Satellite Internet: 15Mbps, no matter where you live in the US

arstechnica.com

6 pointsshawndumas3 comments

I've never seen one of these, so excuse my ignorance if the following question is a stupid one:

Are these solutions available as a mobile unit that you can travel with or do you need a large bulky satellite like the DirectTV ones?

These things are not mobile by a longshot. They are transmitting to a geosynchronous satellite 22k miles up. The dish is a little bulkier than a satellite TV dish but needs a lot more precision when aiming. Then it is locked down tight.

I used StarBand about 10 years ago in its early days and it was boggling that the thing worked at all. It still amazes me.

I can confirm the newer home units are much improved. I was getting 23Mbps down and 4Mbps up, with an 820ms ping on one of these over the holidays. This is an enormous improvement for rural Internet users.

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