HughesNet Users Report Massive Peak Congestion Problems > Well, well, well....

Well, well, well....

reply to TopCat99
It's a lot faster than dealing with the BBB to just tell Exec care if they don't let you out without penalty you'll just 'lose' the credit card it's billed to, if that's how you pay. And press them for the rebate directly. Just keep saying 'not acceptable' until you wear them down! It can be done.

BTW, I'm pretty good buds with the two guys who do most of HN's installations here on the island, and they both say there have been nothing but problems with HN, and they don't expect the new satellite to remedy that. It seems HN's revenue stream is from corporate users, and we 'regular' customers are at the bottom of the priority list. My advice: dump them as soon as you can if the Sprint service works in your area.

Muy buena suerte
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Franklin CDU/Assent MBR WBB combo, service through Millenicom, 3 XPPro stations, Mozilla everywhere.

For those of you interested in the interview of the Hughes Networks CEO Read the transcript below:

Hughesnet CEO Saturday Interview
Sending Up Satellites and Closing the Digital Divide

SATELLITES have not proved as important to high-speed communications as telephone and cable lines have. But they do have an important role in helping close the digital divide between people who have access to broadband communications and those who do not, says Pradman P. Kaul, chief executive of Hughes Communications, based in Germantown, Md. Mr. Kaul’s company recently launched a $310 million satellite to improve its service in the American market. He has been involved in satellite communications for nearly four decades, since earning a master’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1968.

Hughes Communications

Pradman P. Kaul

Here are excerpts from a conversation:

Q. It seems that Americans communicate more via high-speed cable and digital subscriber telephone lines than via satellites, suggesting that satellites have not lived up to their promise. Do you agree?

A. No, each technology has its place, and its advantages in terms of applications and when it’s used. Clearly, significantly more bits of data are transmitted on cable and DSL than satellite, but what satellites do well is broadcast and multicast applications, as in the case of DirecTV and EchoStar broadcasting television. They have close to 30 million subscribers. In almost every country in the world, direct-to-home television is going great guns.

A second thing satellites are very good at is, once you put a bit up on a satellite it reaches anywhere in the region that the satellite is serving. There is no place in North America that you can’t reach. The ubiquitous coverage that satellites offer is a major advantage. For broadband Internet access capabilities, there are probably 15 million households in the United States who don’t get it and will not get it for a long time. So satellites play a great role in bridging the digital divide.

Q. Why aren’t cable and telephone companies making a stronger effort to reach all Americans?

A. It’s an economic issue. The cost of running a piece of wire or a piece of optic fiber is high, and it requires a density of subscribers to give them an economic return on the investment. In rural areas, the economics just don’t pay out. With satellites, it doesn’t cost any more to reach the one guy sitting on top of the mountain in the state of Washington than it does the guy in downtown Manhattan.

Q. Can you offer as fast and as robust communications as the cable and telephone companies?

A. The service is robust and in some cases offers a higher level of reliability than you get from cable and DSL. In terms of speed, that’s an economic issue. We just launched a new satellite called Spaceway 3 that will be in service in the United States by January of next year. The speeds that satellite offers can match any speed that is available terrestrially. The question is what you charge for it?

Q. Did the failure of Motorola’s Iridium project, which was supposed to provide worldwide voice and data service for anyone with a handset, cast a pall over the broader field of satellite communications?

A. It obviously did not do what it was supposed to do. There were a whole bunch of issues that caused it not to reach its original objectives. That was a different application from ours. It was for mobile phones. What they did was build a constellation of satellites in low-Earth orbit, so they were constantly moving to be able to handle the mobility. It was a much more complex, difficult market. What we’re trying to do is different. We’re using fixed satellites. We don’t rely on 60 satellites working together in unison.

Q. Why have satellites been more useful for entertainment than for sending data like e-mail messages?

A. If you are broadcasting a football game, you’re sending the same football game to every home. With a satellite, you only send it up once and 200 million homes in the United States can receive it. The economics of that are incredible as opposed to sending the football game individually to each home via wires. You’d be sending it 200 million times.

Q. What is the divide between those who have access to high-speed communications versus those who don’t? Is it an urban-rural split?

A. It’s actually rural and suburban where people don’t have it. It amazes me sometimes when I look at it. Even in major Washington, D.C., suburbs, which is our neighborhood, there are big pockets where you can’t get DSL or cable.

Q. How will satellite compete against cable and telephone companies as those companies seek to offer all three forms of communication, meaning voice, data and entertainment?

A. You’re talking about the triple play concept. The cable guys are now beginning to offer people not only television entertainment, but also broadband data and telephone service. The phone companies are beginning to put fiber to the homes so in addition to the voice and data, they can offer the entertainment channels. So yes, I think you’re going to see the triple plays, but there’s still a big market for people to offer single services but offer them well and offer them economically.

Q. How fast can your company grow?

A. In the United States, we have more than 350,000 residential subscribers. In the next two or three years, we hope to get to one million residential subscriptions. In addition, we have a strong enterprise business. We have hundreds of Fortune 2000 customers and their whole data networks.

Q. Why did you have a French company, Arianespace, launch your satellite from South America?

A. Launching is a very small industry. There are only three or four companies that launch satellites of the size that we built.

Q. Did you go to watch it being launched into space?

A. Yes, it was exciting, especially when it’s your own satellite. It’s a unique thrill. It was a great day for all of us.

reply to TopCat99
Well, that's all very nice and hooray for them, but it doesn't change the fact that their service is miserable. It's just more corporate BS.

As I previously stated, I'm personal friends with the two top HN installers here on the island, and both of them report massive problems with HN in the recent few months. Despite this, HN has a huge TV ad campaign to sign up new customers. It's too bad we don't have a 'blacklist' here of vendors to be avoided, or a way to let these potential suckers know what's in store for them.

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Franklin CDU/Assent MBR WBB combo, service through Millenicom, 3 XPPro stations, Mozilla everywhere.

reply to vobguy

said by vobguy:

said by TopCat99:

Now I have Sprint Mobile Broadband. (And as soon as I was firmly entrenched in the contract, the telco rolled out fiber!)

Hmm.. I am glad i went with millenicom for my EVDO to not get locked in, but of course, maybe if I HAD gotten locked into a contract with Sprint, FIOS would show up in my neighborhood too