A Fair Access Policy is required to ensure that all users have access to their contracted bandwidth and throughput in a given period. Those users who exceed their contracted allotment must either be billed for the overage, as in metered billing or consumption based billing, or they must have their bandwidth restricted so their future throughput falls to their contracted allotment.

Dustyfoot’s partner, Skycasters, offers both a Fair Access Policy option as well as a metered billing option. Skycasters calls these plans Option 1 (metered billing) and Option 2 (billing governed by the Fair Access Policy)

Option 1 Option 1, or metered billing, customers are charged for additional usage when they go over their monthly throughput, based on their contract.

Option 2 An Option 2 customer experiences reduced maximum information rate, and zero committed information rate until their usage is back in profile. For accounts with separate upload and download throughput allowances, upload and download speeds are adjusted independently.

Option 2 customers who exceed their allotted throughput will experience maximum information rate reduction as follows:

Each month on their billing date, the Option 2 customer’s month’s usage is compared to their contracted throughput. If they’ve used more than their allowance, the customer is emailed a throttling announcement, and approximately 24 hours later, their Committed Information Rate is set to zero, and their Maximum Information Rate (up-to speed) is diminished as in the chart above.

Once a customer’s account is throttled, Customer Care monitors their throughput usage on a weekly basis. Once their usage falls to less than 7/30ths of their monthly allowance, the customer is alerted by email, and their speeds are restored to their contract rates within 24 hours.

If you use twice or more of your throughput allowance for two consecutive billing periods, 150% or more for three consecutive billing periods, or 110% or more for four consecutive billing cycles, you will be required to move to a plan with higher allowable throughput, or switch to metered billing.

Getting Unthrottled

Get your Committed Information Rate and your Maximum Information Rate fully restored by upgrading to a higher throughput service plan.

If you wait, you must have 7 consecutive days of throughput within the weekly average of your monthly service plan allotment before your contract service is restored.  If your throughput never falls below the weekly allotment, you stay throttled until it does.

Your monthly allotted throughput is on your original contract.  You may monitor your usage daily by reviewing your account frequently at www.skycasters.com/cstinfo (your username and password are on the original paperwork that came with the modem, or you may contact the Customer Care department at any time). Get your daily allotment by dividing your Service Plan throughput by 30. If you get throttled, please review your Internet activities you or your users are performing and determine if these activities are necessary.

If your business relies on satellite Internet, consider upgrading your Service Plan. Just call Customer Care, and we will be happy to help you select the Service Plan that is right for you.

Throughput Robbers.

Just as viruses may disable your computer, and thieves may take your wallet, so too do non-business activities as simple as video downloads or as complex as computer malware easily push the throughput on your system to excessive levels.

Such undetected issues can quickly – even in a day or two – push your satellite Internet account many gigabytes past your monthly throughput.  Regardless of which plan you’re on, Option 1 or Option 2, exceeding your monthly throughput can have unforeseen consequences it may be difficult to comprehend.

Throughput theft mitigation strategies include closely monitoring your usage, and becoming familiar with all the security features of your computer system.  Wireless routers, if not password protected, are easily hijacked by people sitting in a car in your parking lot, or even visiting your company offices.  Your wireless router should be password protected.

Your computer may be similarly hijacked by a type of malware that pumps data back and forth over the Internet.  This program may run completely invisibly, but may run day and night.  Your satellite Internet ISP’s NOC should be able to identify whether your connection is affected by such a malicious program.

Unlike other Internet providers, Dustyfoot offers service plans that may be governed by a Fair Access Policy, or FAP, or permit unlimited throughput.

Customers who know exactly how much throughput they need, and almost never exceed that amount, often choose plans governed by FAP.  Many times FAP customers are soho (small office / home office) users, but often customers with many sites and who have specific data needs and never exceed them, choose FAP because it’s easy to predict.

When a FAP customer exceeds their allotted throughput, the NOC suspends the customer’s committed information rate, and throttles or reduces the customers’ maximum information rate a certain amount determined by the percentage by which the customer exceeded their allotted throughput, as follows:

Unlimited Throughput

Other customers may need higher throughput than our FAP service plans permit. Our unlimited throughput service, or metered billing, allows these customers to use excessive amounts of data when they need to. They may be reselling Internet access to resort guests, streaming video for a sports event,  or sending X-Rays and other medical data from a disaster site to a medical center for expert consultation. Or they may run their own ISP renting satellite Internet equipment and service to exploration companies that send geological data back to their headquarters and receive instructions either to the people or directly to the devices.

