If I remember correctly, the combined bandwidth of the ES17 and ES19 is somewhere around 300Gbps to 325Gbps. Let's say it's 325Gbps. If all conditions were perfect, and the bandwidth could be divided evenly between subscribers, that's 108,333 people that could sustain a one way data transfer of 3Mbps at the same time. That's it. HughesNet currently has over 1,000,000 customers, and I don't know if that number includes government contracts and such. If not, that's even less bandwidth available for each subscriber.
Thankfully, not every customer is online and requiring a sustained data transfer at the same time. But, this is just an example of how little bandwidth there really is to go around. And, like BirdDog suggests, an unlimited package, even at 3Mbps, would cause some subscribers to transfer data nontstop, which would likely result in even more congestion than there is at present.
The soft data caps cause people to prioritize, enabling that relatively small amount of overall bandwidth to be enough, for the most part. This is why, contrary to some peoples' belief, the soft data caps are a necessity.
