
Requires Commitment / Contract
|
Yes (12/24 months) |
Yes (24 months)
|
Yes (15 months)
|
|
Enterprise Solutions
|
Yes |
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Spectrum Footprint
|
Nationwide |
Spot Beam
|
Nationwide
|
|
Weather Fade Occurrences*
|
Few |
Some - Ka band more susceptible to
rain/snow fade
|
Many
|
|
24 x 7 NOC** Support
|
Yes |
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
U.S.-based support? |
Yes | Yes | No |
|
Contention Factor2 |
>150/300 to 1 w/no service level guarantee | unknown, w/no service level guarantee | >400/1 w/no service level guarantee |
|
Reliability - Indoor and outdoor components failure rates 3 |
Indoor: .01% Outdoor: .01% |
Indoor: .01% Outdoor: 8% (attributable to higher transmitter failure rates) |
Indoor: .01% Outdoor: 10% |
|
Network Infrastructure - Firewalled and
Secured
|
Non-specific spam and virus filtering. |
1 year subscription to
F-Secure anti-virus. Email filtered through Postini.
|
Non-specific spam and virus filtering.
|
|
Dedicated data network? |
Yes - Spacenet Enterprise class connectivity | Yes - DOCSIS 1.1 compliant | No |
|
VLAN Supported
|
No |
No
|
No
|
|
VoIP Supported
|
No |
No
|
No |
|
VPN Supported
|
SSL VPNs only*** IPSec VPNs at dialup speeds or less (unusable) |
SSL VPNs only*** No IPSec VPNs |
No
|
|
Streaming Video Supported
|
No |
No
|
No
|
|
Citrix Metaframe supported |
Yes - lower latency of the Spacenet network vastly improves Citrix performance. |
Tolerable speeds and response times. Not
explicitly supported by WB.
|
Usable speeds and response times. Not
explicitly supported by HNS.
|
|
Diverse Network Infrastructure
|
Info Not Available |
Yes. Multiple GESs and spot beams.
|
Info Not Available
|
|
Operating band*** |
Ku | Ka band receive / Ku band xmit | Ku |
|
Transmitter power |
1 or 2 watts | ~3 watts | 1/2 to 1 watt |
|
Network Diversity
|
Yes - multiple hubs / GESs |
Yes - multiple GESs
|
No
|
|
Dial-up Account
|
10 hours included free |
$7.95 - Value/Select Free with Pro Pak |
$15.00
|
|
Email Address Provided
|
Yes |
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Newsgroup Access
|
Yes |
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
LAN Networking Allowed
|
Yes |
Yes
|
Limited or none
|
|
Regulatory Compliance |
No | No | No |
Acceptable Use Policy - Fair Access Policy. Otherwise known as bandwidth rationing, all satellite broadband service providers will reduce your bandwidth to dialup rates if you surpass a certain threshold. In the case of HughesNet, it's 169 mb per hour - that's about the size of a product manual in PDF format and it's far less than a Windows service pack update. They call it a 'Fair Access' policy. We call it unacceptable for business use. Some satellite ISPs, such as BroadSky Networks, have policies that are more in line with business usage.
Contention factor is a measurement of how many actual or potential processes or individuals may contend for a given resource. In this case, contention factor refers to how many customers are contending for a finite number of available network connections. Low factors are good (100 to 1 or less), high factors are bad (200 or more to 1). The higher the contention loading on the network, the more users are sharing the connection and therefore the slower your service. DSL and Cable providers try to maintain 125-1 contention ratios to deliver a favorable user experience whereas some consumer satellite broadband services operate with contention levels of 300, 400 and even 500-1, delivering a poor user experience.
Reliability in this case refers to the reliability of the individual end user hardware components of each system. Thus, a 92% reliability rate as we define it here is indicative of an 8% failure rate. The truth is that overall reliability is as much a function of the quality of the installation as anything else. WildBlue for example, conducted a 2006 survey of installations in the eastern Washington state area. They discovered that fully 44% of all customer service issues were directly attributable to poor installations. This issue - poor installation - is unfortunately not confined to WildBlue. It's a natural consequence of volume-based piecework pay rates for work performed by those with TV installer skillsets.
* As a rule, Ku band VSATs are less susceptible to weather-induced 'fade' than Ka band systems, but a well-implemented spot beam Ka band-based system combined with higher transmit power such as that deployed by WildBlue can overcome these issues.
** NOC - Network Operations Center
*** Certain types of SSL-based VPNs work with the StarBand and WildBlue services. Neither company explicitly supports any SSL based VPN clients and users should check with the software manufacturer to identify the type of VPN client they are using. IPSec-based VPN solutions either do not work at all or operate so slowly as to be unusable with any of the consumer-class satellite services, so consider yourself warned. Neither WildBlue, StarBand nor HughesNet will support or troubleshoot VPN issues. If your work requires the use of a VPN, TALK TO US!