Which one comes out on top? For Americans living in rural or less densely populated parts of the US, satellite internet might be the only option for getting online. That's unfortunate, because satellite internet is slower, less reliable and less affordable than ground-laid cable or fiber internet. Even outdated technologies like DSL might offer better speeds at a better value. Still, established satellite providers can offer service pretty much anywhere, and if nothing else is available, your choice boils down to HughesNet and Viasat.
Apologies to Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet , which is only available to a limited number of customers in select areas across the country thus far.
Picking between the two might feel like picking between Coke and Pepsi -- a matter of taste between two largely identical products -- but there are some distinct differences you'll want to be well aware of before deciding.
Let's have a look. The minimum threshold for "broadband" internet is download speeds of 25Mbps and upload speeds of 3Mbps, and that's exactly what you'll get from HughesNet. All plans come with those speeds, though each will vary by the amount of data you get.
Monthly data allowances range from 10GB to 50GB, which is lower than the data that comes with comparative plans from Viasat, but you do have the option of adding data as needed throughout the month.
Additionally, all plans are "unlimited," meaning that you won't be hit with an overage fee for exceeding your limit, but you will have to endure drastically lower speeds for the remainder of your billing cycle if you don't want to pay for more data. Read our HughesNet review. Viasat plans are going to cost a bit more than HughesNet, but they're also likely to come with more data and, in some locations, faster speeds.
Viasat data allowances range from 40GB to GB and speed options of 12, 25, 50 or Mbps may be available. Watch out for a price increase after just three months, especially if you go with one of the high-speed, high-data plans.
Read our Viasat internet review. Both providers offer service pretty much anywhere, though HughesNet does a better job of covering Alaska than Viasat does. Both HughesNet and Viasat are available across all 50 states, and they're the only major ISPs able to make that claim. That's because satellite internet doesn't depend on ground-laid cable or fiber deployments, or the need for a cellular tower. All that's needed is a dish at your home -- to be installed by your provider -- to allow you to connect to satellites orbiting approximately 20, miles above the Earth.
If you've got a clear view of the southern sky, you should be eligible for either Viasat or HughesNet internet service. Both HughesNet and Viasat offer four distinct plan tiers. At first glance, it would appear that HughesNet's cheapest plan is cheaper than the opening offering from Viasat, and Viasat's top plan is significantly faster than the best selection from HughesNet. But we need to dive into the details a bit more. One of the first things you'll notice is that the promo period for both these providers is significantly shorter than the 12 months you typically get with most cable and fiber providers.
When it comes to the fastest speed available, Viasat tops HughesNet. The Unlimited Gold plan has a max download speed of 50 megabits per second, while the Unlimited Platinum tops out at Mbps.
HughesNet can't match that -- all plans offer a top speed of just 25Mbps, with the more expensive tiers merely offering more data each month. Not valid with Purchase option. Limited-time offer. Skip to main content. In the Community. April 22, Elsewhere, the J. That's below average for the region, 42 points lower than HughesNet scored in , and made for a last-place finish compared with 10 other ISPs in the study. The final dagger?
It was the lowest score of any ISP listed in the J. Power satisfaction study. HughesNet's most recent outage report on DownDetector. Satellite rival Viasat has seen several outage reports since then, including two so far in and one in October that drew more than reports at peak.
Meanwhile, the website Downdetector. Disruptions during inclement weather are pretty common with satellite internet, but HughesNet's track record on Downdetector is surprisingly strong, with no major outages reported thus far in The most recent came in September of last year when a little more than users reported an apparent outage that lasted roughly six hours.
The lack of outage reports may simply indicate that most satellite outages are tied to specific areas hit by bad weather and too small to show up on a site like Downdetector.
Still, several consecutive months without a single outage report is a strong showing for HughesNet. For comparison, Viasat already has two apparent outages logged in a hour outage reported by a peak of users on May 20 and a hour outage reported by a peak of 70 users on Feb.
Downdetector also logged a hour Viasat outage reported by a peak of 60 users on Nov. If you live in a highly populated urban or suburban area, you'll likely have other, faster internet connection choices, and HughesNet isn't for you. On the other hand, if you reside in rural or less densely populated areas without many options for getting online, HughesNet might be the best and most reliable connection available.
It may not be the fastest satellite provider out there, but its commitment to supporting broadband speeds to all serviceability areas makes it a compelling pick under those circumstances. The HughesNet Bonus Zone describes the window of 2 to 8 a. While these off-peak hours might not seem convenient, they present a great time to schedule a movie download, set up system updates for your devices or maybe even do some early-morning online shopping. While you can make the case that this baseline qualification as broadband speed doesn't qualify as "fast," it is undoubtedly faster than the DSL plans that might also be available to rural customers.
It's not recommended, no. One of the challenges with satellite internet service as a connection type is the high latency. Latency describes the amount of time it takes for data to travel from one point to another -- and with satellite internet, that data has to travel into space and back.
That makes it tough to keep up in certain online games, especially shooters and other games where quick reflexes and real-time decision-making are critical. To combat that high latency, HughesNet is introducing a new service called HughesNet Fusion, which is currently only available in select areas in the Northeast. It's not any faster than the Gen5 plans, but it utilizes a combination of satellite and wireless technology to make activities like online gaming and VPN usage more feasible.
Yes, but it's not automatic. The HughesNet service automatically streams videos at p to help you save your data, but you can change this setting pretty easily via the HughesNet mobile app. Up next on the horizon for Hughes is its Jupiter 3 satellite launch , currently scheduled to blast off in The company tells CNET that consumers should expect to see new offerings made available after that satellite makes it into orbit, including plans that support download speeds of up to Mbps.
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