Is there any truth to the notion that Viasat offers ‘unlimited’ data?
With social distancing, video conferencing, streaming, etc., needing a lot of data, the idea of having an unlimited amount of data sounds like a reasonable proposition for many homes. Specialized Internet services like Viasat provide Internet service even in areas that the cable does not cover, especially in rural regions. However, Viasat is not like some other internet service providers, which do not have unlimited data plans to date.
What are all the data plans that Viasat offers?
Four separate home internet data plans from Viasat provide variable monthly high-speed data amounts: Viasat provides four home internet data plans ranging in monthly high-speed data consumption:
Bronze 12 plan: The plan calls for a normal monthly high-speed data use of 12 gigabytes. The ranges of data transmission rates are 1.5 Mbps to 12 Mbps.
Add unlimited calls and 25GB of fast-speed data per month with the Silver 25 package. With speeds of data transmission up to 25 Mbps.
Gold 30 plan: Every month it also boasts 30GB of fast internet access. up to 50 Mbps, speeds.
Customers may receive 50 GB of high-speed data each month for a $50 Platinum 50 plan. Up to 100 Mbps were the network speeds.
Every plan also provides a data allocation for slower usage after the high-speed data use. Your speeds are drastically cut down to a range of 1–5 Mbps for the remainder of the billing cycle after you use all of the fast-moving data given for the month.
All Viasat's plans are said to be "unmetered," but only in terms of the lesser speed—which continues month-to-month until you run out of "high-speed data." Beyond this point, streaming movies or any other bandwidth-demanding hobby almost becomes impossible.
Measures to Uphold Network Quality
This seems not to be the case with Viasat, and this is one of the reasons why the company has not come up with a high-speed data plan that is truly unlimited, as they have shared bandwidth and satellite technology on which they depend. Because all customers within the satellite beam area access bandwidth from the same pool, a few large customers with extensive data demands could slow down the experience of other users.
Data quotas enable Viasat to regulate the availability of bandwidth for the purpose of delivering the same speed to all subscribers. Yes, Viasat does state that it may be forced to terminate customers from the network if they are abusive in terms of cross-connection or often break their plan’s data limit through illegitimate means or manipulation.
Some satellite providers use data caps by physically shrinking the amount of connectivity each plan can afford. For example, when you buy a plan for 50 GB of high-speed data, it would be physically impossible for the speeds to go beyond 50 Mbps, even during peak hours. Nonetheless, Viasat’s speed tiers are the maximum advertised speeds that the client could get if there were little congestion in the network.
What About Business Plans?
As will be seen, they are most relevant to normal home usage, which means reasonable usage of data. However, they also include various business internet packages that are unlimited and suitable for business needs, such as point-of-sale systems, business emails, cloud business applications, and online meetings, among others.
Current promotion pricing for Viasat’s unlimited business data plans is:
Bronze Business plan: Up to 10 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds and costs $149 per month.
Silver Business plan: Up to 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds for $199 a month
Gold Business plan: Up to 50/5 Mbps download/upload speeds at $249 per month.
These plans can offer unlimited high-speed business connectivity, as subsequent aspects of business operations will suggest. Nevertheless, just like the data for residential customers, Viasat may prefer business customer traffic below that of the ordinary residential subscriber in case of congestion in the network. Business customers are also entitled to reasonable network management policies, which have been addressed by the FCC.
Indeed, have the satellite companies gone overboard with their unlimited plans?
For instance, satellite internet plans that are marketed as ‘unlimited’ do not stop or limit your connection; they do, however, have certain bandwidth limitations inherent to the satellite technology that service providers cannot ignore. Technical advancement in satellite technology and intelligent traffic management systems would still mean that if a few customers take their cars frequently to a particular location, access to other nearby places and their ease may be compromised.
Therefore, whilst the term ‘unlimited’ could be taken to mean having no limits, a closer look at the specific offers may reveal that data may not be fully unrestricted all the time. Satellite firms regulate traffic to modulate customer connectivity depending on the bandwidth availability for the selected region at a given time. This means an unlimited customer still behind capped customers during times of congestion is stuck with lower priority bandwidth.
However, if we are talking about commonplace small business uses such as sending emails, handling payments, or holding a web conference, an uncapped satellite plan will still be a cheaper unlimited service compared to home internet plans with data caps.
