Internet Connectivity with a Satellite Dish

The Starband satellite internet system was not meant to be a mobile technology, as it uses 'spot beam' technology, but I figured it would work for our needs as we didn't need to be roaming across the continent at that time, just the west coast. After we bought the equipment for about $600, it cost about $60 per month with more or less unlimited bandwidth (subject to an acceptable use policy that I never came close to violating).

We were based in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, and I found that we could travel from there to our data warehouse in San Diego without losing the internet. Outside of that radius, we would have moved out of our spot beam coverage and couldn't use it, although I never did test the eastern limits of it. The spot beams can be 'shaped' and are not necessarily circular.

So I was happy: it was much faster than cell, considerably less expensive, and worked almost everywhere. The downside was that it took longer to set up, but it wasn't that much of a problem. We still used cell to monitor our email as we traveled down the highway, then we would deploy the dish at the end of the day when we set up camp.

It is a much worse solution for mobility these days, as the newer birds have much smaller spot beams. I would not recommend it for mobile use because of the small spot beam size of the new satellites. However, there are some satellite internet providers that are specifically set up for mobile use if you really need it.

It can certainly be a workable solution if you're in a fixed location in an area that has no alternative service.

It is very good for email and surfing, but it's not good for gaming or large file uploads because of the very high signal latency (delay). The round trip out to the geosynchronous Clarke orbit is 46,000 miles, and internet latencies are measured in seconds, in comparison to milliseconds on terrestrial systems.

We used this very successfully for a number of years, until we sold our motorhome and gave our dish to some friends that lived in an 'out of service' area.