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We are thinking of putting our phone with Hughes Net. Any thoughts?

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sur5or62
New Member

We are thinking of putting our phone with Hughes Net. Any thoughts?

If the satellite goes out, the landline would is my concern. However, we have phone  with Verizon at the moment and it costs more than when I lived in town with the bundle of phone and  internet. Matter of fact, Verizon has no internet " ports" in our area now( plus very weak cell signal)....
15 REPLIES 15
C0RR0SIVE
Associate Professor

Honestly, I dislike the idea of VOIP on satellite....  How strong of a wireless signal do you have for cellphones?  I would highly suggest the AT&T Home Phone or StraightTalk Home Phone service if you have cellular signal available in the area.
jjabward
New Member

DONT DO IT! If u want more info email me
jjabward
New Member

THEY S"CK
jjabward
New Member

WANT MORE LET ME know
GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

sur5or62,

Here's my opinion on the topic.  I, too, have a Verizon landline, and the price has surely gone up and is getting quite ridiculous. 

With that said, I am keeping my landline, and I'll tell you why.  I'm keeping if for two reason.  The first is that it always works.  Even when the power goes out, or there is a nasty storm out, it still works (I've been lucky enough to never have a phone line go down).  You can't say the same with VOIP or even a cell phone.  The second, and even more important reason, is for Emergency Services.  If I was having an emergency and called 911, even if I passed out the second they picked up, they would know exactly where I was without me having to say a word.  With a cell phone or VOIP, you better hope that you are able to calmly give your address, as they won't know it without you doing so.  I'm not willing to take that chance. 

I'm not trying to curb Hughesnet's business, just giving my feelings on the topic.  My landline always works, and when it comes to emergencies, it's always there and they know where I am. 

Heavy rain, no phone.  Snow on the dish, no phone.  No electricity, no phone.  Storms at the gateway, no phone.  Any unforeseen problem with the service, no phone.  Just something to keep in mind.       

C0RR0SIVE
Associate Professor

E911 while not perfect, has solved many of the issues when calling via a wireless or VOIP based number.  Federal regulations mandate that wireless carriers report with in 50 to 300 meters the location that a call originates from.  But, VOIP on the other hand, doesn't and can't do this unless the number is registered with E911 to a specific location AFAIK.  Regardless, one should always have and know their local police, fire, and medical emergency numbers instead of purely depending upon 911.

All that aside, I rather dislike the idea of paying $120/month for landline service here that is crackly...  Yeup, that is what AT&T charges residents in this area for home phone service.
GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

Wow.  I thought my $80 per month was bad.  It was in the mid $50s when I signed up in late 2004.    $120 is ludicrous.  I didn't know there were people having to pay that much.  Location, location, location, as they say. 

I know that they are working on things to make emergency services better for wireless and even VOIP users, but I still don't trust them enough, at this point, anyway. 

I'm sure that at some point in the future wireless and VOIP emergency services location will be as good as on a standard landline, as the possibility is there with GPS technology, but until then, I'll stick with the tried and true. 

Again, though...$120.  Sheesh!!! 


Reggie
Teaching Assistant

Wow. I guess I can count myself one of the lucky ones. My landline is $27, that is for local & long distant calls.
Gwalk900
Honorary Alumnus

"I rather dislike the idea of paying $120/month for landline service here that is crackly...  Yeup, that is what AT&T charges residents in this area for home phone service"

Holy Smokes !

How much of that is taxes ?

They sure can load the line items up ... tax on the war of 1812 and all that stuff.

Have a Frontier landline here. $52 for local and unlimited long distance (US and Canada).

Cell coverage is really iffy. May have to walk out and a couple of hundred feet up the drive to get a signal that fades in and out. Used to have Verizon, 2 seldom used cell phones, 500 shared minutes per month for a mere $80. Finally dropped it in favor of Tracfone, 2 phones, 200 minutes per month for $17.50 including all the taxes.

For me, satellite VOIP is just too "fragile" to say nothing of the latency. With a land line I'm weather dependent on just the local weather. With sat VOIP I have to also deal with the Gateway weather conditions. If a power outage occurs the land line being self-powered will likely still work. Not so with a sat modem and ATA without starting the generator.


