Satellite Access a Mixed Bag

The FAP Flap

Gauging e-mail responses to my initial review of the service, I didn't address a huge gripe by a vocal minority of users regarding Hughes' policy of a mysterious bandwidth rationing of sorts.

Hughes says 2 to 3 percent of DirecPC's most aggressive Web surfers are penalized periodically without warning for gobbling too much bandwidth too quickly. These users download disproportionately large amounts of data off the Internet, and hamper the other 97 percent of DirecPC users, Hughes representatives claim.

To discourage bandwidth bingeing, DirecPC enforces a Fair Access Policy, which punishes these users by throwing them into a kind of bandwidth penalty box.

The FAP policy, as it is called, reduces the bandwidth allocation by as much as 50 percent for customers deemed to be abusing the service. However, many users who claim they've been FAPed say they've seen speeds drop to as little as 7 kbps.

Hughes doesn't warn users before enforcing its FAP and, oddly enough, issues no guidelines regarding bandwidth usage. For an unspecified time, "abusive" users stay on a bandwidth leash. To determine whether you've been FAPed or the network is down, you must call technical support and ask, Hughes says.

For some users, the bandwidth brouhaha is no petty matter. Last July, five DirecPC users filed a class-action suit against Hughes Electronics. The case is still tied up in courts and goes to a judge in September.

Worth the Headaches?

The FAP issue remains an enigma to me. It's a mystery why Hughes is tight-lipped about a policy that irks so many people. And it's puzzling why so many people get so upset about the policy.

Even when I downloaded practically half the Internet during my first month of using the service, I never got FAPed (that I know of). Service quality varied, but when I called Hughes, it attributed my problems to heavy user demand of its network, not to its FAP.

All told, DirecPC is both as reliable and unreliable as most other Internet service providers. When DirecPC is working right, downloading Web pages and files occurs like a flash.

There are a growing number of ways to get broadband access. Until cable modems or DSL access comes to my neighborhood, I plan to pay for satellite access. But who am I fooling? I'm still waiting for two-way, always-on high-speed access. As soon as I can get it, I'll ditch my satellite dish and start complaining about something else.