Satellite Broadband Provider Feature Comparison

 

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 if your service is for your business.

Feature
Limitations on Usage1	Yes	Yes	Yes
Static IP Addresses	Nova 500 & 1000 - No Nova 1500 - Yes	Not included	No
Required Commitment / Contract	12 month or 24 month contract	24 month contract	24 month contract
Spectrum Footprint	Nationwide	Nationwide	Spotbeam
Weather Fade Occurrences	Very Few	Many	Many
Contention Factor 2	250/300 to 1 with no service level guarantee	400 to 1 with no service level guarantee	unknown - with no service level guarantee
Operating band 3	Ku Band	Ku Band	Ka Band

¹ Otherwise known as bandwidth rationing, all satellite broadband service providers will reduce your bandwidth to dial-up or less if you surpass a certain threshold. In the case of HughesNet, it's 200 mb per day for their Home Plan - that's about the size of many product manuals in PDF format and it's far less than a Windows service pack update. It's most commonly called a 'Fair Access Policy' (FAP).

² 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.

³ As a rule, Ku band VSATs are less susceptible to weather-induced 'fade' than Ka band systems, but the ones that WildBlue uses are significantly more vulnerable to signal quality problems caused by rainfall.

Satellite Broadband Provider Pricing

and Usage Threshold Comparison

Pricing as of December 18, 2010 and is subject to change

		StarBand Equipment Purchase Cost: $199.99 (plus tax & shipping) plus $175.00 for installation OR StarBundle Equipment Lease: FREE Equipment (after $150.00 rebate) with a 2-year contract only @ $9.99 per month ($14.99 for Nova 500) with FREE StarBundle Standard Installation and NO Setup Fee
Plan	Download Speed	Email Accounts	Monthly Fee (2-year contract)	Monthly Fee (1-year contract)	Threshold - Rolling 7-day Limit
Nova 500	512 Kbps	5	$49.99	$59.99	700 MB download	250 MB upload
Nova 1000	1.0 Mbps	10	$69.99	$79.99	1,600 MB download	400 MB upload
Nova 1500	1.5 Mbps	15	$99.99	$109.99	4,000 MB download	1,000 MB upload

 

	Equipment Purchase Cost:  $399.98 ($199.99 equipment & $199.99 installation) plus tax & shipping OR Equipment Lease Fee:  $99.00 up front plus $9.99 per month with free installation
Plan	Download Speed	Email Accounts	Monthly Fee (2-year contract only)	Download Threshold - DAILY LIMIT
Basic	1.0 Mbps	5	$59.99	200 MB per day *
Power 150	1.5 Mbps	5	$79.99	300 MB per day *
Power 200	2.0 Mbps	10	$109.99	400 MB per day *

* An additional 50MB Download Allowance is available for $10.00 per month.

		Equipment Lease Fee: $99.95 prepaid OR $5.95 per month + $24.95 shipping With Free Standard Installation and No Setup Fee (for a Limited Time - Reg. $149.95)
Plan	Download Speed	Email Accounts	Monthly Fee (2-year contract only)	Threshold - Rolling 30-day Limit
Value	512 Kbps	5	$49.95	7,500 MB download	2,300 MB upload
Select	1.0 Mbps	5	$69.95	12,000 MB download	3,000 MB upload
Pro	1.5 Mbps	10	$79.95	17,000 MB download	5,000 MB upload