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Just dont understand and prob never will

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mamabear100
New Member

Just dont understand and prob never will

I know HughesNet says they cant be unlimited but why cant they take our Bonus bytes and put them over to our anytime bytes when we run out of Anytime bytes i do not see a problem at all with this myself
11 REPLIES 11
Chris11
Alum

Hello mamabear,

Thanks for posting and welcome to the community! Here is a message from one of our top executives about our data allowance and why it is set up the way it is. Hope this helps.

Echostar XVII is a spot beam satellite and the capacity we use in any given part of the country is shared between a community of subscribers. Our overriding concern in providing the service is to ensure that all subscribers have a fair opportunity to use the capacity when they wish to and that we deliver an average service level consistent with the service plan they purchased. The busiest usage periods tend to be in the afternoon and evening and so we engineer our network to be able handle these peaks with the consequence that we have some spare capacity at other times of the day – most notably overnight. Our challenge is how to encourage our subscribers to take advantage of these lower usage periods to get more of what they need done. Our first initiative was on our Spaceway satellite where we introduced the ‘Download Zone’: a 5 hour period overnight where we simply did not count usage against the subscriber’s allowance. At first this was a great success – and many users were able to utilize tools like download managers to time their large file downloads and take advantage of this limit free zone. As time went on, however, the download zone became more and more crowded creating even larger traffic peaks than the traditional afternoon and evening peaks. Some customers began to find that their downloads were not completing properly within the zone because of high levels of traffic and as a result became less satisfied with their service.

When we launched HughesNet Gen 4 our overall strategy remained: we want to offer our customers the opportunity to utilize the available capacity to the full by encouraging them to use the overnight time zone for large downloads. To ensure once more that our customers all had a fair opportunity to use this capacity; we launched our Bonus Bytes program and extended the time period of availability to 8am. From our perspective the program appears to be working in that there is increased usage overnight without undue congestion.

Why do we call them Bonus Bytes? Well if we simply increased our allowances most of the additional traffic would default to the current prime usage periods and create congestion. We can only give these extra bytes if they are used overnight – since they are extra we call them ‘Bonus Bytes’.

Can we extend the usage period? This is something we continue to monitor but there are two primary risks to extending the period. Firstly we may inadvertently create a new congestion period early in the day so we have to be very careful. Secondly if subscribers use Bonus Bytes during a larger part of the day, they have more ‘Anytime Bytes’ left to use during the peak period, potentially creating more congestion. A bytes roll-over option would create the same risks.

We believe that we have been very innovative in creating tools and plans to enable our customers to get the absolute most out of our service and we will continue to do so. Rest assured, we continue to monitor usage patterns across the network. If we see the opportunity to change our policies to the benefit of all subscribers we will do so.


Thanks,
Chris
mamabear100
New Member

Ok i guess i dont understand Who in the world is up between the hours of 2am and 8am would it still not work if you guys switch the bytes around put the 10gb to the bonus bytes and the and the bonus bytes to the anytime bytes i know on our 30 day trial they roll over our gb for the first 20 days and there has not been any problems with crowding so i guess what im saying is how would there be problems if you guys just switched the gb give more during the day and less at night or at least like do the bonus bytes from 9pm to 9am HughesNet is the only service i can get where im at im very satasfied with it so far just not satasified with the gbs thats offered and even if i went to a higher pagage it would be the same way Do you guys think you will ever be unlimited
Chris11
Alum

Hi mamabear,

The post goes through it thoroughly. A satellite system, which cannot be upgraded will never be able to be unlimited. Unless there is a huge leap in the technology it is just not in the cards. As for data availability we just launched a new satellite December 18th, which should provide more options and plans for our customers. It is now, since being launched the highest bandwidth capacity satellite in North America. We still don't know much, but soon we will begin release more information on what will be available.

The relaxed bandwidth period that you are describing was not always 20 days, it was much shorter in previous years. Only after extensive testing, and tracking of how the system reacts to the load put on it, were they able to make a decision to increase it. With that said they monitor usage patterns frequently and came to the conclusions that they have. A majority of our customers utilize the bonus period. A majority also are subscribed to our mid tier plans and do not exceed their data allowance. More data is great for everyone. However with 1+ million subscribers, what has worked well while also allowing for everyone to have fair access is what is currently in place. Stay tuned for more info regarding the new satellite. Around April or June, access will be beginning to open up.

Thanks,
Chris
mamabear100
New Member

Ok thank you for your reply I hope this new Satelitte will be a very good thing i hear so many bad replies on here and so very few good ones its sad cause some of us cant get anything else but hughesnet i do think with the right decisions hughesnet could be a fantastic Internet provider but as of right now alot of ppl arent happy with it I have to say im very happy with the service just very dissapointed in the allowance we get for the money we pay I do believe that the pricing is skyhigh and should be lowered cause we really arent getting what we are paying for as far as service and reliance i give you guys a 5star but as far as the giga bytes i give you guys a 1 so im hoping this new Satalitte will be to where i and everyone else can give you guys a 5star on the gigabytes Its just sad to see so many ppl unhappy  keeping my fingers crossed it will be lots better with this new satelitte
Chris11
Alum

Hi Mamabear,

I am confident what we come up with as far as plans for the new satellite will make everyone happy.

- Chris
lucygoosey1954
New Member

It was on the news not too long ago that CHINA has really faster internet at a fraction of the cost we pay...  Sorry for butting in.  I just want to know how I can get faster service so I can watch NetFlix without it taking a whole day to watch a 2 hour movie..  
BirdDog
Assistant Professor

And China is also a Communist country where the government controls the internet and what citizens are allowed to do with it. Willing to make that trade off? I'm sure not.

Better to ask your private commercial cable company why they won't run a line to your house.

What plan do you have, are over your allowance? Must watch Netflix in standard or low definition to conserve data and prevent being throttled from going over monthly data allowance.

If wanting continued help you should start a new post by clicking here:  https://community.hughesnet.com/hughesnet/topics/new
mdhobbs
New Member

Not all organizations are primarily focused on “customer-satisfaction”. Some are merely about maximizing corporate profit.   
maratsade
Distinguished Professor IV

Reality check: Satellite internet is an expensive, limited service -- that's just how it is due to the realities of the technology.  Even so, satellite does provide a service to people in rural areas who otherwise might not have service at all or might end up spending a lot of money for broadband.  (By the way, Verizon is changing how they provide broadband -- now you can carry over data you haven't used, and they have something similar to SmartBrowsing -- their prices are higher than Hughesnet, though: about $60 a month for 8 gigs).
BirdDog
Assistant Professor

Lots of satellite internet users can't get good cell service either, especially data. I get good AT&T 4G LTE where I'm at but like you say for Verizon, it is still too pricey for me to really consider moving to it from satellite.