Usage information will be automatically loaded if you are using the Internet from your primary service location.
Understanding Data Usage
Everyday the Internet becomes more and more content rich. With your SKYBEAM broadband Internet connection you have the ability to quickly surf websites, download your favorite music and videos and take advantage of subscription movie services that stream full HD movies and TV shows. All of these activities require not only faster connections but a tremendous amount of data. For example, a typical text email uses around 20 kilobytes of data while a typical full length HD movie from your favorite subcription service uses about 3 Gigabytes of data. That's 150,000 times more data.
It's important to understand that all activity conducted online does require some use of data. Activities like surfing the typical web page and downloading text email are some of the least data intense activities. Downloading a song, a photo, playing an online game or visiting a website with a short video are considered moderate usage activities. Watching online videos like YouTube, streaming a TV show, or watching a streaming HD movie are considered data intense activities. Peer-to-peer file sharing is often the most data intense activity as users will often download large numbers of files all at once. Although SKYBEAM does not restrict peer-to-peer traffic, peer-to-peer users should follow copyright law and avoid the illegal download of protected materials such as music, movies and software. Account holders should monitor activity on their connection to understand what to expect for total monthly data usage.
Understanding the difference between kilobytes, Megabytes and Gigabytes can be helpful to understanding usage. The basic view of these data terms is 100,000 kilobytes = 1,000 Megabytes = 1 Gigabyte.
Service Plan Usage Thresholds
Each residential service plan includes a certain amount of monthly data usage. Monthly usage begins at the start of your billing cycle and ends on the last day of your billing cycle. You can check your monthly statement for these dates.
Service Plan
2 Mbps
5 and 7 Mbps
10 Mbps
Monthly Usage
50 GB
100 GB
150 GB
These plans include large amounts of data. Here is an example of list of all activities you could complete with 50, 100, or 150 Gigabytes of data within a given month.
Activity
Web surfing - not incl. video
Email - send and receive
Photos - download and upload
Songs - download and upload
Online gaming
Stream 3 min. YouTube video
Stream 30 min. SD TV show
Stream 2 hour HD movie
50 GB
2,000 pages
5,000 emails
150 photos
150 songs
10 hours
200 clips
12 shows
12 movies
100 GB
4,000 pages
7,500 emails
300 photos
300 songs
25 hours
300 clips
40 shows
20 movies
150 GB
6,000 pages
10,000 emails
400 photos
400 songs
40 hours
400 clips
60 shows
30 movies
*Usage activity examples are estimates of typical file sizes including typical duration of video types. Actual sizes will vary. Additional activities such as software updates, voice-over-ip services, peer-to-peer file sharing will use additional data and count toward total monthly usage. Total monthly data usage is calculated by totaling all data required to both send and receive data through the SKYBEAM network.
SKYBEAM Monthly Usage Thresholds
The Internet continues to become a more and more vital part of our lives. Everyday it seems something new is being done through the Internet. All of these activities require an increasing amount of data. In just the past few years Internet use exploded. To satisfy the rapidly increasing demand, SKYBEAM is constantly investing in upgraded network capacity and capabilities. On average the amount of data traffic is increasing at a rate of about 50% year over year. Online video streaming now accounts for more than 50% of all Internet traffic.
SKYBEAM has redesigned its service plans to meet the heavy demands of today's users. These service plans include usage thresholds. For example, the 5 Mbps plan includes 100 Gigabites (GB) of monthly data usage while the 10 Mbps plan includes up to 150 GB of monthly data usage. These amounts are far more than is needed by the average user today. The thresholds were implemented to prevent the heaviest users from driving up the monthly service rates for all users.
In the event of heavy use over the plan threshold, accounts will be charged $2 for an additional 10 GB of data. It is anticipated that less than 2% of SKYBEAM customers will exceed their monthly threshholds and incurr any usage charge, but in the event you need more, SKYBEAM does not shut off your account but will simply charge a small amount for additional use. If you feel you will consistently exceed your plan usage threshold you may want to consider upgrading your service plan. Not only will it give you a higher monthly data usage threshold but you will also receive faster data transfer rates which will load everything more quickly.
To help you manage your usage, SKYBEAM has developed a notification system that will send an alert to the email address on file when your accout has reached 75% and 95% of your monthly usage threshold. An additional alert will let you know each time you have incurred an additional charge. You can also visit this page anytime you wish to check your current usage. Total usage shown on this page is updated daily and will not show usage real-time.
For additional information, please contact SKYBEAM Customer Care at 1-888-759-2326.
Understand data usage
How much usage does my plan include?
Why SKYBEAM implemented monthly data usage
