© Waldo Jaquith Flickr Satellite Dishes
© Waldo Jaquith (Flickr)
Overview
Satellite internet Services have a lot of obvious advantages, though not as fast as cable Internet access or DSL. It is much faster than a 56K dial-up access. It is available worldwide (except at the Polar Regions) to anyone who has a clear view of the sky and delivers an always-on Internet connection.
Another good feature of satellite Internet service is the fact that it is separated from your phone line, so you can surf the Internet and at the same time talk on the phone. You will no longer miss those important calls.
Limitations
Different satellite systems have a wide difference in features and technical limitations, this can greatly impact on their usefulness and performance in some critical applications. There are various factors that may affect a satellite internet service.
Network latency
One of the key challenges of this type of service is network latency. This has remained an unsolved problem since the advent of the satellite Internet technology. In a satellite network data packets travels through space in a long distance between the remote satellite and the geosynchronous satellite in space and finally to the Internet service provider and this process is repeated in a loop.
Lagging effects
This creates latency in data sourcing. The subscribers will always experience lagging when they want to use latency critical applications like voice chat applications, video streaming or when they wish to watch movies online and voice-over-IP services.
Weather’s impact on the Internet service
Another key challenge of satellite Internet service is weather. Rains, clouds, snow and big wind all impact on the signal reception of an internet satellite dish. Satellite Internet access is very expensive when compared to the Cable and DSL services.
Cost of equipment
The equipment cost is very high because of the satellite dishes as well as the satellite modems. Furthermore, the subscriptions are high, but despite all of these, it has still maintained popularity as the only answer to the Internet access subscriber at the last mile.