VPS Whitepaper: Satellite Broadband Remains Inferior to Wireline Broadband

February 17, 2018

Published September 2017

Not all broadband services are created equal. The usefulness of a broadband service is determined by how well online applications work or whether they work at all. The quality of the broadband connection can be measured by certain “standards” which include speed, latency, monthly capacity, reliability and scalability. When a broadband service does not meet the minimum requirements of one or more of these standards, the customer will have a lower quality broadband experience.

In 2013, Vantage Point Solutions (VPS) performed a detailed analysis of broadband services provided over satellites titled, “Analysis of Satellite‐Based Telecommunications and Broadband Services.” This whitepaper demonstrated that satellite‐based broadband services did not meet the then‐minimum standards for a high‐quality broadband connection. This updated analysis also shows that even with the new satellite platforms, satellite‐based broadband has been unable to keep pace with the rapidly increasing customer demands for speed and capacity, and future prospects for doing so remain highly questionable.

VPS Whitepaper: Satellite Broadband Remains Inferior to Wireline Broadband

Nebraska‐based rural telecommunications and broadband companies Great Plains Communications and the Consolidated Companies underwrote the research, documentation and writing of this paper to further public policy discussion.