Satellite Internet?

[Sytes]

Our cell service is little to nil.

Our CenturyLink sucks the big one for service, 1.5mbps. 4 switches for our DSL and only two operational for our residential area. Techs frequently advise us CenturyLink refuses to allow them to repair the 2 switches as not enough of us live in the area of use to justify repair... and far from them running fiber if simply repairing is off the table.

It's left us with the option for Satellite and I've viewed ViaSat and HughesNet.

Viasat vs. HughesNet Review

Looking for satellite internet? Read on to compare prices, download speeds, and data caps for Viasat and HughesNet.

www.reviews.org

Unfortunately, it appears ViaSat isn't in our area unless someone knows different? NW Montana.

I spoke w/ HughesNet and she was basically saying every aspect of what they offer and what I sought is fantastic through them... Just agree to a two year contract with a $400 early termination fee and I'll rule the world!

Spell out red flag any better? Haha!

So here's my few questions for any with HughesNet, an installer/tech for HughesNet, any with experience with Pro/Con perspective:

1.) WiFi phone calling?
Rep said works great, reviews say she's FOS.
2.) If over the allotted Gigs per month, rep said it's "throttled back" to 1.5 - 3mbs until next billing moth and more than enough for wifi, Netflix, Amazon video streaming so no worries and no extra charge, reviews suggest she's mostly FOS.
3.) WiFi calling with cell phone is great yet she shared they offer a phone service as well... Hmmm.
3.a.) How does the phone service work? Good?
4.) How often do you go over allotted Gigs and your frequency of Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc do you use weekly? How to determine the $ vs gig usage per month?
5.) How does weather effect HughesNet? To what extent? If we have the phone service option, and sat service goes to short, will the phones still work? Other aspects to know for Satellite outages, etc?
6.) Promotions any know?

We're limited. I know I've milked CenturyLink for credits over the years for the problems we've dealt with due to our neighborhood frequent calling when they've begun referring us to their, "partner" HughesNet for internet service... Though ease keep us for your phone service... Ya right!

So a bit of frustration mixed within as our options are noosed. What are the overall pro's v con's of HughesNet?

 

[Nameless Range]

I live in a place with no cell service or cable in the ground. I now have cell service via an extender that is tied into our internet (Blackfoot Communications). For the first two years we lived here though, we had satellite internet through DISH Network, and it was awful.

2) I would be concerned about this, and would be highly skeptical as the reviews you've read allude to.

4)An hour of HD video can be well over 3 gigs. If not HD assume at least a gig an hour, so if you are at 10 gigs a month, you have less than 10 hours of netflix or whatever. Once throttled back we were doomed and could no longer stream movies in a sane fashion. Figure in all the other stuff you use internet for as well.

5) Weather affected our satellite internet all the time, and it was irritating.

Not an apples to apples I know, but satellite internet was rough.

 

[N_8]

I run Hughes net gen 5. I didn't get the minimum plan but the next step up. Honestly it works pretty decent. I can stream Netflix/prime all the time. I've never screwed with tokens or even really checked my bandwidth usage but I'm almost certain throttled back still lets me stream consistently . I don't do internet calls, skype, and for some reason youtube videos seem to take a while. Really bad weather rain/heavy snow screws things up.

All that said, I live in a community way off the Alaska road system with no cell phone data. I might not have the same baseline that others have. Sometime things take a few minutes to load and I've had lower 48 friends get frustrated while on my Wi-Fi. Gen 5 is way better then starband was or the earlier Hughes net system. Hope that is helpful.

 

[Hilljackoutlaw]

My dad had Hughes net and oh my lord it was terrible!!! I'm talking dial up terrible. My dad still bitches about Hughes net 3 years later. The word makes his blood boil...lol

 

[pabearhunter]

I have Hughes for about 5 years now. It does everything I want it to except when I get heavy wet snow the dish loads up and I have to spray it off.

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

I don't now much about Hughes... centurylink absolutely sucks, they are the only option where I grew up, so I feel you pain.

All that being said there are a number of different companies launching satellites right now and I think there will be some big changes in the next 2 years as far as satellite internet providers.

 

[MT Bound]

When we built our house last year didn't have cell service for about 2 months because all the companies kept telling me they did not have anymore band width left, blah blah blah....whatever.

First time I called Viasat, they said no also, until I called back a month later and explicitly described our location to them so they could pin point us, which we now use. It works pretty good for us, it may be worth a call back to them and very precisely have them locate where you are at, besides just the ole standard zip code way they do things initially. ??

 

[Hunting Wife]

We just switched from HughesNet. It was terrible. Couldn’t live stream anything, streaming movies was ok as long as no other devices were in use. We had the data plan they recommended for video streaming, and figured out we were reaching our data limit within the first few days each cycle. Then it would start throttling and streaming was impossible half the time. We don’t watch that much tv -maybe a movie in the evening. Wi-fi calling sucked. Weather impacted data quality a lot. Overall, didn’t think it was worth it. Moved to a place with more options and dumped it as soon as the contract was up. The difference is incredible.

