Depending on the plan you choose, which is based on Viasat’s satellite bandwidth in your exact location, if you exceed your monthly data allowance for higher speed internet service, worst case is that Viasat can throttle you back to speeds as slow as 5 Mbps during the day and 1 Mbps during the evening. Internet demand is highest at night so there can be more demand than capacity to deliver faster speeds at that time. With more people on the system, customers who have not yet used up all their faster-speed data allotment of the month get prioritized. Viasat data is truly unlimited but it’s unlimited at the higher speeds that are available on the platform once your high-speed data bank gets used up for the month unless you purchase more high-speed data. In such a case you won’t experience the lowest speeds.
Current Viasat plans are as follows: Unlimited Bronze 12 has an introductory price of $65 per month that goes up to $85 per month in the 4th month and thereafter. Download speeds are up to 12 Mbps and the fast-data cap is 40GB. Unlimited Silver 25 is $85 a month and then $120 per month with download speeds up to 25 Mbps and a fast data cap of 60GB. Unlimited Gold 50 starts at $120 per month then $170 per month, has download speeds up to 50 Mbps and a fast data cap of 100 GB. Unlimited Platinum 100 starts at $170 per month for the first three months then goes up to $250 per month with a download speed up to 100 Mbps and a 150 GB data cap.
If you don’t see your plan listed here you may be on older legacy plans. These plans do have lower fast-data caps and slower speeds. Speeds are going to be much faster on plans that tap into the Viasat-2 satellite that launched in 2017 and even faster than that on plans that will use the newest Viasat-3 satellite once it is launched in 2023. Viasat has not made fully clear which customers will be getting their internet from the newer satellite but it makes sense that they will place as many customers as possible on that system to improve the user experience and build good word-of-mouth for satellite internet.
Viasat requires a 2-year contract and has an equipment installation fee. You can install the equipment yourself but that also has a fee and you’ll be responsible to maintain the equipment. Prices can go up and rates quoted here don’t include taxes or a small monthly equipment lease fee.
Depending on how many devices in your home are online at once, including tablets, laptops, desktop computers, security cameras, and smart TVs, you probably need more data than you think you do. For example, if all you do online is check emails, shop, and read social media then you probably can get away with the $85 per month Unlimited Bronze 12 plan. The more people getting online at once in your household and the more you do online like stream content, attend classes or participate in Zoom calls, then the more likely it is you will need the highest-data plan, which is going to be $250 per month plus taxes after the first three months.
You can use a Wi-Fi connection to cast content that is already downloaded onto your cell phone (or videos you have taken on your phone) onto a laptop screen without using internet data. So, if you download a show from Netflix for example onto your phone you would use a Wi-Fi signal to transmit the show from your phone to another screen but you aren’t using the internet to do this since the content is already stored on your phone. Storing content on your phone from an internet source does use your mobile cellular data and unless you have an unlimited monthly cellular data plan you could rack up additional phone charges if you’re not careful. If you do not store content on your phone (which uses phone memory) and just want to watch a show you pull up on your phone then you are using an internet connection on your phone, which would be your cellular network connection, to stream the content from the online platform like Netflix to your phone. Casting content to the device from your phone requires a Wi-Fi connection. If you are in a very remote location there may not be cell towers nearby to ping data to your phone and you may need satellite internet.
Remember that any time you tap into a satellite internet connection at your home you are using data on the satellite internet plan. Viasat plans are unlimited in the amount of data you can use but you will pay more for high amounts of high-speed data. Lower-cost plans have less high-speed data and will slow you down to slower speeds (still unlimited data) once you hit your high-speed data cap for the month.