Posted: 02nd Sep, 2003 By: MarkJ
Satellite ISPs are notoriously bad at publicising their own bandwidth limits, largely due to the fear of looking uncompetitive against land-based (ADSL etc.) solutions. Today one provider,
SatDrive, has begun providing information on the average amount of bandwidth available to its users:
SatDrive takes bold step to increase customer awareness
SatDrive the UK's leading Satellite Fast Internet Service has taken the unique step of providing information on the average amount of bandwidth available to customers. While many ISPs would flinch at the thought of making this information public, SatDrive has supported the development of the website created by their German technology Partner Teles EuroService GMBH.
The ISP, providing fast one-way broadband satellite services to rural Britain has previously shown its innovative approach by creating a unique bandwidth on demand system allowing customers to control the amount of bandwidth they receive, and the amount they spend. The use of priority levels (or 'gears') enables customers to pay for prioritised bandwidth when they need it, without compromising the service performance to other users.
The new website which can be found at http://service.skydsl.de/monitor/ shows actual average bandwidth available per customer for each of the gears and is updated every 5 minutes. It highlights the differences between bandwidth available between customers using the service for light browsing and downloading, and those requiring more bandwidth resource.
Eoin Lambkin, SatDrive's founder and MD says 'Many ISP customers are wary of their service provider and are concerned about restricted bandwidth, contention ratios and loss of service. The site was set up to show that we don't want to hide information from our customers and in fact, want to encourage them to take an interest in the service, and understand what bandwidth is available. I don't think it will be long before other ISPs consider doing the same'.Its rare to see a satellite provider open up such details to the public and wed encourage others to do the same.