First, we should discuss who the players are in this relationship. PanAmSat actually owns the Ku band satellite. Direcway leases one or more of the transponders available on a given satellite. Direcway then in turn resells a transponders capacity through its VAR network. PanAmSat keeps the satellite in space, Direcway controls the Network Operations Center and uplink satellite communications, Skycasters co-locates their servers, switches, and network resources in the Direcway NOC providing add on support services for business customers.

Since Direcway is in charge of the satellite uplinks they have to provision a fixed bandwidth that is available on a given transponder. They do so through their Fair Access Policy (FAP). Each business subscriber has a throughput reserve, or fixed capacity bucket, to which an amount of througput capacity is added every second at a given revovery rate. As the business user starts to download out of their reserve they do so much quicker than capacity is being replensihed in the bucket. If they completely empty their bucket then they can get no more throughput than their recovery rate.

The following graphic displays the three business plans available from Direcway and their recovery rates and throughput reserves.