Customers like these budget for unlimited throughput, because it’s not inexpensive.  That’s why it’s called metered billing.  You pay by the megabyte, and the meter may say you’ve used many gigabytes.

FAP is for planning your data use, and unlimited throughput plans are for unpredictable business needs.

Now let us introduce you to a couple systems that rival the old tripod for simplicity and speed.

The first is the C-Com iNetVu 1200 Flyaway. Not your typical flyaway, this system does come in boxes, but the resemblance to box-based flyaways ends there.  The 1.2 m Flyaway Autopointing Antenna System with the iNetVu 7000 controller has the following Key Features:

The C-Com iNetVu 1200 Flyaway

• One Button Auto-Pointing Controller
• 3 Axis Motorization
• Airline Checkable
• Captive Hardware/Fasteners
• No Tools Required for Assembly/Disassembly
• Leveling capability for Uneven Surfaces
• Supports Ku Band
• Supports Manual Control
• Setup Time Less than 15 Minutes, One Person
• 2 Pieces Dual Skin Metal Reflector

Now that’s a tripod for you. Rugged. Fast to assemble. And autopointing.

Pointing is no easy task for anyone.  That’s why autopointing systems are critical to integrate with iDirect teleports.  The finest tuned point possible is what reduces system noise, and ensures your connection will have the highest power to transmit data.

But manual pointing is not out of the question for people who are well-trained and have the right tools. Dustyfoot requires fixed system installers have two-way installation certification, as well as annual retraining in RF safety.

Nomad Rapid Deployment System

Multi-site customers often have scores of satellite broadband Internet systems which they move from site to site, erecting them on fixed poles or non-penetrating roof mounts. These customers have long scratched their heads, wondering how they could redeploy with more ease.

The Nomad Rapid Deployment System permits companies with multiple sites that are rapidly changing their Satellite Internet access requirements to move their satellite Internet systems from work site to work site.

The Nomad folds down flat

As you can see, the Nomad system is the best system for those who wish the economy of a fixed system, while enjoying many of the benefits of a mobile system. Your pointing of the Nomad always requires coordinating a cross pol with our teleport staff, but by the time you’ve done your fifth point, it’ll become old hat: you’ll know the right tools to bring along, and the fastest techniques to getting that dish in position.

Contact us to see which system best meets your needs.

Using business grade equipment including C-Com iNetVu auto-deploy satellite Internet systems, iDirect modems, and variable wattage transmitters, Dustyfoot has raised the bar to ensure you have signal when you need it — not just when everyone else isn’t using it.  We know this technology is beyond the typical residential customer.

C-Com auto-deploy satellite Internet systems are fuss free.  You simply prepare the system, press the button, and the satellite Internet antenna finds the satellite by itself, and within minutes you’re on the Internet.

Also, we’ve added something you may not be used to.  Sure, we have the same old FAP everyone else has, but we also go the distance with unlimited throughput service.  Basically, if you know you need twenty gigabytes of data every month, but also recognize your business may at times require throughput that greatly exceeds your prepaid amount, you’ve got it. For a nominal per unit price, you can have all the throughput you can use up.  You’ll budget for extra, and it’ll be there when you need it.  It’s that simple.

Mobile installers typically install systems on your vehicle at their own premises, though sometimes they’ll travel, if at higher expense to you. If you’re buying a flyaway system, the Mobile Satellite Internet Trailer, or a vehicle that comes with the mobile system affixed and ready to go, you won’t have to worry about installation.

Often you already know your installer before you buy the system.  So much the better. You can often have the unit delivered directly to the installer’s facility, and they’ll handle the technical details.

Dustyfoot can outfit you with satellite equipment anywhere in the USA, and quite possibly most anywhere else. Dustyfoot can coordinate interlinking your US-based headquarters with remote offices.  We’re really that versatile.

The world is your work place. For the right customer with the right connections and resources, we have partners lined up who can coordinate infrastructure from Dustyfoot’s backyard to practically any point on the globe.

And the world is full of customers.  More than Dustyfoot can find.  If you’re an entrepreneurial type, we’d love to talk. There are many opportunities to connect customers with the Internet, both in remote locales, as well as right in town.  So please call us, and let’s get them connected!

Please contact Skycasters for fixed satellite Internet installation training.  You can learn how to install and service systems. You’ll also learn RF Safety.