It’s something if there aren’t other options, but it’s not great by any stretch and certainly wasn’t as great as they tell you it is for sure.

 

[rwc101]

I know several people that have tried HughesNet. None were happy. Most were pissed. Pretty soon we'll all be getting our internet from Elon Musk. Small price to pay for a night sky.

 

[jryoung]

Hughes is terrible in our area. I have to suffer through Frontier DSL right now, Comcast cable is only 1,300ft and $31,000 away.....there are many days I'm ready to take the miles on my credit card.

That said, when it comes to satellite, I'm holding out for Elon to deliver on Starlink.

Elon Musk says a device resembling a 'UFO on a stick' will connect people to SpaceX's new Starlink satellite internet service

After SpaceX launched 60 more Starlink internet satellites, making it the largest spacecraft operator to date, Musk explained how users would connect.

www.businessinsider.com

 

[widnert]

Our cell service is little to nil.

You mention you do have slight cell service. Have you looked into an amplifying system to solidify that signal? Data over your cell provider system would be re-markedly better than any satellite service you might consider. The latency in the satellite connections, due to distance, is tremendous.

 

[hank4elk]

I have Hughs and it is a pain...but I have little to no choice. Going to see if I can get bent over further so I can use my electronics to watch all that content out there.....lol
When I moved here I had killer internet & cell on Verizon and it totally sucks now even with a signal booster and mifi....
They just put in a huge 5g tower in Pie Town, the cell service got worse....lol
Bet if I was 5 years old and near a city I could view the world.

 

[IDFireLass]

I have hughes net. Don't believe what they tell you about streaming. Got a fire stick around xmas time. I think we've watched 3 hours total of streaming. I'm changing out in October when my contract is up. Also you can rent the equipment now or buy it out right. We bought ours out right. Don't know what to do with it now when we change out with the local internet provider.

 

[Nick87]

Hughes net is an absolute joke! If I wanted to pull up the weather 1000 miles away it would be faster to drive there and check for myself.

 

[SandyCreek]

we tried hughes net once.. read and re-read the fine print is all I'll say otherwise they'll try and stick you with equipment removal prices to the tune of $600 after you figure out their service sucks after one month. We use a verizon hotspot now. maybe someday we can get some reliable and cheaper internet to rural america

 

[Zach]

Any Line of Site companies in your area? I think those are better than dish, it's what I'm on.

BTW, I think the CTL guys are feeding you a line of BS. Ask them if they got any of the CAF money for rural broadband.

 

[el unit]

Good thread, reviews, and information. We're in the same boat currently.

 

[Sytes]

Good thread, reviews, and information. We're in the same boat currently.

We just entered Starlink Beta. They are focused on rural markets. Outside rural they are typically taking hold orders until end of this year.

Starlink costs approx $550 then $99 a month. We're saying hasta to Directv and CenturyLink. So... well see. Elon and his SpaceX programs are pretty slick. Cell phone use, they just placed with FCC for pricing.

Basically, intent is to turn cell into Sat phones - globally. Bit down the road though that's an epic move to have a cell phone in the mountains as a sat phone.

Current use for cell via Starlink is supposedly the same ability through out wifi at home- with far greater than connectivity than CenturyLink and that's our current use at home.

Starlink:

Current beta test download speeds hover around 103 Mbps on average, and latency averages out to 39 ms

CenturyLink @ our location:



If any interested to see if available in your area... reviews seem to be promising. I have no personal experience. Waiting 4-6 weeks for equipment.

Starlink

High-speed internet. Available almost anywhere on Earth.

www.starlink.com

 

[Ben Lamb]

I've been running starlink for the last 3 weeks now, and I'm sold. There are still issues, but the speeds are fantastic. I need to get a better location for the dish, as I have obstructed views & the router they supply isn't very good, with a lot of drops, so it's not great for videoconferencing until I get a new router & place the dish on the roof where it has an unobstructed view of the North sky.

We got in on the beta testing, so it cost $500 to sign up, and it's $99/mo with no data caps or throttling.

We had viasat when we first got here, and it was sold as the best, but they throttle even if you haven't reached you caps (which took us about a week between working from home & streaming services). I gladly paid the $350 early termination fee, and the $500 for starlink because even after paying that, I'm not out any more money than what viasat was charging me ($180 per month).

 

[Wildabeest]

Thanks @Sytes. For my off grid place in WY it’s saying later this year for availability, but I will definitely check it out. I’m 17 miles as the crow flies from the nearest cell tower, and was able to go from extremely intermittent 1 bar analogue only service to consistent 2-3 bar 3G service with the help of a cell booster antennae (weBoost Home Multi-Room). But it’s still lacking in ability to do Zoom/Teams calls with video streaming which I need for work. I generally go up there to get away from TV and media, so steaming movies and such is not much of a concern. But it would be good to be able to do work calls from there.