HughesNET Satellite Internet Fair Access Policy

All Satellite Internet providers have a fair access policy. We choose to tell you about it, When others choose to hide it from you
Why? Because our FAP, is the Fairest of them all.
95% of the customers will never hit their FAP, but users that download full movies will.
 

What is the Fair Access Policy and how does it work?.

Lets Talk about the Home Plan Fair policy Act
Max Download Speeds: 700kbps
Threshold: 175mb
Recovery Rate: 50kbps

Think about the threshold of 175mb as a water tower. This water tower is always being filled at your recovery rate of 50k, but you can download at 700kbps which faster then the 50kbps that it is being filled at...

Let's talk about browsing the web. You can download a web page with pictures, all this data should be only 0.5mb. It will only take you 3-4 seconds to download it from your 175mb water tower. Now for your water tower to recover and be completely full again it will take about 45 seconds. This is normally the time you're reading the page. So you should never hit your FAP if you are browsing the internet.

Let's now talk about downloading MP3's. Most MP3's are 4MB's and most albums only have 12 tracks. So you could download 12 MP3 tracks (48MB) in 9mins.

If you wanted to download 5 full albums, 60 MP3's (240mb), you could down 43 MP3's almost 4 albums at full speed 700k in 35mins. For the next 17 songs you will only be able to download them at 50kbps, because there is no more reserve in your water tower. To download the next 17 track it will take you a little less the 3hrs which is still faster then dialup.

To fill your water tower completely back up it will take a little less then 8hrs.

At anytime when you water tower (threshold) is empty you can still download at your recover rate of 50kbps until it fills up again...


Remember you can always steep up the Professional plan, for $10 more per month.
Max Download Speeds: 1000kbps
Threshold: 350mb
Recovery Rate: 56kbps

HughesNet Fair Access Policy Terms:

To ensure equal Internet access for all HughesNET^® subscribers, Hughes Network Systems maintains a running average Fair Access Policy (FAP). Fair Access establishes an equitable balance in Internet access across satellite broadband services by service plan for all HughesNET customers regardless of their frequency of use or volume of traffic. To ensure this equity, customers may experience some temporary throughput limitations. HughesNET Internet access is not guaranteed. This policy applies to all service plans including “Unlimited” plans where customers’ use of the Service is not limited to a specific number of hours per month.

HughesNET system usage data indicates that approximately 5% of subscribers are responsible for a disproportionate share — often as much as half — of the total HughesNET service traffic. Unfortunately, many of those subscribers are not using HughesNET for its intended purpose. To ensure that all HughesNET subscribers have fair and equal access to the benefits of the Satellite broadband service, HughesNET has enacted a Fair Access Policy to prevent abusive consumption of bandwidth by a handful of users.

FAP is straightforward: based on an analysis of usage data, Hughes Network Systems has established a HughesNET usage threshold well above the maximum typical usage rates. When a customer exhibits patterns of system usage which exceed that threshold for an extended period of time, the FAP may temporarily limit that subscriber’s throughput to ensure the integrity of the system for all HughesNET subscribers.

Typically, the restrictions will be lifted within 8-12 hours of the original application of the FAP if the customer’s usage in this period stays below the FAP threshold.

For example, you may experience FAP if the cumulative requested downloads in a relatively short time period (1-4 hours) exceeds your HughesNET plan download threshold. An example of what can be downloaded within any HughesNET plan would be a software application such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Adobe Acrobat. And normal Internet surfing generates small downloads for each Web page viewed. For example, an hour of surfing can generate 1-10 MB of download activity depending on the content being surfed — well below the amount required to trigger FAP.

Subscribers are likely to avoid the limitations imposed by the FAP if their use is typical of the majority of Internet users and consists of Web surfing and a reasonable amount of downloading. See below for a table of FAP parameters for each plan.