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General discussion

HughesNet Satellite Service

Feb 10, 2008 3:45AM PST

If you are considering broadband, Hughes should be your last option. I subscribe to the 700 to 1K plan and have never receive greater than 500K. It took the company 6 months of complaints and calls to get me to that level. I was getting 100 to 300K because of a bad component of the receiver that was originally installed.

They also have a daily download limit of 400MB. If you use itunes one time you can easily exceed that and will be cut to dial up speeds for the next 24hrs. Again, when this complaint was aired with customer service, no action. They just kept reciting the policy even thought this showed on their records as happening one time in the entire year I have owned the service. I lost the afternoon and the entire next day of my ability to do work from my home.

In summary, I would use an over the air card over this expensive and poor service if doing it again.

Discussion is locked

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Hughesnet Broadband Service
Feb 29, 2008 9:07AM PST

I have the advertised 1.5mgbs service currently running under 100 mgbs. The only response their tech service could offer was that their speeds advertised speeds are not guaranteed. Has anyone found a solution to slow Hughes broadband or is this the best they can offer?

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Avoid Hughesnet like the plague
Mar 9, 2008 12:00AM PST

I have had the same problems with Hughesnet: we have a 2-watt commercial dish, a small-business plan, and pay $100/month, and still get download speeds around 500k (1/3 of advertised), and upload speeds of 30-50k (1/10 of advertised). I have contacted them many, many times (probably have generated over 20 case numbers in the past year) and they have never been able to fix the problem. While they claim to be working on it, their oft-repeated refrain is that speed issues are not covered in the contract. They have refused all demands for rebates with that excuse.

Also, their customer service is the worst of the worst. It is staffed by people in India who, I think, have been given a peg-board with one square hole and one round hole on it. If your problem does not fit exactly into one of those holes, they will put you on hold for 12 minutes, then report that fact back to you. When you try to clarify the issue, they will put you on hold for another 12 minutes, then come back with EXACTLY the same response. If it wasn't so frustrating and such a waste of time, it would probably be amusing to see how many times this cycle could be repeated without ever getting your question answered. My record is four times, for a total phone call duration of about 1' 15". If that's your idea of fun, I encourage you to pony up nearly $1,000 in startup costs, plus $100/month, and enjoy your Hughesnet experience.