{"id":481923,"date":"2023-03-07T18:29:14","date_gmt":"2023-03-07T16:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=481923"},"modified":"2023-03-07T18:30:54","modified_gmt":"2023-03-07T16:30:54","slug":"satellite-internet-packages-in-south-africa-speeds-and-prices-compared","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/broadband\/481923-satellite-internet-packages-in-south-africa-speeds-and-prices-compared.html","title":{"rendered":"Satellite Internet packages in South Africa \u2014 Speeds and prices compared"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Africans living in rural areas without mobile or fixed network coverage can get Internet access through a satellite broadband provider.<\/p>\n

Satellite connectivity is expected to play a much bigger role in the global broadband space in the coming years, thanks to the emergence of several low-earth orbit (LEO) operators.<\/p>\n

These include services such as SpaceX’s Starlink, which already has over 3,500 satellites providing coverage in at least 50 countries.<\/p>\n

Starlink disrupted the traditional satellite consumer connectivity sector because it offers faster speeds and lower latency than existing services.<\/p>\n

That is because its LEO satellites are much closer to Earth than the geostationary satellites used by major providers like Eutelsat, HughesNet, and Viasat.<\/p>\n

LEO satellites are also smaller and operate in larger fleets, allowing operators to expand their networks to increase capacity.<\/p>\n

Along with its proprietary technology, this allows Starlink to support download speeds up to 500Mbps, similar to a high-end fibre package.<\/p>\n

In South Africa, the fastest satellite Internet speed generally available to home users is 50Mbps.<\/p>\n

In addition, the latency of existing services is over 600 milliseconds (ms), compared to Starlink’s 40ms to 50ms.<\/p>\n

While conventional satellite Internet is not ideal for latency-sensitive use cases like online multiplayer gaming or video conferencing, Starlink is perfectly capable of handling these types of applications.<\/p>\n

However, it is unclear when Starlink will become available in South Africa, as SpaceX seems to be encountering some regulatory hurdles with respect to getting clearance from Icasa for a local rollout.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Starlink dish<\/p><\/div>\n

MyBroadband compared some of the current uncapped satellite services to see what options were available to households in the most rural parts of the country.<\/p>\n

Eutelsat and HughesNet offer satellite Internet to home users in South Africa through several ISPs \u2014 including DSL Telecom Connect, MorClick, and Vox.<\/p>\n

These packages have download speeds ranging from 5Mbps to 50Mbps, and prices from about R710 to over R2,600 per month.<\/p>\n

That might not sound too expensive considering the hardware costs and their ability to support connectivity from anywhere in the country.<\/p>\n

But these packages have one significant caveat \u2014 stringent fair usage policies (FUPs) that significantly limit speeds after customers consume relatively low amounts of data.<\/p>\n

For example, the cheapest 5\/2Mbps packages on Eutelsat’s network get throttled to 1Mbps speeds after your first 100GB for the month.<\/p>\n

After the next 100GB, speeds will creep to an agonisingly slow 512kbps.<\/p>\n

The picture gets a bit better with the more expensive packages \u2014 like the 20\/3Mbps package on Hughesnet available from Vox at R1,228 per month.<\/p>\n

In this instance, the minimum speed you will be throttled to is 2Mbps, which is much more usable.<\/p>\n

It is also important to note that all the packages are only available on long-term contracts and require the customer to pay an upfront fee to install the on-premise equipment (satellite antenna and router) needed to receive connectivity.<\/p>\n

