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HughesNet growing pains in this market...

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pcheve008
New Member

HughesNet growing pains in this market...

  The Hughes Network may consider the errors that Frontier Comm. is making with their residential customers - that is neglecting to read their complaints and working on all possible actions to improve the Services now offered. As this customer base increases, data costs should come down and download speed should stabilize at what is sold in their Plans, and not less during peak hours. HughesNet may decide to create software that will analyze the specific customer's usage while offering how-to's on increasing Usage performance & using less data by configuring their Systems and/or other Programs for better data streaming activities.
12 REPLIES 12
Pawnee County
New Member

Hughes Net is for rural consumers with no other choice than dial up or cellular.  I for one am very grateful for HughesNet and Exede for venturing into this market.  Satellite will never and has never claimed to be competitive with land based ISPs but for us country folks it is a welcome venture.  Yes HughesNet isn't perfect and has it's slow downs that is part of the system and due to time and space will not and cannot be changed.
GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

As this customer base increases, data costs should come down and download speed should stabilize at what is sold in their Plans, and not less during peak hours.

How, when a satellite has a finite throughput, should more customers equate to more stabilized speeds during peak hours?  I suppose they could implement some type of throttling during the peak usage periods, making everyone's speed 1MB or so.  That's a way to stabilize it.  No thank you.  I'd rather have the higher speeds and deal with the peaks and valleys inherent to satellite internet during the peak usage period. 

Also, some of the profits are used to enhance the service, such as sending up a new satellite, which they are scheduled to do in December.  Satellite internet is expensive to create, run and maintain.  I'd rather they put the profits into the service rather than charging me a few bucks less.     

HughesNet may decide to create software that will analyze the specific customer's usage while offering how-to's on increasing Usage performance & using less data by configuring their Systems and/or other Programs for better data streaming activities.

While it's impossible for Hughesnet to come up a with a " One size fits all How-To" and analyzing software for every system, there are many threads/posts on here that discuss ways in which to reduce data usage, including general usage ideas, and ways in which to adjust one's computers and devices to help save data.    

BirdDog
Assistant Professor

As this customer base increases, data costs should come down and download speed should stabilize at what is sold in their Plans, and not less during peak hours.
Actually, satellite internet works the opposite of that ground based model.
yorkytime1
New Poster

I am really curious as to how you think this is Hughesnet problem or that they could provide a one size fits all solution!  Hughesnet provides a "metered" service.  If customer uses excess data how is that a Hughesnet responsibility.  It is up to the customer to keep their computer tuned same as the automobile sitting in their driveway.  I just spent a week tuning two computers that were using all my daily data allowance.  Was that a Hughes problem....NO.  It was cloud service and malware installed in my own computer running in the background. 

Hughesnet does offer this forum and a ton of advice and tools to help the customer.  Problem is most people come here mad as hell and are not willing to do the work required to isolate and solve the problem with their own devices.  JMHO

HughesNet may decide to create software that will analyze the specific customer's usage while offering how-to's on increasing Usage performance & using less data by configuring their Systems and/or other Programs for better data streaming activities.
Chris11
Alum

Hi pcheve,

Welcome to the community, we appreciate the post. Feedback is always welcomed. Your post seems like a more general comment on the service as a whole and while we are not completely without need of improvements we do work hard to provide the best possible service. Are you a current frontier customer? What are you currently experiencing, that you have been unable to resolve with them?

- Chris
pcheve008
New Member

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled BottomLine on data use complaints.....

  After much research on typical & standard DATA usage, the minimum Plan should be 22GB to residential customers, and at the now 10GB pricing - that would be a reasonable CHANGE from HughesNet Service. Regards, (Yes, DirecTV does use data if not disconnected from your Wi-Fi connection when that is not needed)
Gwalk900
Honorary Alumnus

pcheve008,


" After much research on "


Your research on data and cost failed to include that the data limits imposed are not just arbitrary values. The data limits are based on the throughput capacity of the satellite and other system components.


"and at the now 10GB pricing"

Plan prices are in part a function of the cost of providing service.  Satellites cost many millions to build and launch. They have on average a 12 to 15 year lifespan and then they need to be replaced.

 




GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

I wish my DirecTV were cheaper.  It's not.  So be it.  No one has to have DirecTV, just like no one has to have the internet.  If I want it, I pay what it costs to get it. 

Secondly, like mentioned in a post below, the data amounts offered aren't pulled out of thin air.  Satellite internet has a finite throughput.  The higher the data packages offered to everyone, the slower the service will be for everyone.  And if it were unlimited, you'd be lucky to download a 10MB file in an hour.  It's all relative. 

El Dorado Netwo
Advanced Tutor

Didn't you bother to research all of this before you signed up?

Hundreds of thousands of people would not have any Internet at all, throttled or not, if they did not have satellite Internet available. Cell wireless coverage isn't everywhere. Glad you found something better that works for you in your area.
El Dorado Networks |Diamond Springs, CA | eldoradonetworks.com
BirdDog
Assistant Professor

Not to mention posting on a 2 month old pretty much dead thread. Plus even the "unlimited" cell companies throttle at some point. Nice talk, way to make your point.
GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

Sy Syms had a great catch phrase - "An educated consumer is our best customer."  Emphasis on educated, and he wasn't referring to a college education, either. 

When anyone uses that language on a public board they immediately lose all credibility. 

debbie.jean.bro
Advanced Tutor

I'll chime in, if nothing else to keep this super awesome thread alive (hahaha!).

I live in a rural area where there is NO cellphone service, NO cable TV, and NO cable or FIOS internet. Therefore, I have Hughesnet, the ONLY choice available to me, Dish network satellite TV, and the first landline phone I've had since 1998. Do I enjoy the data capped at 20 GB per month (the biggest plan offered in my area)? Not so much. Do I enjoy the three separate bills I pay each month and the high cost of same? Of course not. Do I enjoy being the data police in my household and spending my afternoons configuring everyone else's devices to use as little data as possible? Not by a long shot.

Am I grateful to have Hughesnet? EVERY SINGLE DAY! Most of the time I get speeds close to the national average. Thanks to Hughesnet, I can live out here in the countryside, work on my fixer upper, and still keep my job.

As far as I am aware, the laws of physics cannot be changed, and the cost of building, sending into space, and maintaining a satellite are unlikely to fall significantly in the near future.

I also recognize that Hughesnet is a BUSINESS. And if I recall my econ classes correctly (they were a few decades ago), the purpose of a business is to make money. Hughesnet is not a charity. And internet, TV, and even phones are not essential to life.

Hughesnet provides a service that I choose to enjoy, and they charge what the market will bear. That is the free enterprise system. Granted, if there were more competition, say two or three satellite internet providers in every rural area, the cost to consumers would come down. And I hope that happens.

No one put a gun to my head and forced me into signing up with Hughesnet. I did my research, learned the inherent limitations of satellite internet, and made an informed decision. As GabeU so elegantly pointed out, that has nothing to do with formal education, nor with financial status; you can learn about this stuff for free at any public library with a few clicks on Google.

THANK YOU HUGHESNET for providing a service in my neck of the woods that no one else at the present is willing or able to provide.

🙂