Satellite Internet Fair Access Policy: Explained & Explored
More and more computer users are anxious for speed in their browsing, downloading and uploading. Many of these users are within large urban areas or suburbs that are close to these same urban areas. When they decide to upgrade to Broadband to utilize the speed that comes with it they have several choices. The main choices for these users are DSL, usually through a large telephone corporation or CABLE through a Cable TV provider.
That leaves every one else that lives in rural areas or very small cities that do not provide the usual broadband services listed in the previous paragraph. More and more of these users are opting for Satellite Internet. In general, satellite Internet is slower than DSL or CABLE, it is more expensive to install and the monthly charges tend to be higher. Remember however, that these folks have been using dial-up for their internet connection and they rarely connect at 56k due to older equipment and noisy lines. In most cases they are receiving an average of 28.8k. The change from that to satellite Internet is Nirvana!
Once you have your equipment installed and paid for your service you are good to go. And then.you are faced with a new term in the contract you sign, this is called the FAIR ACCESS POLICY. It is exactly what it says it is, fair access for all users. DSL and Cable have almost limitless bandwidth for internet service, but satellite Internet has bandwidth constraints. There is just so much bandwidth available on a given satellite and you need to structure it so that everyone has a fair opportunity to get the benefits of broadband service. Studies have been done that show that a small number of users account for a disproportionate share of data usage. In order to ensure that all customers have access to the network satellite Internet providers have instituted the Fair Access Policy, or what is referred to as the FAP.
The two large providers of satellite Internet are DirecWay, now HughesNet and WildBlue. They each have a Fair Access Policy and each one is different. First let's explore the policy in use for HughesNet. They use a system based on a "download threshold". For instance, the number they use for a continuous download threshold is 169MB over a 1 to 4 hour period. So if you are downloading a 300MB file you are going to go over your limit and you will be "FAPPED". Being Fapped means your speed will be throttled down to what a basic dial-up speed would be. Once you have used up that 169MB allotment you must wait until that amount of usage is recovered. At approximately 47kbps this would take about 8 hours. At that point your speed will return to your normal satellite Internet speed.
WildBlue uses a somewhat different method. They "give" the customer a specific number of Gigabytes that can be downloaded and uploaded in any given rolling 30 day period. As an example, the Pro-pak user is given a 17Gig, or 17,000MB download limit and a 5Gig, or 5,000MB upload limit. If the customer exceeds that limit they will be fapped. They will be throttled down to much slower speeds until they reach 80% of their rolling 30 day limit. A rolling 30 day limit differs from a 30 day limit by continuously rolling a day forward as the next day begins. A monthly limit was used for several months however some users would see that they had perhaps 8Gig of download bandwidth that they had not used on the 29 th day. At that time these users would download everything and anything in order to "get their moneys worth" and use all of their allotted bandwidth. This created overuse of the system and causing slowdowns near the end of each month. By using a rolling Fap, if you use a large chunk of your bandwidth on a given day and go over the limit set by your plan, you would have to wait until that day rolled out of the rolling 30 days. This has effectively stopped this type of use.
Hopefully this gives you some useful information regarding the FAP. Be considerate, use the bandwidth that you need and allow other rural users to enjoy fast Internet access.