Great news

[gaines_wright]

  Great news everybody!  Hughes doesn't have hard data limits!  At least that's what I saw on the TV screen the other day during a Hughes commercial.  I didn't hear any of it because the sound was off.   The best way to watch TV IMO.

  Is this only for new subscribers, or do we all now have soft and squishy data limits?  :>)>

PREFERENCE, n. A sentiment, or frame of mind, induced by the erroneous belief that one thing is better than another.
The Devil's Dictionary

[MarkJFine]

That's the new buzz word that every service with a cap is using. It means that the data doesn't do a hard stop once your plan is exceeded, they just throttle it down. I have the unlimited LTE plan with Verizon, and they also throttle after 22GB.

[MrBuster]

The HughesNet FAP speed (upto 3 Mbps daytime / 5 Mbps 2am-8am) is a lot nicer than what would happen when going over the Viasat/Exede limit on their classic plans, although they did not cut off, the speed was throttled severely. I think HughesNet has had this in the advertising for a while now.

Of course, in the run up to HughesNet having Echostar-19 ready, Viasat switched to plans that de-prioritize folks over the limit, but that strategy is more painful than FAP throttling when the beam has a moderate load.

A glance at their forum might give you a preference -- have popcorn ready!

[gaines_wright]

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@MrBuster wrote:

The HughesNet FAP speed (upto 3 Mbps daytime / 5 Mbps 2am-8am) is a lot nicer than what would happen when going over the Viasat/Exede limit on their classic plans, although they did not cut off, the speed was throttled severely. I think HughesNet has had this in the advertising for a while now.

  Well, it was news to me.  Of course, I almost never watch TV except to watch a DVD,  and that's not very often. 

  I guess in a way I was right, we do all have soft and squishy data limits.  :>)>

[gaines_wright]

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@MarkJFine wrote:

That's the new buzz word that every service with a cap is using. It means that the data doesn't do a hard stop once your plan is exceeded, they just throttle it down.

  I guess this just shows how out of touch I am.  Prior to gen5 I hadn't hit the data limit since the Direcway days, when you were throttled down to dial up speeds.

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[GabeU]

@gaines_wright 

You just may not have seen the commercials, but they've been advertising Gen5 this way from the start.  Like Mark mentioned, it just means they don't cut you off when you run out of data, and in comparison to Gen4, or at least the way Gen4 was until Gen5 came along, the FAP speed is higher.  

[GabeU]

@MrBuster 

Gen5's FAP speed is actually "typically 1-3Mbps" round the clock, though you may see slightly higher FAP speeds during the Bonus Zone due to less people being online during these hours.  

[MrBuster]

@GabeU 

Perhaps, but I have seen the speed many times while in FAP (no anytime bytes, no bonus bytes).

To check it out I did a large download before 8am so that it would carry over, and the speed was steady just under 5Mbps before 8am and dropped to just under 3Mbps after 8 am so it sure seems like a policy rather than congestion.

[GabeU]

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@MrBuster wrote:

To check it out I did a large download before 8am so that it would carry over, and the speed was steady just under 5Mbps before 8am and dropped to just under 3Mbps after 8 am so it sure seems like a policy rather than congestion.

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Perhaps they've recently changed FAP policy during the Bonus Zone.  

[MrBuster]

@GabeU 

I got curious and dug up the log from 6/1/18 -- the download started at just under 5Mbps at 5:25am and slowly crept down to just under 4Mbps when at 8am it sharply reduced speed to 2Mbps.

If I get in FAP again, maybe I can try it again.

If it is policy, it is a nice touch to encourage folks in FAP to use bonus time for some extra speed 🙂