Go back to the Glossary indexFAPFair Access Policy, pronounced as a word that rhymes with gap. Satellite connections, while always on, are not unlimited. Bandwidth is a finite resource, so the method used to provide high download bandwidth for all while preventing any one user from hogging that bandwidth is FAP.FAP has complex formulations that vary with time-of-day and total satellite loading, but in general the best analogy anyone has come up with is a bucket of water with a valve on the bottom, and a steady flow into the top. The flow at the top continues whether the bucket is full or not, with the excess overflowing and never usable. If the valve is opened at the bottom, water rushes out. If the bucket empties, you will be "in FAP." The inflow is called the "recovery rate." Each HughesNet service plan has a different level of FAP, and recovery rate. Most current Datastorm users with 7000 modems have the Internet Access 100 service. Plans are shown with the HughesNet name first, and VAR name second. Hughes no longer publishes recovery rates, so the numbers shown are best-guess estimates. FAP lasts for 24 hours, typically, but it can be longer if a lot of downloading continues. There is a "FAP-free zone" from 3 am to 6 am, Eastern Time, each day, when downloads do not count against FAP. Someone in FAP is temporarily released for those 3 hours as well.
Go back to the Glossary index |