Is there any plan to increase the data caps? or remove the caps and offer unlimited data?

[charliefe]

the highest data plan i can purchase is 20 gb that just does not do it for me. Many of us need a higher data plan. Is this something Hughesnet is looking into? will there be any unlimited plans in the future?

[El Dorado Netwo]

Really unlikely that will happen with current satellite Internet technology. The satellite can only pass just so much data, and can't be upgraded 22,000 miles out in space. It's a shared resource, and data limits are in place to assure everyone has access.

[BirdDog]

Yea, pretty much no on the unlimited. I believe they're always reviewing system loading and performance to see if any changes in the caps can be made. But as Alan said, throughput at any point in time is a very limited resource compared to the many pathways ground based cable provides.

[Liz]

Hi Charlie,

Welcome and thanks for posting. As these two helpful posters above already noted, unlimited is not happening due to the nature of satellite technology.

If we have new plans come out, we'll let you know.

Thanks,
Liz

[GabeU]

Charlie,

As BirdDog and Alan have noted, the possibility of unlimited internet isn't going to happen anytime in the foreseeable future.  The possibility of a higher cap for you, though, may be a different story.  They are launching another satellite this year to cover a larger area with Gen4 service.  It may or may not alter the possibility of some subscribers being able to get a larger data cap.  The largest I can get is the 20/50 plan, as well. 

The reason they can't offer unlimited data is due to satellite internet having a much more restricted throughput than land based systems.  If they were to have unlimited plans, what would happen is everyone would be streaming all the time and the system would slow to a crawl.  So, even though on the surface it seems contradictory to say this, having a data cap actually protects you by making sure that your particular service is usable for you.  It can be annoying sometimes, for sure, as we would all like to stream HD movies and such like so many others can, but it's just too hard on the system for everybody to be using so much data. 

There may eventually be a day where the infrastructure will allow this, but not for the foreseeable future. 

I hope this helps to give you some answers as to why.     

[markus2]

well recently i had a service tech come out to realine my dish,accaualty he had to move my dish.Its my brothers house i have charter i used to have hugesnet.

Any ways the tech told me that hugesnet was going to be unlimted by the end of this year,wether its true or not,I don;t belive it.But thats what he told me.

in a few years theres supposed to be world wide web,i think is the name of read an artical afew months ago by 2020 its supposed to serve billions or ppl wireless at 10 mps,maybe unlimted.

In fact it says hugesnet backs this up,or approves of it,if this realy happens.But if you have internet access you can't get it

,but im sure isp's would gain from this.oh and world wide webs satalites are compatable with other satalites and im sure providers like hugesnet can problay or maybe go unlimted or least increase there data cap,im not sure of this,just guessing,but hopely it does help others out bandwidth wise.

any one that help shed more light on this world web service would be cool..anyways my input...

[BirdDog]

markus, you may be talking about a low earth orbit (LEO) system. It will be years before we see one if even in our lifetime. Have heard of no updates on it since the initial chatter.

http://www.wired.com/2015/06/elon-musk-space-x-satellite-internet/

[GabeU]

markus,

What the tech told you about Hughesnet was probably due to incorrect information.  I doubt that he knowingly lied to you, though that is always a possibility. 

With regard to the other, it may very well be what BirdDog talks about.  There's a plan underfoot to have a slew of low earth orbit satellites that would link together and provide internet to places that wouldn't traditionally be able to get it.  Even still, I don't know that it will be unlimited, because as time goes on and apps and things require much more bandwidth, even a much higher capacity system may end up beginning to suffer from the same problems Hughesnet would if it was unlimited, especially with a large number of people using it.  Even as we speak there are landline offerings that are beginning to add data caps, although considerably larger than what Hughesnet can offer.  It's like they make something that is supposed to be able to supply unlimited data to all of their customers for 20 years, then as time goes on they realize that their calculations were ten or more years off.  

[markus2]

Hey thanks for the info Yeah the tech prob did lided to me,i don't know why he would,but thats life i guess..i found what the site was its simular as what you stated..heres the link to one webs site and another that list serval companys that are getting in the action as well..we'll see what happens.some are listed in that link you posted as well..

http://oneweb.world/#news

https://techcrunch.com/2016/04/19/oneweb-will-mass-produce-historic-number-of-satellites-with-new-fl...

and the list about other companys getting in the compation,which we need,hehe

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-diamandis/rising-billion-consumers_b_7008160.html