HughesNet is a satellite internet service provider that is quite popular, especially among areas where cable and fiber optic connection cannot be provided. Among the most frequently asked questions of HughesNet’s consumers is whether the internet speeds increase with the night. As for the HughesNet internet may appear faster in the evening and late at night, there are several reasons.
How HughesNet Works
First, let us consider how satellite internet functions and the benefits that the satellite internet service provides to the customer. HughesNet has geostationary satellites that transmit and receive Internet signals from earth stations linked to the Internet backbone. The star customers have dishes at their homes that transmit commands and receive information from such stars.
Satellite internet is not free from inherent delays usually referred to as ‘lag’ due to the time that takes to relay signals to and from satellites in space. However, what takes a satellite from space to a gateway on the ground that is hooked up to fiber optic cable to send a signal is that, once the signal is beamed, the speed for normal downloads and surfing is as fast as cable or DSL. What Satellite lacks is where latency is critical such as gaming, video conferencing, and opening some websites.
There is another element in connection with bandwidth utilization and bandwidth control and it is known as Data Allowances.
Similar to virtually all of the ISPs, HughesNet utilizes bandwidth throttling and can restrict usage on their plans through data caps and limits. HughesNet has set plans and monthly data capacities are expressed in gigabytes (GB) and once the capacity per plan is exhausted the user gets extremely limited throughput often less than 1 Mbps.
Because of the problems associated with the m2m satellite capacity, they therefore have to introduce a ‘Fair Usage Policy ‘ that regulates the bandwidth allocated to customers so as not to allow overloading of the available capacity by activities such as video streaming, downloading among others that may consume a lot of bandwidth. This entails controlling the amount of traffic from customers during central rush times of high usage, notably in the early evening program streaming hours. Some other types of internet usage may become restricted during these hours to ensure that all the capacity that is offered to the customer is not utilized fully during these periods.
Off-Peak Data Allowances
Fortunately, HughesNet considers this by providing more data during the “off-peak” hours of the day which can include early morning to night. Both plans come with a fixed amount of data that can be used during the night, between 2 am and 8 am and the usage of that data does not count towards the allowance for the given billing cycle. The allowance renewal of off-peak prevents customers from crossing the limits.
As the number of customers using bandwidth is quite low during the night due to off-peak hours, the speed may look far better if customers are using additional off-peak gigabytes. This is because scenes such as streaming, downloading games, and uploading photos, and videos can easily be scheduled late at night and possibly early morning if possible. The only thing to bear in mind is that all the use of the internet is still deducted from the monthly data allowance.
Other Speed Considerations
In addition to reduced network congestion overnight, there are a few other factors that can affect speeds: In addition to reduced network congestion overnight, there are a few other factors that can affect speeds:
- Climatic Interventions – This is a natural calamity that disrupts the normal signals between the satellite and the home satellite dish since it can be in the form of rain, snow, or even heat. This type of interference in the environment typically results in slower speeds. Distances and night time also play a pivotal role in determining the speed of the connection where clear nights are generally favorable.
- LoS and Locality – Physical structures like trees, buildings, and poles as well as other structures that are around the area limit satellite reception thus slowing down speeds. Adequate line sight is important between the satellite dish and the southern sky in particular to enable high speeds. HughesNet technicians try to place the pieces of equipment in such a way that there will be minimal interference from the line of sight.
- Interferences - The sun spots, satellite reorientation, and other technicalities may sometimes cause the satellite to trip off momentarily. Instead of connectivity issues, customers may face very slow internet speed or complete disconnection sometimes until service providers resolve the issue.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the fact that many HughesNet customers experience internet access at a higher speed during the night is not because of the time factor only. But rather a somewhat reduced network load during off-peak hours, additional data which is promoted by offering incentives for bandwidth use at night, and at times improved atmospheric conditions from late evening through the morning.
In this way take benefit of night owl data allowances and move some internet usage like streaming and downloading etc during the wee hours of the night to wake up with HughesNet satellite internet speeds and monthly data limits. However, do not forget that latency and lag always persist irrespective of the time of use depending on the satellite technology used.
