VSAT Systems Throughput Allowances, Throttling, and Fair Access Policy
What is Throttling?
VSAT Systems' many Service Plans accommodate a wide variety of speed and throughput requirements. Each Service Plan includes a certain amount of throughput (throughput allowance).
Option 1 When an end user on Option 1 (metered billing) exceeds their throughput allowance, they are charged for their additional usage according to their contract.
Option 2 When an end user on Option 2 exceeds their throughput allowance, we will reduce their connection speed until their usage is back in profile. For accounts with separate upload and download throughput allowances, upload and download speeds will be adjusted independently.
Connection speeds will be reduced according to the following chart:
| Percent Overage | Throttle Percent |
| under 5% | 0% |
| 5-10% | 5% |
| 10-20% | 10% |
| 20-30% | 20% |
| 30-40% | 30% |
| 40-50% | 40% |
| 50-60% | 50% |
| 60-80% | 60% |
| 80-100% | 70% |
| 100-150% | 80% |
| 150-200% | 90% |
| Over 200% | 95% |
- The "throttle speed" is determined as a percentage of contract CIR speed.
- The end user's “up-to speed” (Maximum Information Rate) is set to the "throttle speed."
- The end user's CIR is set to zero.
- Option 2 End users who consistently exceed their throughput allotment must upgrade plans or switch to metered billing (Option 1).
On the end user’s billing date each month, their usage for the previous month is compared to their allowable throughput. If the end user’s usage has exceeded their allowance, the end user is notified via email, and approximately 24 hours later, their Maximum Information Rate (up-to speed) is reduced according to the chart above.
Once an end user’s account has been throttled, their throughput usage is monitored on a weekly basis. If their usage for the week is less than 7/30ths of their monthly allowance, the end user is notified via email, and within 24 hours, their speeds are returned to their contract rates.
If a end user exceeds their throughput allowance by 100% or more for two consecutive billing cycles, 50% or more for three consecutive billing cycles, or 10% or more for four consecutive billing cycles, they will be required to move to a plan with higher allowable throughput or switch to metered billing.
How Do end users Get Unthrottled Immediately?
As an end user, you can get unthrottled immediately if you upgrade to a service plan that allows more throughput than was used in the previous cycle. Otherwise, unthrottling requires 7 consecutive days of throughput within the weekly average of your monthly service plan allotment. If your throughput never falls below the weekly allotment, you stay throttled until it does. Get your daily allotment by dividing your Service Plan throughput by 30.
If you find you are frequently throttled, please determine what activities you or your users are performing and determine if these activities are necessary, or not. If your business can't do without it, consider upgrading your Service Plan.
Please become familiar with your throughput usage by reviewing your account frequently. For more information contact customer care by calling 800-268-8653.
A Sign of Trouble
Throughput Bandits. Troubleshooting throughput overage may include monitoring usage for non-business activities, high throughput activities such as video downloads, or firewall assessments – computer viruses or malware may push throughput to the maximum amount available.If your end users have a wireless router connected to their modem, please notify them to monitor their systems periodically for unauthorized usage. If you are not sure how to do this, please call technical support, 24/7, and we will be happy to help you.
As an end user, please lock down your wireless router with a password, and limit who has access to the password.