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WHY DOES SOMEONE THAT PAYS FOR THE BEST INTERNET YOU HAVE AND STILL RUN OUT OF DATA

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w4vribv
New Poster

WHY DOES SOMEONE THAT PAYS FOR THE BEST INTERNET YOU HAVE AND STILL RUN OUT OF DATA

I Pay so much for my internet, I have 7 people always on line many for school and just to be on there for entertaiment. I am paying for the best the offer me and my data runs sometimes before the middle of the month. It's worser than dial up. I have called and called and called for many yrs. I have had these internet. nothing has ever been done. the only thing they done was give me a little more data, that didn't last a day, and cut some of my payment down for acouple month. but not very much at that, I don't. I think the price is alread to much and I'm not going to by tokens when what i get already don't last and the tokens sure isn't going to help. If you pay for it than you should be able to get unlimited data no matter when or how much you use the internet. Most things you do now is on the internet and if there the only one that has it around your area, that is why they do people that why to me it isn't good advertisement or good 

5 REPLIES 5
maratsade
Distinguished Professor IV

Your frustration is reasonable, but you need to understand the limitations of satellite internet. 

 

HughesNet offers these data packages: 10GB, 20GB, 30GB, and 50GB. If a subscriber has the 50GB package, this means their household can use 1.6GB a day (in a 30-day month) in order not to run out of data. That's not a lot per day, especially if you have many people using the data and doing data-intensive activities such as online classes, Zoom, streaming, etc. This may be what's going on in your household.

 

Satellite internet is different from terrestrial types of internet (cable, fiber, DSL). The satellite only has so much data to go around, and that amount of data has to be shared among all the subscribers.

 

You can buy tokens to get more data, or you can look for terrestrial providers, if they are available to you in your area. Most of us don't have viable alternatives, so we need to manage what we get and budget our data use or buy tokens.

 

HughesNet doesn't promise you will never run out of data. They don't control the Internet or how you use your data, or how much you use. They sell you a data package and how you use it is up to you. Even when new satellites are launched, the data packages will likely remain far smaller than what you get with terrestrial providers, so we will need to manage/budget our data for a long time to come.  

 

You could contact the terrestrial ISPs and ask them why they're not interested in your business, why they don't bring their services to your area. Contact your local council too, and your representatives in Congress and demand that they work on bringing terrestrial ISPs to your area so you can have choices. 

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

@w4vribv 

 

The answer to your topic title question is... because you "have 7 people always on line many for school and just to be on there for entertaiment."  It doesn't take long for seven people using an internet with a limited amount of high speed data to exceed that limit.  Even if you have the 50GB plan, that doesn't go far when it comes to seven people, and especially when it's used for schooling for many of the same. 

 

Geostationary satellite internet is the most expensive internet, per capita, to both provide and maintain.  It's not cheap because of that.  Unlike ground based services, they can easily expand their system, so they're not able to offer the data thresholds that those ground based services can.  There just isn't enough bandwidth in the system, and the high speed data limits, which encourage people to prioritize their online activities, keep it usable for all customers rather than having everyone on at the same time performing data heavy activities, which would slow the system to a crawl.  Unfortunately, with the pandemic, that's much harder to do and people are on more than they would normally be, but again, unlike ground based services, they can't expand the system to ease the stress, so the data limits still have to stay in place.  

 

Geostationary satellite internet is an internet of 'last resort'.  People get it when they can't get ground based service.  Though it does provide a connection for everyone, it simply can't support all that people want to or need to use it for, and even less so currently.  

 

One thing that can soften the blow is that, even after hitting that data limit, you can still use the net, though with reduced speed, and primarily for less data intensive activities.

Mostly all HughesNet is good for is basic web surfing and watching an occaisonal streamed video on a laptop or phone.  It is not designed to stream television content, which is what this younger generation wants these days.  I subscribed to HughesNet with this in mind, so it continues to service my needs for internet. To watch television content one should get the services such as what Dish Network or DirectTv provides and use HughesNet for basic web surfing.  As long as people keep this in mind, HughesNet works great. Living out in sticks as I do, Its the price one pays as I certainly don't expect any changes to come my way in my lifetime.

maratsade
Distinguished Professor IV

Exactly. 

 

There's also PlayOn Cloud, which allows people to record content from certain providers such as Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime and others. Recording doesn't use any data, though downloading the recorded content does. The downloaded files can be kept for ever, and when played do so without any buffering.  

 

taz458 wrote:

 To watch television content one should get the services such as what Dish Network or DirectTv provides and use HughesNet for basic web surfing.  As long as people keep this in mind, HughesNet works great. Living out in sticks as I do, Its the price one pays as I certainly don't expect any changes to come my way in my lifetime.


 

Remy
Moderator

w4vribv,

 

It's been a while since we last heard from you, so we will close this thread. If you still have concerns, please start a new thread and include a detailed explanation so we can better assist you.

 

Thanks,

Remy