Forum Discussion
Data Usage With Jupiter 3
Hi. I was so excited to get realigned to the Jupiter 3. Not only do I have faster speeds but the Elite plan is substantially cheaper than the 200GB plan on the old satellite. Yes, there was an initia...
An update to my Jupiter 3 experience.
My last post was 2 weeks ago. I was frustrated and had resigned myself to either spending money on tokens or not streaming TV for the 2 weeks after I used my priority data. I ran out (250GB - I had purchased tokens) 2 days later with 11 days to go until the data rollover. To my surprise, nothing changed. Standard data speed was more than adequate for my home and daily use. In fact, I returned to my habit of having the TV on all day and turned the data optimizer off. No more blurry TV! It was nothing less than liberating. I routinely checked speeds with Ookla and am consistently within 10 Mbps - 20 Mbps range, speeds slowing in the evenings. All internet providers boast speeds and I was convinced that I needed hundreds of Mbps to do anything. This is simply not true. I changed my service plan to the 100 GB to recoup some money. I realize that the standard data speeds may decrease in the future with the inevitable increase of accounts signing on to the Jupiter 3, but I am hoping that will take some time and that the big guy up there can keep up the pace.
Also, here's an interesting nugget. When I switched service plans yesterday, the100 GB priority data was immediately applied. I just checked my speed...15.4 Mbps at 8:20am LOL. We burned through 37 GB watching the game yesterday in HD but I can comfortably say I don't care, it was worth it. Even if my strategy falls apart this cycle, which given HughesNet's inconsistent service is a very plausible possibility, I am no longer going to stress out over speed and data. All of the back and forth, both here and exhaustive calls with tech support, has done nothing but cause more stress and frustration. At no time (official HughesNet tech support has yet to respond here) did anyone suggest that standard data speeds might be adequate for my purposes but then why would they? Its the same reason why there is no plan less than 100 GB (unlike the old satellite that offered 25 GB) or just a standard data plan. I'm sure the hardware up there is a bit pricey.
I'm sure the "Professors" are firing up their keyboards and will "educate" me further but meh...I'm good.
N/C
Is that No Comment? Understandable after your revelation that you yourself are no longer a HughesNet customer. One wonders why then are you a "Distinguished Professor IV" on their forum? I'm just trying to get some straight answers. Contradictions abound.
Jumping into the fray...
There are a couple of factors that haven't been raised:
1. The chart you're describing is using average numbers to give most people an idea. I, for one, agree that the numbers stated appear to make it look as if streaming has less of an impact than it does.
2. Video Optimization doesn't appear to work perfectly on all services, so you'll see some variance due to that.
3. All streaming services do things differently. Some have a way to set the speed to a lower SD level (which also varies), and some test the connection to see what 'their' optimum resolution would be best. Netflix and Disney+ fall into the first category, but know that Disney+ can use a lot more data per hour than Netflix - up to twice as much. Max and Paramount+ use the latter category and they will always use much more data. As an aside, you can see the test happen in real time - that's the little buffer pause after it starts in HD. followed by a few second rewind that continues in SD.
4. One other factor that causes an increase in data usage: handshaking. Data usage includes upload as well as download. So if the handshaking back to the streaming server happens more often you'll see an uptick in data usage.
Edit: Just to put some qualitative data on this: About 3 hours of streaming (1 hr ep each of Halo and Star Trek Discovery on Paramount+, 1 hr ep of The Witcher on Netflix) plus other things like 2 adults checking social media (incl. small vids), email, etc. will use upwards of 4GB a day. Some apps like Amazon (just the shopping, not Amazon Prime) seem to use a lot of data now, just because of the embedded hi-res images and video ads. It all adds up.
