There may only be two major satellite internet providers in the U.S., but internet users should still pay close attention to their options. Based on rural availability, reliability, price, speed and other relevant factors, one provider may be a better option than the other. We dove into the data to see which satellite provider is the best home internet for you if cable, DSL, or fiber-optic are not available in your area.
3 Score$59.99/mo. Starting Price25 Mbps Download Speed
PROS
Reliable serviceExtra GB allowance per monthNo hard data caps
CONS
Slower speed optionsHigher equipment costs: $349 to purchaseLow customer service score
PLANS & PRICING
10 GB: $59.99/mo.20 GB: $69.99/mo.30 GB: $99.99/mo.50 GB: $149.99/mo.
FEATURES
No hard data limits; reduces speed to 1–3 Mbps insteadBonus Zone: 2 a.m.–8 a.m. customers receive 50 GB/month of additional data$14.99/month equipment lease$10/month introductory discount for six months24-month contract
3.25 Score$69.99/mo. Starting Price100 Mbps Download Speed
PROS
Faster download speed than competitorsHigher data optionsHigher new customer discounts
CONS
Fewer plans than competitorNo option to purchase equipmentNot rated by J.D Power
PLANS & PRICING
If your household is constantly streaming, gaming from several devices and downloading large files and you don’t have access to traditional internet providers, Viasat might be the best satellite internet for you.
FEATURES
$20–$50 intro discount for three monthsViasat Shield protects home from online security threats$12.99/month equipment lease24-month contract
One of the biggest misconceptions in buying satellite internet is that having more Mbps leads to more usability. If you’re only using it for online shopping and social media browsing, you don’t need a lot of Mbps, no matter what the sales agent tells you. To help you gauge what you can do with different speed thresholds, check our table of estimated usage. *Activity estimates assume 4-8 connected devices
Figure out how much data you use
Data is measured in gigabytes (GB) and is used whenever you send something, receive something, download from, or upload to the internet. Satellite internet plans work similarly to your phone plan: Your data is your allotted internet usage. If you go over your data limit, you won’t be totally cut off from the internet, you’ll just be restricted to slower speeds (typically 1–3 Mbps) until the start of your next billing cycle. This will allow some web browsing, but no video streaming or file downloading — and that web browsing will be slow enough you may resort to the local paper for news and sudoku. To give you some perspective, here is what HughesNet says you can do with 1 GB of data:
2 hours of video streamingUpload 300Stream 200 songsLoad 1,024 web pagesSend or receive 2000 emails
If you stream video at all, you’re more likely to struggle with these data caps. Streaming uses up a huge chunk of data. In fact, Netflix estimates you’ll need 1GB of data per hour to stream SD video. That’s 66 GB to binge all five seasons of Orange is the New Black — more than the top HughesNet plan of 50 GB/month We suggest being mindful of your internet habits and see what activities you lean more toward – if you’re a heavy video streamer, you might want to invest in a heavier data allowance per month. HughesNet and Viasat provide you with ways to check how you’re doing on data within a given month. If your options are already limited to satellite internet, your TV provider is probably satellite-based too — Dish Network. But no, you can’t use the same satellite dish for both. TV satellite dishes are only capable of receiving signals; internet connections need to both upload and download information. DSL internet service relies on a customer’s proximity to something called a digital subscriber access multiplexer (DSLAM for short), the network device that connects you to the internet. These live in local exchange offices in your area, and the farther away from your DSLAM you are, the slower your DSL internet will be. It’s pretty rare, but service on the edge of a DSLAM’s range could be painfully slow — we’re talking 3 Mbps download and a fraction of 1 Mbps upload. If that’s the case for your home, satellite internet is obviously the better choice.
Customer Satisfaction: We used J.D. Power’s 2020 Residential Internet Service Provider Satisfaction Study to calculate an average rating of internet providers across all applicable regions.Top Download Speeds: We awarded higher scores to internet providers with higher download speeds.Number of Plans: Internet providers with more plan options to choose from scored higher in our methodology.Data Caps: No one wants to be left without internet for the rest of the month, so we awarded internet providers with higher scores if they had high or no data caps. Customer Support: We reviewed and compared the number of channels that customers could reach each provider’s customer support representatives. The more channels of contact available, the higher the score.
