Broadband Satellite Internet:
99.44 % System ReliabilityThe Skycasters satellite Internet service is a best-effort service with historic reliability in the range of 99.44% exclusive of weather related or scheduled maintenance outages. This puts the Skycasters service reliability rating in-line with leading terrestrial solutions such as DSL or Cable Internet. Interesting to note, is that in the event of a network outage, the Skycasters average MTR (Mean Time to Repair) is under 30 minutes, easily surpassing the average MTR intervals of terrestrial services that rely on complicated networks of interconnected routers and many miles of copper, fiber or COAX cables distributed throughout a geographic region. Some facts about satellite Internet reliability: There are fewer points of potential failure or congestion, as we offer a direct connection to the US Internet backbone from everywhere that we provide service. Satellite avoids the obvious vulnerability of the “local loop” used to provide traditional wired services like Cable, DSL or T-1. To illustrate, consider that a satellite connection cannot possibly be interrupted by a backhoe, bridge or tunnel incident, fire, ice storm, earthquake, downed telephone pole, etc. Because it is difficult to make repairs in outer space, the satellite spacecraft are designed with multiple layers of redundancy and multiple backup systems, resulting in 99 percent uptime. There are spare satellites already in orbit which are immediately available in the unlikely case of a catastrophic failure of a satellite.
All of our underlying providers, Hughes, PanAmSat and others, operate their networks to the absolute highest level of redundancy and reliability, equaling or exceeding military specifications in the manufacturing, launching and operation of their satellite spacecraft. Also, the main ground station (network operations center) uses multiple diverse antenna facilities, redundant routers and power supplies, and is connected directly into multiple Tier I Internet backbone providers via diverse physical paths. For these and other reasons, many companies who have a mission-critical need for data communications use satellite as either a primary, alternate or backup connection. For a franchised organization or any larger, multi-location enterprise with locations nationwide, Skycasters offers a private network peering arrangement with the added convenience of a single vendor relationship to eliminate finger-pointing among vendors during any trouble resolution processes. Rain Fade
Rain Fade is a short duration (usually less than five minutes) period during which a loss of satellite service occurs when intense storm cells are located directly between the satellite and the satellite dish. Rain fade is an interruption of satellite signals as a result of water droplets whose separation approximates the signal wavelength. Different areas of the country receive more rain, of the type that can cause problems, than other areas. On the East Coast of the US, for example, rain fade accounts for approximately 8-10 satellite Internet outages per year with an average duration of five minutes each. Other parts of the country may have different results.
A good way to determine the rain fade potential in your location would be to look at the performance of satellite television such as DirecTV or DISH in your area. In general, satellite Internet service is 50% less susceptible to rain fade than satellite TV service because the antenna is more than 2x the power (dish size). Also, when a rain fade outage does occur, the duration is about half as long for satellite Internet as it is for satellite TV for the same reason. It is typical in a side-by-side installation of satellite Internet and satellite television to find that in extremely heavy rain, the TV signal is lost but the Internet signal is not lost. Sun Outages
During two weeks each year, energy from the sun can overpower a satellite's signal. This is called a sun fade, sun transit or sun outage. These outages occur during the spring and fall, and only last for a few minutes during each occurrence. The times can be predicted, as they occur on a regular schedule. During one week each spring and fall, there will be one outage each day of between three and nine minutes each. The exact date, time and duration can be accurately predicted by using the PanAmSat sun outage calculator to figure the exact time your signal will be affected.
A very thorough description of how and why this solar activity occurs is available from PanAmSat by clicking here. | 
