OpenSky - Broadband Satellite Internet
OpenSky provides a high quality, low cost way of accessing satellite broadband technology. OpenSky is a hybrid technology which works in conjunction with your existing dial-up or ISDN connection. The receive-only satellite link boosts the speed of your receive (download) connection to speeds of upto 2 Mbit/s.
How does it work?
OpenSky consists of a 65cm receive only satellite dish and LNB connected to a small USB satellite receiver (DVB-S), which is attached to your computer.
The receiver is constantly connected to the satellite stream and can receive a number of broadcast web-TV channels and useful data file downloads. It can also provide notification of e-mails.
When you wish to connect to the Internet, OpenSky autodials your normal ISP using your standard modem. At the same time, it temporarily adjusts the 'proxy' settings of your internet browser so that the information returning to you is directed over the fast satellite link.
The satellite download is part of a DVB (Digital Video Broadcast) carrier operating at 27 megasymbols per second. This carrier is split into 2 Mbit/s chunks for transmission of internet data.
The fastest download speed will therefore be 2 Mbit/s. However, this is a contended service, so the actual speed will depend on how busy the service is. To regulate this, Eutelsat have devised a very fair system of bandwidth sharing. Within any monthly subscription period:
- the 1st 150MBytes of download will see an average speed of 400kbit/s
- the next 150MBytes of download will see an average speed of 200kbit/s
- any unlimited volume of download thereafter will be transmitted in 'best efforts' mode - usually around 80-100kbit/s
From experience, most of our customers rarely exceed the first 150MByte volume in any month period.
This is one of the best and generous bandwidth sharing schemes available.
