Satellite Internet Forum

[JimmiRR]

We recently moved rural and are nowhere near any HS service and so i am exploring satellite internet as an option.. Based on research i have done here and elsewhere, it looks like Explorenet is the new kid on the block wrt to satellit internet in Eastern Canada.....

I have placed a call to the local distributor (Who is to call me back today), however as i was going over the user agreement, i came across a few things that perhaps someone could shed some light on for me.....

1:"We have established a Fair Access Policy to ensure equitable access for all eXplornet Satellite subscribers. This policy establishes a balance in Internet
access across high-speed Internet services for all Xplornet Satellite customers regardless of their frequency or traffic usage. To ensure this equity, customers may experience some temporary throughput limitations."

- Does anyone know what their FAP is exactly? What is the threshold set at? I read elsewhere in this forum that at this time, they do not have one set since they are so new... Is this correct?
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2:"You authorize us to make inquiries and to receive information about your credit experience from others, to enter this information in your file and to disclose information about you to third parties. You acknowledge that we may provide credit experience information regarding your account to others seeking this information."

- Does this not seem a tad open ended to you? By signing, you are basically giving them the right to give out your credit history to anyone!!!!!
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3:"We reserve the right to change the Service, the monthly fees or administrative charges at any time upon 30 days notice" AND
"You agree that if you terminate your subscription to the Services prior to the expiration of the initial term, we have the right, in addition to all other amounts due to us pursuant to these Terms of Service, as liquidated damages and not as a penalty, to receive from you an aggregate amount determined by multiplying the number of full months remaining in the noncancellable initial term, by the monthly Fees specified on your signed Service Agreement."

- By reading this, I get the sense that they have the ability within a month to increase rates and fees that you have signed on your agreement without justification and you are unable to get out of it for the period of the agreement (In this case, either 1 or 2 years).... Cancelling anyways due to the increase, would then put Explorenet in a position to charge you an aggregate amount of the remaining balance of your agreement PLUS a cancellation fee of $400.00 that appears on the first page of the agreement....

Can anyone comment on these excerpts? Is this standard fare with Sat Int providers?

[ninosat]

Fair access policy: The service provider needs to be able to suppress traffic caused by greedy customers and PCs generating massive amounts of virus traffic. The thresholds and methods need adjusting to respond to troubles. The idea is to give everyone a fair chance. You yourself would have the same problem to resolve if you had multiple PCs in your local LAN connected to your satellite modem. Unless you buy (very expensive) dedicated SCPC links don't consider using satellite for a server or for uploading MP3 CDs etc.

Credit: With the supplier and customer so distant from one another it is difficult to establish trust. The suppliers therefore seek to verify customer credit worthiness before trusting them. If it turns out that a customer is a fraud then the service provider needs to pass that on to anyone (including the police) to help stop others being conned as well. It would be nice if we had a reverse system also so that customers could check out the bone fide of the service providers. Several years ago I could find hardly anyone willing to provide VSAT services - now there are new names popping up every month or so.

Charges: The costs of providing these services is uncertain and it is helpful to spread the risk by getting customers to accept that prices may go up unexpectedly - particularly if the initial price is below cost to try and get the customer in the first place. If you are wealthy how about giving the service provider a gift of an extra $10,000 or so to help in the project. Operating a satellite internet service teleport may easily amount to running a charity communications service for people in the countryside.

Anyway I wish you good luck with whatever service provider you choose. I don't know if Explorenet (xplornet) is the Canadian version of WildBlue but if so, you need to think of yourself as bravely riding into the blue yonder using a new Ka frequency band, with hopes of lower costs and higher bit rates as the dream, etc ...