bajadudes
@rr.com
| reply to pilot_in_fla
Re: Starband -- premium price, deteriorating service
Starband, Like all Satellite ISP's imposes a bandwidth restriction policy. They and all the others have been doing it openly for years. I am surprised you are just finding this out now?
They have a bandwidth monitoring page that a user can access but admittedly it is 24 hours behind and not always accurate. You however as the end user of the service can accept responsibility to stay within the terms of your contract by pro actively monitoring your own usage with any number of free bandwidth monitoring software applications.
Hughesnet users do it all the time.
Starband will always give you one get out of FAP free card the first time you call to complain, warning you that you need to comply with the limits for your service plan. After that it's up to you to live with it or upgrade to higer level service plans that can realistically deal with the bandwidth you want to move over the sat link.
Starband is also the only company that gives you a bandwidth happy hour between Midnight and 6AM EST during which you can download and up load all you want without it counting toward your total.
The number of simultaneous TCP/IP sessions permitted has always been 64 and does not change when you are fapped.
In short, the policy is clear and stated publicly, they give you one warning, You have a free period every night for heavy use and finally YOU are responsible for living within the terms of the contract that you agreed to. Having been with them for 6 years you probably renewed that contract on several occasions....did you not read the fine print?
I agree,FAP sucks big time but it is not by any means a thing unique to Starband.
I also agree that if anyone has any other choice besides dial up then satellite is always the system of last resort. If you have no other options then it's better than sliced bread. If you have other options, then take them
Max in Raligh NC
Admitted Starband / Spacenet Dealer
»orbitalenterprises.net |
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pilot_in_fla
join:2008-04-29
 ·StarBand Communica..
| I did not have any problems with any usage limitation policy until recently although I have observed the Starband service to be in slow decline for some period.
My usage is relatively modest -- no music or video downloads, no streaming video with an occasional audio clip. The service is too slow to make viewing even short video clips tolerable.
If Starband wasn't able to make a nice profit on serving me, they aren't going to be in business much longer. If they were making a nice profit on me and those like me and yet are willing to alienate us so much that we feel it necessary to warn others on a public forum, they aren't going to be in business much longer. |
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bajadudes
@rr.com
| said by pilot_in_fla  :If Starband wasn't able to make a nice profit on serving me, they aren't going to be in business much longer. If they were making a nice profit on me and those like me and yet are willing to alienate us so much that we feel it necessary to warn others on a public forum, they aren't going to be in business much longer. Yeah that's what folks that complain about HN and WB keep saying also.
BTW what modem and service plan were you on? |
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pilot_in_fla
join:2008-04-29
·StarBand Communica..
| I was using the 360 modem and the $69.99 per month price point -- I think I was orignally on a one year deal for 512 down, 128 up, but have been month-to-month for some time. (I never got more than about 1/2 the promised performance but that seems to be typical for the industry). They tried to sell me a different modem about a year and a half ago but you had to have a higher cost plan -- minimum of $89.99 which was a bit salty for my taste for home usage.
Interestingly enough, when I went to cancel my service, the woman that I spoke with told me I could get a different modem for $149 and would have a 2gb limit (instead of 1) for the same price I was paying for with a 2 year deal. I said I would consider it if they would agree to restore my service to something acceptable until the new modem would arrive but they were unwilling to do so.
I have been running the same configuration for at least two years and have had the same relative level of use. The first "excessive bandwidth" notice I received was March 5 of this year.
When I measured performance yesterday, I was getting 92 kb download and 21 upload. You could get better performance at much lower cost with two bonded modems.
I don't know about HughesNet or Wild Blue. As of yesterday afternoon, I have DSL and it is like going from walking to riding a rocket sled plus the cost is much lower. |
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