Satellite Broadband

mayhem#

Originally posted by DonegalMan


I am very interested in hearing other people's experiences of it.

Martin

Well I've had the Educom/Orbitlink service since February now and haven't looked back. While it isn't the ultimate in broadband it is the best available in rural locations and I don't see that status changing anytime soon. Also the price is a great advantage, I was paying nearly €1000 p/m to Eircom before, now all I pay is €250 p/m and I have 24/7 FAST Internet. No contast to any other service available to me!
There is still that can be tweaked and improved on the service (upload speed!) but that will come with time and I must admit that a there have been a lot of improvements since I hooked up.
I am currently in the process of setting up a web based forum to discuss satellite and wireless related issues for European users as most other forums are very much US aimed, more to come soon.
Anyway, if you have any question post 'm here or email Brendan or meself....

Mayhem#.

I also resell the service but not to a level where I am biased (honest!).

DonegalMan

I've looked at Digiweb and OrbitLink, price comparisons as far as I can make them out are:

Installation
Orbitlink
Installation free but 'security deposit' of €899
Static Ip Address €125 (doesn't say if this is once off or annual)
Radio Licence €50

Total Outlay: €1074

DigiWeb
Installation Cost €1495
Includes IP address and Radio Licence


Monthly Charges
Orbitlink

400/128 Service: €169
640/128 Service: €205

DigiWeb
512/128 Service: €119 (€109 if you pay 12 months in advance)


If I'm figuring this right, Digiweb costs €421 more in initial outlay but works out at €500/€620 savings per year against 400/128 service and €1032/€1152 savings against the 640/128 service; also with Digiweb you own the equipment though I don't know how much of the Orbitlink security deposit is repayable if you cancel the service.

So, as a reseller, 'sell' me on the idea of Orbitlink instead of Digiweb

Martin

P.S. Keep me informed about new forum as I am 90% certain that I am gonna get into satellite, probably place my order this week, really just a question of deciding which company.

bkehoe

Originally posted by Muck
The Gilat sat, rebadged as Tiscali and Digiweb is actually an Israeli Military Comunications Sat with spare bandwidth.

You may take it as given that every packet thru the uplink is duplicated to Mossad in case it may be of 'Interest'.

No large US multinational will do business with you if they find out you are using the Gilat sat for 'their' data. You would also be in breach of contract with the Irish government....

See Here to find out where all these services are appearing from all of a sudden......

They use Eurobird, the same sat that gives us some of our Sky Digital channels, which I thought was a fairly new satellite. Hah, maybe you could expand on the rest of your stuff? Also, FYI, all the Gilat traffic goes through Germany, not Israel. And whats with the no business with US companies? One of the biggest US satellite ISPs, Starband, uses Gilat.

Martin, how far are you from the nearest ADSL enabled office. If its not too far, you could set up a wireless connection to it, and share the ADSL to the main office. Let us know the distance first.

Back to satellite, its really a matter of preference and cost between orbitlink and digiweb now imho. A good Gilat, and Aramiska (just me and 1 other guy in the Aramiska one) is
http://satellite.balita.org/ According to some recent posts, Gilat/BT are starting to limit bandwidth on the high usage users.

Brendan.

mayhem#

Martin,

What it really should boil down to two issues; price and level of support & expertise.
In your case where it is going to be used in a business enviroment, the latter should be most important.
Digiweb is mainly a web design and hosting company and might not necesarrily have the technical expertise to provide you with adequate support. Of course they can always refer back to Gilat but that all takes time and might not always produce the desired results. Companies like Educom and even more Aramiska have been either providing satellite broadband or Networking services for quite some time and will have a much better understanding of what's involved. They will be able to provide you with a more direct and efficient level of support. There is an awful lot of people jumping on the wireless Internet bandwagon just for the fast buck and without any real experience or knowledge. Time will tell.

just my 2 cents....

mayhem#

Originally posted by bkehoe
One of the biggest US satellite ISPs, Starband, uses Gilat.

And we all know what a success Starband is....
;-)

DonegalMan

Originally posted by bkehoe


Martin, how far are you from the nearest ADSL enabled office. .

About 20 miles

Martin

DonegalMan

Originally posted by mayhem#
Martin,

What it really should boil down to two issues; price and level of support & expertise....There is an awful lot of people jumping on the wireless Internet bandwagon just for the fast buck and without any real experience or knowledge. Time will tell.

just my 2 cents....

This is one of the factors that is swinging me towards DigiWeb; with the various shake-outs that have occurred in the industry in recent years, I like the idea of owning the equipment so that if Digiweb disappeared it should be relatively easy to switch to another provider, rather than the complications that could arise with leased equipment.

Martin

Occidental

Just to throw another one into the ring www.mediasat.ie are a Cork based company that have started off recently. Have had some pricing from them and appears to be in the Aramiska/Educom range. No idea of set up or satellite used.

Same as Mayhem#, have been using Educom for the last year and is a vast improvement over 128k ISDN and costs a lot less. Very good for large files and okay for general browsing. They've had a few teething problems, mainly with Tiscali in Germany, but seems to have sorted itself out over the last few months. From what Brendan has said, I get the impression that Aramiska and Educom are fairly similar in quality.

DonegalMan

Originally posted by Occidental
... www.mediasat.ie ....Have had some pricing from them and appears to be in the Aramiska/Educom range.

€240 per month for Hardware and €272 per month for software plus 1Gb cap - €0.36 per mb above this.

I think that mediasat and aramiska are both over-spec'd and overpriced for what I need, certainly at this stage.

Martin

spongebob

Gilat and BT are introducing a Cap but not calling it that, of course.

It could mean the sat is getting a bit too busy. I would expect the same restrictions to apply to other Gilat resellers as well.

It seems to be a bit like the SNL debacle all over again.

M

sceptre

Moving to Nets/Comms as per Martin's suggestion (it's certainly turning into one of those threads that the hard-core Nets/Comms types would be more interested in, as well as more help in)