ISP's Respond - BT's Wholesale Sat
Posted: 05th Jun, 2004 By: MarkJ
BT's wholesale two-way broadband satellite service, which was announced earlier this week, has come in for sharp criticism from ISP's. High costs and quality are among the concerns:
"The cost to the end user is highly prohibitive, and customers who can afford to pay are most likely to be businesses with existing fixed connections such as leased lines," said Alistair Wyse, service and operations director at PlusNet.
One well-known issue with satellite broadband is latency. Packets of data have to travel from the end-user up to the satellite and then down again to the Internet, and this journey involves a slight delay, typically 750ms or more. Although not a serious problem when surfing the Web or using email, it can interfere with VPN software and hamper online gaming.
This will deter some ISPs from attempting to sell BT's service, which uses capacity on Intelsat's IS-907 satellite. "It's not for us. You can't bend the laws of physics, so you've always got the problem of latency," explained one leading UK ISP.
Sadly there's nothing new about these complaints, they've been synonymous with two-way satellite services ever since they first existed.
Still, it's perhaps worth pointing out that £46.99 per month is actually one of the cheapest. More @ ZDNet.
"The cost to the end user is highly prohibitive, and customers who can afford to pay are most likely to be businesses with existing fixed connections such as leased lines," said Alistair Wyse, service and operations director at PlusNet.
One well-known issue with satellite broadband is latency. Packets of data have to travel from the end-user up to the satellite and then down again to the Internet, and this journey involves a slight delay, typically 750ms or more. Although not a serious problem when surfing the Web or using email, it can interfere with VPN software and hamper online gaming.
This will deter some ISPs from attempting to sell BT's service, which uses capacity on Intelsat's IS-907 satellite. "It's not for us. You can't bend the laws of physics, so you've always got the problem of latency," explained one leading UK ISP.
Sadly there's nothing new about these complaints, they've been synonymous with two-way satellite services ever since they first existed.
Still, it's perhaps worth pointing out that £46.99 per month is actually one of the cheapest. More @ ZDNet.
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