Wild Blue or Hughesnet ?

Ed Altrichter · From: Schroeder, Minnesota, USA

I'm thinking about changing my internet connection
from dial-up to high-speed. The options in my area seem to be either Hughesnet or Wild Blue. Has
anyone here had any experience with these to say which one is better, or know of any bad points with either ?
Thanks, Ed

Richard Damron · From: Gallatin, Tennessee, USA (deceased)

Ed -

I can speak with a modicum of authority since I've been a HughesNet subscriber for the past three years.

If you google the blogs concerning these two services you may well find that Wild Blue gets the lion's share of damning reports. This is not to say that Hughes is an angel and the savior of those of us who live in the boonies and have no alternative. Far from it.

Be aware of one statement hidden in the fine print of Hughes' ads: They will guarantee high speed service UP TO a given value. There's the catch. They have apparently oversold their bandwidth such that, at peak usage, the speed will drop down to almost dial-up. I have a ton of measurements to prove it. They don't tell you this and, consequently, one finds out the hard way - with the frustration that comes with waiting interminably for a web page to load. Further, they have what they call the FAP - the Fair Access Policy. Should you exceed the download limits within a 24-hour period as determined by the level of service that you subscribe to, they then reduce your download speed to that of dial-up for the next 24 hours.

There is a class-action lawsuit currently being brought against Hughes of which I am a contributor. I do not expect any miracles at all from the suit but I view it as my only recourse to, in a sense, get back at them for the misleading claims that they make.

I have investigated a couple of wireless services such as that offered by AT&T and found them to be no better or worse than Hughes. Same thing all over.

I truly dislike saying that I am locked into a less-than-desirable service - if you can call it that - but have no choice in the matter. I could always move into civilization and enjoy DSL or Cable but prefer living in the country.

As long as you understand what you will get from them and do not have the highest of expectations then it is better than 100% dial-up. And that's not saying very much. Remember: Caveat Emptor. Do your homework and make the best decision possible.

Sorry I had to deliver such a negative report but you must know the truth.

Respectfully,

Richard

Michael Maddex · From: Northern New Mexico, USA

Ed, I've been using Wild Blue for about two years now mostly with satisfaction and with very few problems. Like Richard, I'm out in the country and satellite internet is the only option right now. We have the basic, minimum plan which is 512 Mbps down and 128 Mbps up. That works out to 64 MB/sec down and 16 MB/sec up. We also have three people in two houses sharing the connection on a LAN. Our speeds, both up and down, are usually quite close to the maximum for our plan. Like Hughes, there is a FAP, but with Wild Blue it is so many GBs per rolling 30 day period. Unless you plan to watch or download feature length movies, or remotely manage a number of websites, etc., you should have plenty of bandwidth/usage.

The only major problem has been loss of service a few times for a couple of hours each time during really bad weather. Wild Blue also seems to do some packet prioritizing: my <tt>ssh</tt> sessions can be very slow and <tt>VoIP</tt> doesn't work at all.

Richard hit the nail on the head when he said,

Ken Lang · From: Simi Valley, Ca

I have seen an ad on TV where there is a card you just put it in your laptop and you can connect wherever you are, I think. I suppose it's some kind of wireless thingy. I called AT&T and they said it's about $60 a month.

Next year I will be building a log home in the woods where there is no internet access as far as land line. Anybody use this or know about it?
_________________
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Michael Maddex · From: Northern New Mexico, USA

I just taking a guess here, Ken, that what you've seen advertised is similar to the Internet access on an iPhone. iPhones get their phone and data links through AT&T and I believe that it's around $100/month for both. Anyway, if you don't have a cell phone signal you won't have Internet access either. If your home site in the woods can get a cell signal and that company offers data access as well, then you can probably use a laptop card. HTH, heck, I hope it makes sense.
_________________
"For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert." -- Arthur C. Clarke

Richard Damron · From: Gallatin, Tennessee, USA (deceased)

Ken Lang -

What you describe is that which I spoke of in my post above. Yes, you can get a USB device for a laptop but also for a desktop or tower. I subscribed to the service and found it no better than Hughesnet for the area in which I live. Be Careful: The gal on the phone told me quite explicitly and several times over that there would be a 15 day free trial period. THAT IS BOGUS! I cancelled after 12 days and thought that the experience was over. NOT! I received a bill a month later for $179 for the service. I immediately called AT&T and demanded to know the reason. After hassling with someone for about 15 minutes they were adamant that there was, indeed, a charge for the service and that I should not have been led to believe that there was a 15 day free trial. They "graciously" reduced the bill to $79. Please be very careful when you investigate this service.

Hope this helps,

Richard

John Cipriano · From: San Francisco

Six of my users at work use Sprint cards to do sales from the road. Our older cards were PCMCIA but now it's USB. I think with some services you can also get a dedicated box similar to a DSL modem.

It's slower than cable, maybe a little slower than 1 Mbps DSL (assuming a strong signal and no network congestion) and most of them charge $60/mo. I don't know much about satellite internet so I can't say how they stack up. I'd imagine the uploads are a little bit faster, but maybe not.

It's almost always sold capped, maybe 5GB/month. So yeah, it's expensive and unimpressive, though I can't say much better of satellite. There are activation and equipment fees I think.

http://mobile-broadband-services-review.toptenreviews.com/

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