Satellite > WildBlue Satellite > [general] Wildblue vs Hughesnet

[general] Wildblue vs Hughesnet

I've had Wildblue for the past three years. I also have the $49.95 package which is their lowest and slowest. You can surf the net but expect major delays. For me it was better then dial-up so I'm happy about that. The faster speed packages were just to high. I live in a rural area only allowing for satellite. Seems like the satellite company's know how difficult it is for rural areas so they stick you with the slow speeds and high prices.

I've only had one problem with the service in three years and the service desk didn't help much. The only option they gave me to fix the problem was to pay $100 for a service tech to come out to the house. On the positive side, the service fee included parts replacement (and I own the equipment.)

On a brighter note Vsat just put up a new sat last week that is promised to boost speeds to unthinkable levels of past satellites. This is important for you since Hughes won't be able to match them for a while. Something to think about. Check out other threads on this site for full details. I read that residential won't get their upgrade until the spring but I read a thread today that it might be sooner. Sooner would be better.

reply to DemyDame
Both are pretty bad! I've had both, and got out of the contracts within 3 months for having such horrible service.

What kind of cell phone carriers do you have in your area?
Might be worth your time looking into mobile broadband if you have at&t/verizon/sprint in your area.

i used verizon and sprint for almost 2 years after I dumped satellite....they cable finally came here.

Check to see what mobile coverage you have at your specific address.

reply to DemyDame
okies on HN the speed says 1 Mb/s down and 200Kb/s up speeds with a 200 MB daily download limit oh hughesnet, if all the new perks apply then you should get 1.5 Mb/s download speeds and your upload speeds will be normal at probably 100 to 150 Kb/s and your actual download amount will actually be 250MB and there is no upload limit and you get a free period from 1am to 6am central time that doesnt count toward your limit for you to schedule large downloads. This is all different now than what you see on the website because Hughesnet is in the proccess of trying to improve their service.

With Wildblue you download speed is 512 Kb/s and upload speed of 128Kb/s with a download limit of 7500 MB or 7.5 GB per month and an upload limit of 2.3 GB per month, to compare the download limit to Hughesnet which has a daily limit that 7.5 GB a month breaks down to 250 MB per day so the limits are the same.

Normally I would recomend Hughesnet because of the no upload limit, the fact that if you go over the limits you get slowed till the end of your billing cycle on Wildblue and just for 24 hours on Hughesnet and Hughesnet offers tokens that you can buy to reset your limit and you get one free token per month. The only real downside to HN is the outsourced tech support, but I think that is soon to be history as well and now you really don't have to deal with them since Hughesnet started a forum of their own and they have a tech that visits the Hughesnet portion of this forum as well.

Now the but.... Wildblue just put up a new satellite that should change all the packages. They usually run pretty close to xplornet in canada and they have already released thier package data and for your price the package should be something close to this.. 1.5Mbps DL, 256Kbps UL, 10GB Monthly Cap so you will get a little higher cap and speeds about the same as hughesnet now in about 6 weeks if you want to sign up on Wildblue and wait for that long to do it. Oh and as you go to higher plans the differance between new Wildblue service and Hughesnet grows but like I said, it will be 6 weeks to the end of the year before those plans will be availible. Hughesnet will also be able to offer the same improvements sometime after June of next year when their satellite gets launched. Also there is a rumor that is pretty sure to be true that Hughesnet is going to start letting you roll over what you dont use of your daily allowance each day till you hit 1.4 GB but no one knows absolutely for sure they are going to do that or exactly when other than soon. That concludes my HN - Wildblue comparison.

Now with that book written I have to say that with either system you really need to babysit the installer and if he does anything that seems wrong or half done to you then you need to call the company you chose and ask them about it. As for cell service. I would not recomend anyone but Millenicom because of the high prices, the ultra low caps and the overage fees. Millenicom sells a 20GB package for I believe $60 a month or a 10GB 4G and 10GB 3G package( That is you get 10GB at 4G speeds and then it slows down to current 3G speeds for another 10GB) for 80 bucks that run off of verizon towers and they have a 50GB package for $50 that runs off of Sprint's towers. And there is no contract or overage fees but if you exceed the caps they can drop your service. If you do your homework you will find that is the best deal out there in cellular service.

I hope this helps.
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HughesNet elite plan/.74 dish w/1watt trans. / 9000 modem / 3 computers on a linksy's wired network

reply to DemyDame
Form your own opinion as I have both, Wild Blue through Dish Network, they said no early cancellation charge so maybe I will.
Now with a month's worth of proven the Hughes double speed appears is not a dream.
»testmy.net/quickstats/marsh_0x

I would be a little jumpy with the FAP of WB 17GB, that would really hurt for a full month, the Hughes penalty of 24 hours or a token of $10.50 or the monthly free one, icing IF there is a rollover ? My case doesn't matter with both.

Both plans are the $84 (sales tax) side by side speed comparisons.
Rain outage of course varies depending on the storm fronts direction, usually 100 miles south of me.
With Dish Network, WB or Hughes, a small trade off being my only choice or Sell out and leave my country life never will happen.

~Your mileage may vary~

Marsh

reply to DemyDame
The speed of 1.5Mbps would be ~nice. The 10gig cap would be ~sorta nice. It's been more than 5 years since I signed up, the internet, content, well, things..., have changed. I was hoping for a bit more. Let's hope they deliver more when it comes out, because that's not much to work with for such a hyped up release. Certainly in this rural area, my neighbors with families, kids in school, they need more, and struggle with the pro pack.

Of course I am not in an area serviced by Viasat-1, so I probably would have something like that, a fraction of what Viasat-1 will provide it's base customers. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. Just have to wait and see, since they are deciding how fast/what to give us. According to them they are deciding how much to give us, because if they give us too much it limits their ability to add new subscribers to the old sats.

That is a viasat 1 package, just it is what xplornet is planning on offering , but I imagine wildblue will run pretty close to those numbers. I really doubt that they will offer anything better sorry to say. But who knows whats up their sleeves atm. I doubt they will offer anything better because xplornet sells service off of both Wildblue and Hughesnet satellites so if they can't get better selling from both of those behemoths then I doubt Wildblue is going to do any better with just theirs but then again they may restrict what xplornet can offer and they plan on using those restrictions to provide better service themselves, who knows.
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HughesNet elite plan/.74 dish w/1watt trans. / 9000 modem / 3 computers on a linksy's wired network

Hmm since I learned to post an IMG, again form your own opinion.

Note it is prime time heavy usage with both ~ 8:45pm cst
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Oh boy! It appears both have drawbacks, but they still end up being the same.

I can't get mobile/wireless internet and can't get DSL or cable, so those aren't options.

Hmmmm...

You don't have cell phone reception by any carrier in your area?

Coverage maps show both Sprint and Verizon cover Four Oaks with 3G
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... need help? »evdo-tips.com/

Jim,

Parts of Four Oaks are covered with 3G, but not where I live.

An external directional antenna can remedy that
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... need help? »evdo-tips.com/