Good Riddance H-net

[Gwalk900]

Cooper61,

I for one don't hate Hughes ...

For the most part it works rather well for what it is. A highspeed connection for those that have no other options.

While it isn't (and can not be) cable it performs well if you take the time to learn how to get the most from it.

If a problem does occur, a proper troubleshooting process will do wonders.

[sunnygibson]

Well, he isn't lying for sure. I recently moved and before my move I had an internet provider which gave me a 500 gb monthly data allowance. I now pay $36 more for my hughesnet internet service and I get only a 20 gb allowance per month. So I'm paying much, much more and getting far, far less. This is a huge difference and a shameless rip-off as well as price gouging! No way should I have to pay over $100 a month and be capped at 20 gbs of data at turtle-slow 15 mbps download speeds. And to add insult to injury, you don't even have an option of a higher data allowance or download speeds even if you wanted it! In this electronic environment we live in today, 20 gbs doesn't stretch very far at all and anyone who thinks it does would probably be perfectly happy with dial-up. And sure, you can say it's my choice, but is it really? Because trust me, it isn't. Because I have NO other choice in internet providers - it's either hughesnet or go without internet like this gentlemen. Since my children go to online schools, I don't have the luxury of going without internet entirely. Neither am I Amish and don't mind living like a 3rd class citizen in a 1st class society. And if anyone thinks that Hughesnet doesn't know that they are ripping its rural customers off and capitalizing on it for their own benefit, then you are either delusional or can't add.

[BirdDog]

Just one question. Who's fault is it you have no other choice for providers, HughesNet? By your own admission you would have nothing without them, at least they are providing the service albeit capped and expensive. Satellites and their upkeep aren't cheap along with all the ground infrastructure.

[sunnygibson]

Charles, the highest plan Hughesnet offers is 20gb at 15mbps...I need WAY more than that, so please tell me what my options are if that is the most hughesnet offers because perhaps I missed something. And cooper61 is right -- if you are a high technology family as we are, unless you unplug all your devices or turn off the wifi on those devices and/or turn off your router/modem at night, you are still connected to your network and data is still being sent back and forth because those devices are still online. I try to keep the wifi turned off on my phones, but who is going to turn off and turn back on every single wifi device in their homes each day? Who lives like that?

[BirdDog]

PS: A lot of the US is like 3rd world countries when it comes to the internet. Heck, I think there are some that are ahead of us.

[Gwalk900]

There are a lot of them that are "ahead" of us ....

The US, geographically speaking is HUGE !

And as we all know, in the US "money makes the world go-round"

If the ground based ISP's can't make their ROI die to low customer density, they take a pass.

[sunnygibson]

Hughesnet has early termination fees because otherwise you would lose most of your customers within a month. I was sold a bill of goods -- I bundled with hughesnet with a promotion being offered through directv -- I was supposed to be able to cancel my service within a month if I wasn't satisfied only to learn that hughesnet wouldn't honor that particular directv promotion so now I'm stuck. I also had to buy my own router because the "free" equipment you claim to provide, i.e., modem, didn't come with a router that would give me wifi capability. So your equipment really isn't free if you know that most electronics these days offer wifi capability and that you will need that if you live in a relatively good-sized home with multiple floors. So how about mentioning to your customers the hidden costs of purchasing a router because without one, your modem is all but useless. And it's also ironic that in light of these "limitations" you mentioned, hughesnet somehow manages to provide its customers with tokens to purchase when they exhaust their measly monthly data allowance, but yet these same "limitations" somehow cap how much data allowance you can give to your customers. And to add insult to injury, as a customer who has the highest tier package hughesnet offers, and since $145 is an outrageous price to have to pay for a mere 20 gb of data a month and I refuse to pay more for a few extra gb's that will be gone in the blink of an eye, hughesnet then slows the bandwidth down to a snails pace -- not that the 15mbps speeds are much faster than turtle speed to begin with. At 15 mbps, you can't even watch a ultra high-def movie without monstrous lags and jerky reception. If I had another internet service provider to choose from, I would gladly pay the early termination fee just to be rid of this inflated and over-rated internet service.

Outraged and insulted customer

[BirdDog]

Lol, invest in infrastructure! What is that?

[C0RR0SIVE]

 if you are a high technology family as we are, unless you unplug all your devices or turn off the wifi on those devices and/or turn off your router/modem at night

20GB/50GB plan here

1x PFSense 2.1.5 for primary router and firewall
1x Windows Server 2008 for WSUS as well as PLEX and uTorrent on my network
1x Windows XP (though that is blocked by my firewall from hitting the outside world)
2x Win10 machines - both stream youtube, game online
1x Win7 machine - basic browsing, little bit of video streaming, nothing much there
4x Samsung Tablets
1x Smart Garage Door Opener
3x Electronic Door Locks that connect to the network
8x IP Security Cameras. (Blocked from internet)
1x Netgear Nighthawk in AP mode.

Out of all that, Server 2k8, the Nighthawk, tablets, and PFSense are on 24/7.  It's called data management, and knowing how to limit what you do online.  Have a dozen games on each tablet?  Guess what - each one of those are going to connect to a website daily, at least once.  Most connect every few hours.

[C0RR0SIVE]

So, why does AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, Dish Network, DirecTV, and pretty much every other LARGE company have them ETFs?  It's because they lost a certain amount of money when they first signed you up and installed the system, and that money has to be recovered, hence the minimum contract length.

Data costs money, Hughesnet doesn't have a back-end that covers entire regions of the country like Comcast and TimeWarner do - Hughesnet must purchase data from Level3 in bulk - and if customers need more, it's upto the customer to pony up that extra money for data from Level3.