Satellite internet

I'll check with buddies of mine, they're TV production dudes and they must use that 5 meter satelite for SOMETHING other to annoy me while I sleep....
 
the biggest problem with the satellite is the upfront cost ... you can get reasonable packages from overseas, entirely bypassing the local crap, but you need to pay something like 20K rand for equipment ... and you will get unlimited 512 kbps for the price of capped 512 here ... which is not bad, but with 20K upfront you will need quite a few years to pay off the equipment ... and I believe (what an optimist I am!) that probably things will change enough in SA in the next 1-2 years so it will not be cost effective anymore compared to other available options ...

I guess for the moment, satellite is reasonable option if you can share the link with at least 5-10 people, otherwise it is far too expensive, unfortunatelly.

I am talking here abour 2 way satellite ... the one way ones are useless and there is no point in getting one even if it is for free!
 
swordfish1, I wouldn't recommend anyone financing something like that anyway. Rather pay the cash upfront, and if you don't have the cash, don't bother.

Thats my philosophy... if i can't afford to pay for **** in cash, i don't need it. :D
 
re 20k upfront - if one looks at the limitations and costs of local 512k packages - it might be worth it. Real uncapped unlimited net? Damn - if ones paying in the area of a grand a month or more anyway, for a bare 30gigs+ - the sat equipment has paid for itself in 20 months or less, allowing for thousands of gigs of download..
After that initial 20k for equipment, what are the monthly/yearly 'line rental' costs?

Any links towards relevant companies that do this?
 
LoneGunman, at this stage it may look attractive, but if you use it for yourself only, you will need a lot of time to pay off the upfront cost (20K vs. <1K for ADSL), something like 1-2 years. In 1-2 years time I bet there will be some better options in SA (what an optimist I am!), like 100GB ADSL for R800 all inclusive, which will make the satellite look much more expensive option. So if you share it, and you pay it off for 6 months or so, probably it is worthwhile, but if you need 1-2 years to pay off the upfront cost (in the form of saving compared to local prices of what you need), then it is a bit of overkill.

Besides that remember the high latency and the bad weather problems.

As far as I know you can get the ISP for <150 euro per month for 512 kbps unlimited, but I guess there are cheaper options as well ...
 
swordfish1 - the 20k upfront is no biggie - I'm just curious over the actual monthly charges thereafter. Dont mind forking out 20K for the basic hardware if its gonna give me 24/7 nonstop fun and entertainment for a goodly length of time, at least. If its a year or so before other tech catches up, well, I'll have had a lot of fun with it..

cAde - looking at that danimex link, at least on the inmarsat option, we're not in the footprint, only the 'northern' part of effrica is - at least that what it seems to me..

given the insane local b/w costs - looking at sat options to provide hundreds of gigs a month, isnt a bad idea, if you're an 'abuser' like me :)
 
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I am sure that there are other and even better options if you look hard enough for them ...
 
I actually had a few contacts in Russia, who had a nice little satellite covering SA. They said that they could pump something ridiculous like 16-20gbps to it. But then there came the announcement that it is still illegal. And then apparently they were having *** with the russian comms authorities. Even weather wouldnt be a problem, because they were running it in C band. Disadvantage is that the satellite is minimum 2.5m diameter.

Satellite internet is probably the only solution atm. And the other thing is you could start up quite a decent ISP with about 20gbps, and if prices were decent then that would be good. But as always beuracracy takes its toll :/
 
Why not just hook up a wireless mesh with wifi, and have one or 2 users with uncapped DSL? Everyone chips in a bit to pay the bills, and when the downloads are finished, its spread across the wireless network.
Sort of like a local 'intranet' at up to 54MBit speeds!

Scared of ICASA? I say **** them, theyre the ones implementing all these **** laws that protect telkom and their profits. Guess who are the only ones loosing out? WE ARE!
So head on over to www.jawug.za.net and www.dwc.za.net and join in the mesh!
Gogogo...
 
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