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Viasat is the best internet you can get if you live outside of DSL and cable service areas.
| Plan | Price | Download speeds up to | Upload speeds up to | Data cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Viasat Unleashed |
$99.99–$119.99/mo. |
Up to 150 Mbps |
3 Mbps |
N/A |
Viasat is the one of the better satellite internet service provider right now. It has faster speeds and no data caps compared to HughesNet, so it’s our top satellite pick for best rural internet providers in the United States.
But if you need to replace your land-based internet, like Xfinity, AT&T, or CenturyLink, look elsewhere. Viasat has too many shortcomings to give you a good bang for your buck, and its latency is a total drag.
| Plan | Price* | Download speeds up to | Upload speeds up to | Data cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Viasat Unleashed |
$99.99–$119.99/mo. |
Up to 150 Mbps |
3 Mbps |
N/A |
Viasat is the latest ISP to join the single internet plan club. Unleashed is Viasat’s main home internet plan and offers download speeds up to 150 Mbps along with pricing between $99.99–$119.99/mo. and no-contract service.
Unfortunately, Viasat’s exact internet pricing and speed vary by area, and the only way to know your actual performance is by checking your address on Viasat’s website. But at the same time, Unleashed is miles better than Viasat’s old Choice plans, which featured unpredictable pricing and low data caps. You’ll be in good shape if you’re a rural internet shopper who gets more than 100Mbps download speeds from Viasat.
| Provider | Price | Download speeds up to | Data cap |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Viasat |
$99.99–$119.99/mo. |
Up to 150 Mbps |
No |
|
Starlink |
$120.00–$250.00/mo. |
Up to 25–220Mbps |
No |
|
HughesNet |
$49.99–$94.99/mo. |
50–100 Mbps |
Yes |
|
T-Mobile 5G Home Internet |
$40.00–$70.00/mo. |
72-245 Mbps |
No |
Viasat doesn’t offer much in the way of huge internet or service deals beyond a $10 off promo on Viasat Voice for three months. However, we are fans of Viasat’s Hibernation Plan. After you’ve been a Viasat customer for one month, you can switch to the $19.99-per-month Hibernation Plan for two to six months. This leave of absence is a great way to save money if you live at your Viasat residence for only a few months out of the year.
Unlike DSL and cable internet, satellite internet doesn’t have standardized technology for modems. That means you won’t be able to find a third-party modem—you have to use what Viasat provides.
You have to lease your equipment from Viasat for $15 per month or buy it outright for $250. Heads up—Viasat’s combo modem/Wi-Fi router will provide wireless coverage, or you can use your own wireless router.
These equipment rental prices are pretty typical for internet providers, but we’re extra bummed to see them from Viasat. Since there’s no option to buy this equipment elsewhere, we’d rather see it included in the Viasat internet cost from the get-go.
Viasat no longer has hard data caps with overage fee penalties, but as with most ISPs, its unlimited data policy comes with some fine print. Although the Unleashed plan has unlimited full-speed data, Viasat reserves the right to slow your internet down during high-traffic periods if you’re nearing 850GB of data in a month.
By comparison, Starlink has similar standard and priority data tiers, but it’s more generous with its data allotments (40GB, 1TB, and 2TB for between $140 and $500 per month). In practice, most satellite internet users will struggle to consistently hit this data ceiling, but Viasat’s data policy may be an issue if you’re trying to get enough internet bandwidth for a family.
Viasat also offers an internet/phone bundle under the name Viasat Voice. The Voice half of the bundle is $25.00 per month for the first three months—a $10 savings and not a bad price compared to similar providers.
Viasat Voice isn’t a traditional landline or cell plan. It’s a VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol. This means that it relies on your satellite internet connection instead of phone lines and cell towers. It might be a good option if you would otherwise have a spotty cell connection in your area. It also offers unlimited local and long-distance calling in the United States and Canada, none of which will count against your monthly data caps.
If you’re experiencing slow speeds with Viasat, it could be because youʼve reached your data cap. After you reach that threshold-60 GB on its cheapest plan-Viasat will throttle your connection, causing slow internet. When this happens, Viasat recommends either waiting for your allowance to reset the next month or purchasing additional data directly.But many Viasat users still experience slowness in the form of latency-the round-trip time it takes for information to go from you to the internet and back to your computer.Every time you click on a new web link, that request has to go to Viasat’s satellite in outer space, then down to its network operation center.
The info you requested then has to go up to the satellite and down to your house.
Viasat can be a good option for Netflix, but you have to be careful not to use all your data. Set your Netflix quality to Medium (this will look as good as a VHS), and you’ll use only 0.7 GB per hour. But if you want to watch lots of Netflix, pick a Viasat plan with plenty of data.Of course, if you do things on the internet other than watch Netflix, you could run out of data sooner. Viewing pictures, checking email, and visiting web pages uses your data too. With Viasat, you have to be as miserly with your data as Scrooge McDuck with his mountain of gold.
Because Viasat won’t charge you or cut off your internet usage entirely when you go over your allocated data, Viasat plans are considered unlimited. But once you hit your data cap, youʼre likely to notice your download speeds become starkly slower.Viasat wonʼt prioritize your internet usage again until the next month, so other users who haven’t hit their data caps will get to cut ahead of
you. But slow internet is still internet, and it will be handy to have in an emergency. It just might not be as fun to stream TV while it spends a long time buffering.
We generally recommend Viasat over HughesNet, because Viasat offers faster download speeds of up to 150 Mbps. You’re limited to
download speeds of up to 25 Mbps on HughesNet, although HughesNet has some plans that are cheaper than Viasat’s 25 Mbps plans.
Viasat can stream high-definition TV shows or movies, which typically need a download speed of at least 5 Mbps. But if you’re regularly
streaming content, you’ll need to watch your data usage to ensure you donʼt hit Viasatʼs data caps.