Rural Highspeed Internet Service Question

caelkhnter · Nov 20, 2010

We live in rural Central California. Have to get wireless internet service. Currently have hughesnet, but finally reached the end of the contract. Very unhappy with their service. They have what they call a fair share plan,which I was not advised of at the time we signed up, basically if you watch a couple of youtube videos in a 24 hour period, your connection will be automatically changed for the next 24 hour period to substantially slower than dial up. so I want to change service.

Anyone have experience and can point me in the right direction?

Thanks Jim

TripleK · Nov 20, 2010

Any Wildblue satellite internet providers around there?

RELH · Nov 20, 2010

I hear your problem. I finally got rid of slow dial up service that was slow and spotty at best during peak times.
Hughes net is not well liked in our area also. We went with Digitalpath. At first there was problems due to overloading the relay towers due to unexpected demand from more customers then they expected. One problem we had, that you may not have is we live in a mountain area and line of sight is needed from my home relay dish to the main towers. My relay is located 80 foot up in a pine tree to get that line of sight.

It seems they were smart enought to invest their earnings in improving the service and it is far better now. Took them about 8 months to complete the upgrades from the time we signed on.

I do not know what service you may have in your area. Might do you good to check with friends or several small business owners that use highspeed service in your area to seem if they have one they are satisfied with or not satisfied.

RELH

B_BOP_A_LU_LU · Nov 20, 2010

Slower than Dial-up?

God is Great!
Life is Good!
And People are Crazy!

I love not acting my age,
Damn I love my NASCAR race,
And Hell yes I love my Truck!

Roy · Nov 20, 2010

Please note it took B-bop 25 minutes to type that last response.

UTROY
Proverbs 21:19 (why I hunt!)

feddoc · Nov 20, 2010

We had 'Wildblue', but only until the contract ran out. They did not have good service.

Once the contract expired, we went with High Desert Internet. Much better service and a lot quicker too...for the same price.

Compromise, hell! ... If freedom is right and tyranny is wrong, why should those who believe in freedom treat it as if it were a roll of bologna to be bartered a slice at a time?

caelkhnter · Nov 21, 2010

Yes B-bop it is slower than dial up. In other words, under their "fair share plan", once you exceed their unilateral low limit of usage, they essentially punish you for the next 24 hours!

I understand now that one way to address it is for you to buy, of course at additional charges, coupons each time you have been punished, to relieve you from this punishment. Thus they are essentially requiring customers to pay more to have the highspeed service they represented you purchased at the outset.

That is the reason I am looking to change my service.

HunterHarry · Nov 21, 2010

I have Hughes net.
With the rural alternative being dialup, it works great for downloading photos & surfing the net, However, the "shutdown" sucks bigtime if you want to watch videos, it virtually kills your computer for 24 hours if you watch more than a couple of vids.

If you are currentley using dialup, you will be thrilled with Hughes.
If you presently use DSL or highspeed, you will be greatly disappointed.
If I had a higher speed alternative in my area, I'd like to change.
HH