Liz
Moderator
Moderator

Good morning Jonathan,

Could you please elaborate on your VOIP concerns? I see you canceled the VOIP service due to the service not working since activation, but I don't see any cases troubleshooting that concern.

-Liz
If you have a tech or billing question and need help, please start a new thread in the appropriate board. Unsolicited Private Messages may not get replies.

Slow performance? Click me!

Liz
Moderator
Moderator

Good morning sur5or62,

Welcome and thanks for posting! Glad you've found the community, this is a great place to get opinions from other HughesNet subscribers like yourself. I hope the feedback you've received so far has been helpful!

-Liz
If you have a tech or billing question and need help, please start a new thread in the appropriate board. Unsolicited Private Messages may not get replies.

Slow performance? Click me!

Rich1
New Poster

I went for the Hughesnet Phone a couple of months ago.  Was fed up paying CenturyLink $70 for a few phone calls each month.

So far it's about what I expected, some latency but not too bad for my purposes.  As others mention, reliability is not VOIP's strong suit.   There are days when my Hughes modem will continuously "reboot", taking the phone out.   I called service and they suggested turning off everything, waiting a few minutes, and turning modem/router back on.  That usually cures the reboots for a while but you can imagine what that would do if you were on a call or needing to make a call. 

For my need of a phone every now and then, it's been working out for the most part.  If a cell tower gets built within 1600 feet of my property (supposedly in the works), then I'm hoping I will get cell service and go that route with cell phones. 

The landline costs with all the fees, taxes, etc were just too much for me.
HughesNetCorpor
New Member

We ordered the VoIP service but were, unfortunately, not able to get the HughesNet VoIP equipment to activate. The likely cause was probably due to our physical address technically being non existent (made up for the purpose of UPS/FedEX deliveries) and sharing a zip code with a town located some 45 miles away, for both mailing and residential purposes, didn't help either. 
i think also being on the older Spaceway system probably has something to do with it too.

We do have a land line through AT&T and much like CORROSIVE, the monthly charge (basic local/long distance) is outrageously priced for the quality of service we receive...that is of course, on the days we actually get a working dial tone. Most days we have no dial tone and/or there is severe static on the lines where you can't hear the other party. The few landlines coming out here are older than the surrounding hills, lol

Like you, I was hoping to switch merely to save money on our monthly expenses..and having a really crappy land line, I figured, VoIP couldn't be any worse than what I already had...if nothing else, it would be cheaper.

We have no cell phone signal where we are located or believe me I would be using my cell phone
...You have to drive about 20 miles up the road and you can then start to pick up a faint signal ..I have a 'secret' little spot right off the side of the paved road that I found if I need to make an urgent call and our land lines are down. We can usually make an outgoing call that will last for a few minutes before the call drops. 

While you may not be able to 'surf' the internet or get 4G with your Verizon Wireless, if you can still make and receive regular phone calls with the 'weak' signal that you have right now, I would just keep you cell phone.
BirdDog
Assistant Professor

Sounds like you guys would be better off looking into real satellite phones: https://www.mobal.com/buy-satellite-phone/globalstar/
HughesNetCorpor
New Member

The day after I returned the HughesNet ATA, our AT&T phone lines went down again...Sooo...using my Verizon wireless cell phone, I drove the 20 miles up the road to my little secret spot and called AT&T to let them no we didn't have no dial tone AGAIN.

I ended up having to call them back 5 times because my signal/call kept dropping during each conversation BUT...I did manage to persuade them into discounting my monthly bill for the next 12 months.

AT&T have agreed to give me a **drum roll* $6 credit each month for the next 12 months.

whoooohooooo!!!!

I'll TAKE IT!!! 

...if nothing else this will offset 2/3 the cost of those federal & state, local and long distance fees and all of the additional regulatory stuff that is listed on my monthly bill.

I can't complain..I think I would miss my daily phone call from Claudia & Bridgette from 'Card Holder Services' (their phone call is the highlight of my day, LOL)....in fact, no joke, if she hasn't called me by 12 noon each day, that's my cue to pick up my phone to see if I still have a dial tone, LMAO!!!