Portable Satellite Modem

These usually come in the shape of a self-contained flat rectangular box that needs to be pointed in the general direction of the satellite - unlike VSAT the alignment need not be very precise and the modems have built in signal strength meters to help the user align the device properly. The modems have commonly used connectors such as Ethernet, Universal serial bus. Some also have an integrated Bluetooth transceiver and double as a satellite phone. The modems also tend to have their own batteries so they can be connected to a laptop without draining its battery. The most common such system is INMARSAT's BGAN - these terminals are about the size of a briefcase and have near-symmetric connection speeds of around 350-500 kbit/s. Smaller modems exist like those offered by Thuraya but only connect at 144 kbps in a smaller coverage area.
Using such a modem is extremely expensive - bandwidth costs between $5 and $7 per megabyte. The modems themselves are not cheap either, usually costing between $1000 and $4000