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 Review by N4ST 
UPDATED: 1.3 years ago
member for 3.9 years, 890 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Jersey,King George,VA
 Contract price not specified.
 "Connection seems reliable, download speeds as advertised"
 "Many complain of tech support issues, but that has not been my experience"
 "Not only would I do it again, I upgraded my service after 10 days"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:
(ratings above consensus)
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Updated Review 2008-07-26:
I have now had 33-months of trouble free WildBlue service. My upload and download speeds are higher and more consistent than when I first signed up. I have not had to rely on tech support, so can not comment on problems there, although others seem to indicate this is a weak point. Installation, installation, installation is the key to success with WildBlue. If you get a competent installer, or at least one that will service what he installed, you will get good results from WildBlue. My family does not miss dial-up and that's for sure.
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Initial Review:
I live in a semi-rural area and required over 1-mile of power and phone lines put in just to reach my house. No hope of cable or DSL. Dialup was consistent at about 32kbps. Did not like the Direcway FAP and had been waiting for WildBlue to offer installation in my area for several months. Even though there were installers listed on the WildBlue site for my area, when I talked to them they would not come because it was too far. Finally, Amtech out of Richmond showed up on the list and were willing to do the install. I did a pole install which I set and had everything ready when they came. Installer was very professional and obviously quite experienced in the installation of a variety of satellite systems. Whole process was less than two hours and I was up and surfing. WildBlue is a Ka satellite system and uses a multibeam configuration for their coverage, of which I am in beam 37. Turns out there are upload speed issues with a few beams including beam 37. Under worst case conditions, browsing becomes a little sluggish, but it is so much better than my old dial-up. Download speeds, as tested at a variety of the online sites, is usually within 10% of the advertised "up to" rate. I have had several calls to Tech Support and have found that they are courteous, responsive and helpful. I have received a followup phone survey on my satisfaction with the installation and service. Also received an email survey from WildBlue. They seem to be interested in their customers. The installation cost: $299 for the equipment, $179 for the installation, $20 for an adapter for the pole mount, and another ~$40 or so for shipping and tax. I initially signed up for the $49/mon Value Pak providing 512Kbps download, but after 10 days or so I upgraded to $69/mon Select Pak providing 1000Kbps download. I am feeding three computers through a Linksys router and the family is very happy with the results.
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