Category: Internet

There is some debate around data-caps (or usage limits) and what they mean when using the internet.

Data caps are how much data you are able to use in total in a given period (think of it like a water meter). Internet generally is charged on a monthly basis, so the data cap resets every month. Data caps shouldn’t be confused with bandwidth. Bandwidth is more like the water pressure; how fast a person can get the data.

Depending on the internet company, the data caps can be fairly cost prohibitive if someone is using their connection excessively. For example, if you are watching Netflix in High Definition (HD), you will use ~1Gigabyte(GB)/hour. That said, if you have a data cap of 100GB, you would be able to watch 100 hours of HD Netflix that month and then either be throttled down (significantly slowing your connection) OR being charged for every GB you use above the data cap. (Reference)

The first time I experienced this myself was using a mobile hot spot with a data cap of 2GB while I was spending time in Montana. Needless to say I wasn’t watching Netflix on it, but was amazed at how quickly I used up the 2GB! The result of me using the connection for a week was that the data cap was used up and then my connection was throttled so slow that it was difficult to even check email on the connection. Since I still had to work I called up the provider and had to purchase 4GB more for the month since I figured I could get by with that.

So to answer the question, ‘Do Data Caps Matter?’, the answer is they don’t until you hit them, and then they matter A LOT!

One of the unique aspects of Alyrica is that we do not have data caps. We don’t believe people should be punished for actually using the connection that they are paying for!

No usage limits or data caps; that’s Alyrica!

One question we typically get from customers that first call us: “Is this Satellite Internet?”

Great question!

It is easy to see how people would confuse Fixed Wireless with Satellite. Fixed Wireless and Satellite BOTH need a dish mounted to the property. Both need clear line of site, both are more readily available in rural areas and both can get you online. That is about where the similarities end.

The biggest difference (and the one that most people care about) is latency. Yes, you will hear that word a lot on this blog, because latency is a BIG deal. The short version: latency has to do with how fast something loads. For example if you hit ‘GO’ on a website, the latency is how fast that website can respond. All of this happens in milliseconds (ms) which is fast; but if there is A LOT of data that needs to go and come back, all those milliseconds add up to seconds and becomes noticeable.

According to Wikipedia, Satellite Average Latency is 550 ms (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_Internet_access).

In contrast, Alyrica Fixed Wireless Average Latency is > 25 ms. What that means in real life is that the website comes back 25 Times Faster on Alyrica Fixed Wireless than over Satellite Internet! That will be a noticeable difference!

Why such a big difference?

Simple, when people send a signal to a satellite it needs to travel to space (over 22,000 miles above earth) and then it needs to come back down. Even at the speed of light, that’s a LONG way to travel. When someone is on fixed wireless, the signal needs to travel to one of our towers (between 5-10 miles away) and then to one of our data centers right here in Oregon (Portland or Eugene). That’s not even a hundred miles in most cases! This means that ‘the internet’ is approximately 22,000 miles closer via Fixed Wireless than Satellite.

This difference is so extreme in fact that many people who work remotely (especially if it is a US government position) are not allowed to use Satellite Internet as it is not practically functional. Yes, even though you are able to get 25 Mbps download via satellite, it isn’t as helpful as a 3 Mbps connection via fixed wireless due to the high latency.

Who would use satellite then?

Satellite Internet is great for people that have no other options.

That’s where Alyrica comes in!

Chances are, if you are reading this, Alyrica can be your best option over satellite.

Alyrica has helped people move off of Satellite Internet in rural areas throughout the Mid-Willamette Valley who thought that there was no other option available. The difference is drastic, and these customers that we have helped cannot say enough great things about how Alyrica Fixed Wireless has been a game changer for them!

How do I know if I can get Alyrica?

Alyrica Fixed Wireless does need clear line of sight (LOS) in order to make sure you can get signal. The dish that we mount needs to be able to clearly see the tower that we are connecting you to. By checking our website or giving us a call, we run a path analysis which give us accurate information to see if we would be able to get you online. The path analysis isn’t perfect, but it gets us in the ballpark to know if we should send an installer out to do an install.

Even if you’re surrounded by trees; we have installed dishes in trees all over the valley in order to get customers online!

Solution Oriented, Friendly Customer Service; that’s Alyrica!

Before I came to work at Alyrica, I didn’t have any idea what Mbps (Megabits per second) even meant…I figured, like most people I think, that the higher the number, the faster the internet, and therefore the better the internet experience, right?

Kinda…

An analogy that I heard is that Mbps is like a pipe going to your house. The bigger the number, the bigger the pipe. It is only helpful having a big pipe to your house if there is the water pressure to fill that pipe in a constant stream. What many internet companies do is sell you the big pipe and then turn on a trickle through the pipe, because in reality that is what most people use.

What do you typically do online?

This is the real question to be asked. That’s why we created our plans around this question.

The most common thing that we hear our customers want to do online is web browsing, email, social media and streaming (Netflix, Hulu, etc.)

Netflix for example needs 3 Mbps for DVD quality streaming and 5 Mbps for HD quality. Most people want to have a little bit of headroom over that so that they can watch Netflix and still be on Facebook. Our Standard Plan (up to 8 Mbps) would allow for Netflix streaming on one device and then checking Facebook on another.

If you have multiple people watching multiple streams simultaneously, you would then need the bandwidth for all those streams to come in at once.

Using the above analogy, we hook up the ‘pipe’ that makes sense for what you actually need and have the water pressure to keep that flow up as much and as long as you want (no throttling, no data caps, just straightforward internet…that’s refreshing isn’t it?)

Here are our Residential Plans that are designed to actually fit what you need!

Transparent Pricing, No Usage Limits; that’s Alyrica!