Satellite Access a Mixed Bag

I'm siding with the critics. Hughes Network Systems' DirecPC satellite Internet access service is expensive, not always reliable, and sometimes slower than my old 9600-baud modem. But Hughes Network Systems will sell loads of its DirecPC service.

I know, because I've been testing the service for the past three months. And in that time I've been shunned by customer support, seen access speeds reduced to a crawl, and struggled to get satellite "push" services working properly.

But I'd gladly cough up $50 monthly for Hughes' brand of fast Internet access, simply because it blows the doors off my old dial-up account. For me and millions of others geographically stuck in bandwidth purgatory, broadband services like cable modems and Digital Subscriber Line aren't available. Hughes offers the next best thing.

DirecPC delivers high-speed access via satellite dish and Universal Serial Bus modem. It provides 400-kilobits-per-second throughput, with a 56-kbps return via phone line. That allows me to suck down Web sites and files off the Net nearly ten times faster than with my 56-kbps modem, but data upload speeds remain the same.

Now Available Everywhere

Hughes maintains that the service is available to anyone in the United States, as long as the company can hang a 22-by-33-inch satellite receiver off your house and point it south. Today an estimated 100,000 households use DirecPC, and 40,000 of those are in the United States.

Hughes offers a number of options. By way of a vendor partnership, new Compaq Presario buyers can purchase hardware for satellite access to the Net for $349. A one-year service contract earns a $100 rebate from Hughes. The package includes a modem and an Internet-only satellite dish receiver.

The service offers 25 hours a month of surfing for $30, or 100 hours for $50. The service is also available directly from Hughes. America Online, as part of a $1.5 billion investment in Hughes, plans to begin offering satellite access to its customers early next year.