Fast access to the Internet, if you have deep enough pockets, is not just a dream of the
future.
"DirecPC," a satellite service from Hughes Electronics that is a cousin of the popular
digital satellite system (DSS) for television programming, is now available everywhere in
the continental United States. And it operates up to 14 times faster than the 28,800
bits-per-second telephone modems found in most home computers.
Hughes introduced DirecPC early in 1997, a year after launching DSS, and in July brought out a
combination dish called "DirecDuo" that can receive both data and television signals.
I've just spent a week evaluating DirecDuo and I can report that it works as advertised: I got
lightning-fast access to the World Wide Web, as well as somewhere in excess of 200 crystal-clear
television channels from a single 21-inch satellite dish temporarily mounted in my backyard.
For more information about DirecPC or DirecDuo, call Hughes at (800) 347-3272 or visit the
company's Web site (http://www.direcpc.com).
Progress, of course, always comes at a price.
The DirecDuo hardware package costs $699, which gets you the dish, a circuit board required for
your computer and a receiver for the TV signals. You'll pay another $250 for a professional
installer to put it all together - a step I strongly encourage for any but the most technically savvy.
DirecPC service also is pricey, with subscription plans that range up to a staggering $129.95 per
month. DSS television programming, which doesn't include local broadcast stations, typically costs
$29 per month and up.
Here's how DirecPC works:
The DirecDuo or DirecPC dish, each measuring 21 inches across, is pointed toward the southern
sky at a satellite parked in a fixed spot above the Earth. The satellite transmits such a huge torrent
of digital data that thousands of subscribers - Hughes won't say how many - can simultaneously
receive individual streams of information at 400,000 bits per second, also referred to as 400
kilobits per second, or kbps.
Typical home PC modems receive data at 28.8 kbps, just one-fourteenth the speed of DirecPC.
The much-touted ISDN high-speed telephone lines, which aren't available everywhere in the
nation, run at only 128 kbps, one-third of DirecPC's capacity.
But DirecPC is a one-way street that pipes data into your computer. To send messages to
DirecPC, such as electronic mail or instructions to select a new Web page, you have to connect to
an Internet service provider, or ISP, through a conventional modem.
This isn't a huge liability, because home users ordinarily don't need to dispatch a lot of data
"upstream." Obviously, DirecPC won't help with certain types of intensive two-way
communications such as videoconferencing.
Yet the need for a modem connection does increase the cost. You need an account with an ISP
that supports the usual Net communications standards - these days, almost everyone except for
America Online - for which you're likely to pay at least $20 a month on top of DirecPC's fees.
***
Interesting, I wonder what this service will look like in a year? Doesn't look like AOL will be handling any of the ISP business for subscribers due to compatibility issues, but then we already knew that anyone even marginally knowledgable wouldn't use AOL. . .
AT&T is also testing a similar PCS service, it combines cellular and internet access--its cheaper but only runs at around 200 bps--I'll bet people who sign up for that service won't be looking at cyber junk mail. . . oops I guess that rules out AOL as even a possibility.
AOL really is dogmeat. |
