Review by dave_ca 
UPDATED: 1.9 years ago
member for 5.1 years, 108 visits, last login: 355 days ago
 Bristol,NB
 Contract price not specified.
 "Speed as advertised, Installer was great"
 "550ms latency (although expected, its still a negative) and cost"
 "I read many reviews and other information, and did not have unrealistic expectations of satellite broadband."
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Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Value for money:
(ratings well above consensus)
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*** Update - I have since canceled my contract before the 30 days expired. The Weather effect on the service is too severe... I in good concious cannot recommend this procut to anyone at anytime. Dialup is better in terms of reliability and latency ***
Well I am going to start by saying I did a lot of research before purchasing high speed satellite so I realized the downfalls before signing up. I did not expect latency below 500ms, or a constant 1 Meg download speed at all times.
My satellite high speed story starts by the purchase of my new house. The house is located outside any DSL service, and far enough that not even the WISP's in the area would service me. The closest antenna (not line of site, far from it) is more than 10kms away. This left with two options, neither of which I was looking forward to. Dialup, or the expensive, and often reviewed negatively satellite high speed.
The initial call into Xplornet was painless. I live in New Brunswick, so it was very nice to speak to someone at a call center in New Brunswick. She was very friendly and more then answered any questions I had (Witch where billing/cost questions as opposed to technical questions of the service.) In a short few minutes I had a local installers name and number. I telephoned the installer right away and was very surprised on how quick I was off the phone with an installation date set.
Install day: The installer came on the time requested. He was very well organized and knew exactly what he was doing. I showed him where I wanted the dish placed, and he had no problem placing it. He routed the cable and hooked up the modem in my basement TV room, hidden a closet out of the way (Getting my wireless router to function with the service was a non issue). Once installed, the installer performed a speed test and we confirmed the service was running at 950/189, acceptable to me as I signed up for the 1000/256 plan. Latency was, on average 550ms while doing a ping test to a server in New York City
The cost is the only thing that bothers me. I do realize it’s a new technology, and I realize the cost of launching the KA band satellite was high, but I view the initial cost of 550 dollars (200 for equipment, 200 for installation and 99 for access fee and about 50 with taxes- all figures rounded) to be expensive. Also 99 dollars a month for 1000/256 package is extremely expensive, I was paying 45 dollars a month for DSL 5000/768 before. Given the choice between DSL, Cable, Wireless or Satellite, Satellite would be my last choice, simply because of the high cost for the bandwidth received.
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Xplornet
