Does Viasat Throttle Bad?

Throttling is fairly normal for satellite internet services. This is because satellites have more limited bandwidth than other internet types and therefore can’t offer max speeds to every user at the same time. With half a million users accessing the service at the same time, it would be easy for the satellites to reach capacity and no longer be able to offer service to other users. The way many satellite internet providers solve this problem is to throttle speeds of customers who have surpassed their monthly data limit. This way Viasat can still provide the promised speeds to customers who are under their monthly data allowance.

Some satellite internet providers will throttle speeds down to a set amount. HughesNet, for example, throttles users who have already passed their data allowance down to 1 to 3 Mbps. You can’t do much when your speeds have been throttled that low. Viasat has a system that is much better for customers. Instead of setting a very low speed, Viasat deprioritizes your data behind users who haven’t passed their monthly data allowance. Their priority is to guarantee speed to those, including you, who haven’t used up their data. This deprioritization means you’ll get slower service when a lot of other people are using their Viasat internet connection, but closer to normal speeds when there isn’t a lot of traffic.

The best way to keep your internet speeds at max is to conserve your monthly data allowance. You can check your Viasat account to monitor and manage your data to make sure you don’t get throttled. If closely monitoring your data isn’t enough to keep you from getting throttled, you should consider calling Viasat and upgrading to a new plan.

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