Necessary or Too Slow: Is Viasat Good for Netflix?
Having more than 220 million active users worldwide, Netflix is among the top multimedia providers allowing streaming movies and TV episodes on the internet. On streaming Netflix in HD, nevertheless, a viewer needs an internet connection minimum of 5 Mbps. This begs the following important issue: is Viasat satellite internet fast enough to enable Netflix?
What Speed is Required by Netflix?
For varying video streaming quality, Netflix has released recommended internet speeds: Netflix has released suggested internet speeds based on several video streaming quality levels:
- SD quality video (480p): The second option was to select the lowest service quality which is 3 Mbps.
- HD-quality video (720p/1080p): Up to 5+ Mbps
- 4K quality video: 25 Mbps
Thus, to watch the majority of Netflix movies and TV shows in high definition, you should have at least 5 Mbps speed. Nonetheless, streaming speeds above 10-25 Mbps will be much better with no interruption to the quality of the stream.
If you want to know how fast Viasat internet is, you should first understand that it is a satellite internet with speeds that vary depending on the plan an individual subscribes to.
Viasat offers several different satellite internet plans with varying speed levels
- Bronze 12 plan: The ability to download data at 12 Mbps
- Silver 25 plan: 25 Mbps speeds for Internet download and upload.
- Gold 30 plan: The second benchmark is 30 Mbps which is fast enough to stream high-quality videos, play online games, and conduct video conferences.
- Platinum 50 plan: 50 x Mbps.
- Platinum 100 plan: Such bandwidths as 100 Mbps!
The Bronze 12 plan costs $29.95 monthly and provides up to 12 Mbps, while the highest plan is the Platinum 100, which costs $149 monthly and offers up to 100 Mbps. And so, according to the download speed, all Viasat plans will be sufficient to stream Netflix without any issues with HD quality.
The only downside is that satellite Internet slows down more frequently than cable/fiber due to real-world variables such as weather disturbances, network traffic, bandwidth limitations, and time of day. However, depending on the carrier, the actual download and upload speeds may be slightly different from the listed ones.
Many Internet service providers impose data caps to manage the amount of data traffic and reduce congestion on the networks they use to deliver their service, and this begs the question: does Viasat have data caps?
Yes, all our residential plans are priced with monthly data limits from 40GB up to 150 GB. Recently, if you go beyond this, your speeds have been reduced to 1–5 Mbps until the billing cycle is over.
However, to illustrate this, streaming Netflix in HD quality for only an hour a day could consume between 12 and 15 GB of data in a month. But Viasat does put significant data caps in place, especially on cheaper tariffs, which can significantly limit your Netflix streaming and force you to pay for additional services.
The differences in speeds can be attained at certain times of the day.
Similar to most satellite ISPs, there is a possibility that Viasat internet speed reduces significantly during evening prime-time usage between 5 p.m. and 11 PM local time. This means that during busy traffic hours, several ISPs experience congestion, and the offered bandwidth per customer is below the advertised speed.
So in the case of watching HD Netflix for several hours each day, it will be more effective to do so in the morning, afternoon, or even any time other than prime evening when network traffic is high.
Dealing with Weather Disruptions
These include but are not limited to, excessive rainfall, snow, or clouds that obscure the view of the sky, which affects the reception of satellite signals that the Viasat Internet relies on. Indeed, while present-day satellites have much better tolerance to minor weather effects, major storms are still in a position to make connections drop sporadically.
That is why users from areas that often register heavy weather conditions will only temporarily have problems with streaming movies and shows on Netflix while waiting for the weather to brighten up. Having DVDs as a backup helps major studios when there are storm events.
Is Viasat Service Fast Enough For Netflix?
The greatest plans Viasat offers are 50–100 Mbps, which should be enough for streaming Netflix in HD most of the time. Of equal importance is the fact that streaming is only done during off-peak hours to minimize congestion.
However, while the plans with higher throughput (12–25 Mbps) and draconian data allowances can still negatively affect Netflix’s performance, especially in the case of multiple HD streams, Viasat offers more entry-level plans. The problem with Fox is that the connection constantly buffers and gets reduced to between 1 and 5 Mbps, making it rather unimpressive to watch.
Hence, we would only suggest the higher-tier plans offered by Viasat, starting at 50+ Mbps for optimal Netflix streaming in high definition. However, do not expect to see these max speeds as speeds are throttled and data is capped; therefore, controlling usage by rationing it on a daily/monthly basis is needed to prevent slowdowns. To maximize Netflix streaming, choosing a cable or fiber internet connection with 75–100 Mbps and high or unlimited data capabilities makes streaming in high definition without any issues possible.