How Reliable Is Your Backup Internet Connection?

When you hear the saying "Satellite broadband" mentioned, it generally produces a response such as "But Isn't that what are the military use?" which the reply is more often than not 'yes'.

If it's good enough to the soldiers, making use of their well-known desire for integrated resilience, redundancy & long-term performance, don't you find it about time to consider satellite broadband for mainstream business & personal use?

Imagine if you'll, the following scenario - You're a home-worker, telecommuting and connecting to your employer's network via a virtual private network connection (VPN). You've got broadband out of your cable ISP, you have a backup ADSL broadband line from a telecoms provider, and simply in case those fail - you have a 3G USB dongle, as your last distinctive line of defence.

But how are you affected when they all fail? "Highly unlikely" you say? Actually, it isn't as unlikely as you may think - it's happened, for the author of this very article.

New neighbours move around in & have broadband internet & telephone services installed - nothing unusual for the reason that you're probably thinking - however, in the operation of installing the modern arrivals, set up . engineer manages to jar, ever so slightly - the cable in the cabinet through the road that connects you to the box, getting your cable broadband services. Not a problem, you've got your backup ADSL connection to select from it's only 1.5mbps, nevertheless it works.

Further in the road, an engineer out of your telecoms provider has been working in their cabinet for the next customer of theirs & seems to cross your line with another, and your ADSL services are transferred onto another number.

After many calls to varied organisations later & engineers not due to visit for days - what have you got left to acquire connected towards the internet? How do you proceed working? You're left to select from your last line of defence - the 3G USB dongle. Phew, down - although not out!

But wait, the 3G dongle isn't collecting a decent signal and you're stuck crawling along at analogue modem speeds... (Remember days past? Back when you needed to "click & wait"?) You're not likely to be very productive are you currently? How do you explain all of the to your manager or customers without stretching the boundaries of credulity?

Satellites due to the need to operate inside the harsh environment of space are by their very nature resilient & produced for long-term deployments and consistent performance.

Ask yourself this "how often do satellites fall out of the sky?" When was the past time you read or saw a report on the news of an satellite falling out of the sky & coming crashing down into the sea?

The answer, is needless to say, is the fact that it is not sometimes it happens. With access on the internet being provided over copper, or fibre optics cables, you've always got the risk of the cables being severed or disconnected, or inside case of copper cabling, slow speeds the further away from the exchange you might be.

With internet connection by way of a satellite & a dish, there's only 1 real risk - if your satellite sheds in the sky & even as we mentioned earlier - that is not prone to happen usually.

We're now very much accustomed to receiving our television pictures from satellites with a dish on the side of the house, what about considering exactly the same way for getting our connection to the internet?

Satellite broadband isn't expensive, contrary to popular thinking - its monthly prices are on par with traditional ISP's & speeds are up to a very respectable 10mbps today. You just need a dish, a modem & it is time to go.