The table below compares the satellite Internet packages available to homes in South Africa.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Satellite Internet packages in South Africa \u2014 Uncapped<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Package<\/strong><\/td>\nSatellite operator<\/strong><\/td>\nDownload\/Upload speeds<\/strong><\/td>\nFair usage policy and upfront payments
\n<\/strong><\/td>\n		Price<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
DSL Telecom Connect 5\/2Mbps<\/td>\nEutelsat<\/td>\n5\/2Mbps<\/td>\nOne-time setup fee: R1,084.30
\nAfter 100GB consumption: Throttled to 1\/1Mbps
\nAfter 200GB consumption: Throttled to 512\/512kbps<\/td>\n		R709.76 x 24<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Vox 5\/2Mbps<\/td>\nEutelsat<\/td>\n5\/2Mbps<\/td>\nOne-time setup fee: R999
\nAfter 100GB consumption: Throttled to 1\/1Mbps
\nAfter 200GB consumption: Throttled to 512\/512kbps<\/td>\n		R710 x 24<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
MorClick Unlimited 10\/3<\/td>\n\u00a0YahClick by HughesNet<\/td>\n10\/3Mbps<\/td>\nOne-time setup fee: R999
\nAfter 150GB consumption: Throttled to 3Mbps
\nAfter 250GB consumption: Throttled to 2Mbps
\nAfter 300GB consumption: Throttled to 512kbps<\/td>\n		R949 x 24<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
DSL Telecom Connect 10\/3Mbps<\/td>\nEutelsat<\/td>\n10\/3Mbps<\/td>\nOne-time setup fee: R1,084.30
\nAfter 200GB consumption: Throttled to 2.5\/2.5Mbps
\nAfter 300GB consumption: Throttled to 1\/1Mbps<\/td>\n		R1,002.70 x 24<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Vox 10\/3Mbps<\/td>\nEutelsat<\/td>\n10\/3Mbps<\/td>\nOne-time setup fee: R999
\nAfter 200GB consumption: Throttled to 2.5\/2.5Mbps
\nAfter 300GB consumption: Throttled to 1\/1Mbps<\/td>\n		R1,010 x 24<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Vox 10\/3Mbps<\/td>\nYahClick by HughesNet<\/td>\n10\/3Mbps<\/td>\nOne-time setup fee: R999
\nAfter 150GB consumption: Throttled to 5Mbps
\nAfter 250GB consumption: Throttled to 3Mbps
\nAfter 300GB consumption: Throttled to 1.5Mbps<\/td>\n		R1,108 x 24<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
MorClick Unlimited 20\/3<\/td>\nYahClick by HughesNet<\/td>\n20\/3Mbps<\/td>\nOne-time setup fee: R999
\nAfter 200GB consumption: Throttled to 7Mbps
\nAfter 350GB consumption: Throttled to 3Mbps
\nAfter 400GB consumption: Throttled to 512kbps<\/td>\n		R1,199 x 24<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Vox 20\/3Mbps<\/td>\nYahClick by HughesNet<\/td>\n20\/3Mbps<\/td>\nOne-time setup fee: R999
\nAfter 200GB: Throttled to 10Mbps
\nAfter 350GB: Throttled to 5Mbps
\nAfter 400GB consumption: Throttled to 2Mbps<\/td>\n		R1,228 x 24<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
DSL Telecom Connect 20\/3Mbps<\/td>\nEutelsat<\/td>\n20\/3Mbps<\/td>\nOne-time setup fee: R1,084.30
\nAfter 200GB consumption: Throttled to 5\/3Mbps
\nAfter 300GB consumption: Throttled to 2\/2Mbps<\/td>\n		R1,382.45 x 24<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Vox 20\/3Mbps<\/td>\nEutelsat<\/td>\n20\/3Mbps<\/td>\nOne-time setup fee: R999
\nAfter 200GB consumption: Throttled to 5\/3Mbps
\nAfter 300GB consumption: Throttled to 2\/2Mbps<\/td>\n		R1,389 x 24<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Vox 30\/5Mbps<\/td>\nEutelsat<\/td>\n30\/5Mbps<\/td>\nOne-time setup fee: R999
\nAfter 200GB consumption: Throttled to 10\/5Mpbs
\nAfter 300GB consumption: Throttled to 4\/4Mbps<\/td>\n		R1,879 x 24<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
DSL Telecom Connect 30\/5Mbps<\/td>\nEutelsat<\/td>\n30\/5Mbps<\/td>\nOne-time setup fee: R1,084.30
\nAfter 200GB consumption: Throttled to 10\/5Mpbs
\nAfter 300GB consumption: Throttled to 4\/4Mbps<\/td>\n		R1,870.64 x 24<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Vox 50\/5Mbps<\/td>\nEutelsat<\/td>\n50\/5Mbps<\/td>\nOne-time setup fee: R999
\nAfter 200GB consumption: Throttled to 15\/5Mbps
\nAfter 300GB consumption: Throttled to 5\/5Mbps<\/td>\n		R2,639 x 24<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
DSL Telecom Connect 50\/5Mbps<\/td>\nEutelsat<\/td>\n50\/5Mbps<\/td>\nOne-time setup fee: R999
\nAfter 200GB consumption: Throttled to 15\/5Mbps
\nAfter 300GB consumption: Throttled to 5\/5Mbps<\/td>\n		R2,653.01 x 24<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Now read: Starlink rolling out global roaming service \u2014 with more bad news for South Africa<\/a><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Starlink seems to be struggling to clear South Africa’s regulatory hurdles but there are already several satellite Internet providers available in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":465545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[84781,33234,35,84783,73020,563,11375,48987,47,8269],"class_list":["post-481923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadband","tag-dsl-telecom-connect","tag-eutelsat","tag-headline","tag-hughesnet","tag-morclick","tag-satellite-internet","tag-spacex","tag-starlink","tag-vox","tag-yahclick"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481923"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481923"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":482921,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481923\/revisions\/482921"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}