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A word about FAP 

In the world of broadband, sharing a connection pipe with thousands of other users - on cable, DSL, or satellite - can result in congestion. While the vast majority of users are on the Internet checking their email or surfing the web, some users are downloading massive files, videos, or running a multi-seat business on consumer bandwidth. In order to provide the best possible speeds for the highest number of users at any given time - most broadband providers have introduced a 'Fair Access Policy'. The Fair Access Policy, or 'FAP', is designed to set limits on the heaviest users on a shared connection in order to provide the best possible experience for the greatest number of customers. The vast majority of users never experience 'FAP' and never notice any drop in their connection speeds. FAP doesn't mean you can't download a video clip, music for your iPod, or new software. But if you are downloading an entire video collection, there's a good chance you might see a reduction in speed in order to provide 'fair access' to other subscribers using the shared bandwidth. Our experience is that, at any given time, about 5% of the customers are using up to 50% of the bandwidth. The goal of our FAP program is to make sure the other 95% have a good Internet experience.

Hughes Network Systems has been offering a consumer satellite broadband solution for over a decade. We have a good understanding of customer usage patterns and how to fairly implement a 'FAP' program. With our 'FAP' program - on our basic 'Home' service plan - the consumer can begin to see download speeds restricted when they start hitting 175 megabytes of data being downloaded continuously. On our 'Professional' plan - it's 350 megabytes of continuous downloading. But here is the key to our program and what makes us so different from a newcomer to the satellite broadband industry - we 'refresh' the customer's FAP bucket. What does that mean? It means that a heavy user is throttled back - but after a period of time - that user will have his usage 'bucket' cleared out and be able to surf at the higher speeds again. This 'recovery rate' is like a hole in a big bucket. If the user downloads a huge file and fills up the bucket...the system slows that user down to provide fair access to the rest of the customer base. But as those files that filled up the FAP bucket drain out - the bucket becomes empty again and allows that user to have a fresh start. That means if little Johnny is on line and downloads a bunch of his favorite music videos before dinner - and hits the FAP threshold - Johnny's dad will still be able to enjoy broadband Internet speeds later that night! Our various service plans offer different sized buckets - with different sized 'refresh' holes. The bigger the plan - the bigger the bucket and the bigger the 'refresh' holes.

Another company has a 30-day monthly FAP bucket. If you hit their FAP limits - you are in the penalty box for the rest of the month. Their 'refresh' is done monthly - not on an ongoing basis. If little Johnny fills his iPod with all the latest video clips and songs from his favorite web site early in the month and eats up all of the available bits in this other company's FAP bucket- dad is going to be surfing the Internet at near dial up speeds for the rest of the month.

Yes - this other company touts a larger FAP bucket, but they are comparing apples to oranges. You only get to fill their FAP bucket once a month. Our FAP bucket is a smaller bucket - but it is constantly being 'refreshed' - and that gives you many, many buckets over the course of a month. That means that over the course of 30 days - a consumer using even a standard 'Home' subscription plan (which, by the way, offers download speeds up to 700 kbps vs. 512 kbps for the other guy) will be able to download many times more bits than with any other satellite broadband system.

It is interesting to visit the chat rooms and see the user comments on this other company's FAP program. Users are so concerned about hitting FAP - because they know that if they do, they are in the penalty box for the rest of the month. User after user talks about their FAP meter, monitoring their usage so they don't hit the red line, wondering if they really got fully refreshed at the beginning of a month, etc. They are managing their Internet usage, not enjoying it.  

The fact is that the majority of HughesNet users will never hit FAP and won’t even need to know what it means. But, if they do hit the FAP limit and are throttled back, they will 'refresh' quickly and can surf soon there-after.