Sorry Greg, I didn't mean that rant to sound directed towards you in any way!!
As for our situation, we were on the Pro plan on the 7000 for about the last 5-6 years. We started on the basic plan, but that didn't last long at all.
We very recently had a hardware failure and was upgraded to Gen4 they said, but they installed a 9000 modem luckily! Huge mistake w/ customer service, I had to do a call review over what was sold to us and what we were billed, ect - and finally get retention to take $100 off the bill. The call review was only in regards to the amount billed vs what we was told, nothing to do with Gen and I'm glad we didn't wait to get it either. They did say still we would get Gen4 with the 9000 modem, but just meaning faster speeds at a future undisclosed date (Doubt it).
Anyway, no back on topic haha! No, we were on the Pro plan on 7000 w/ grandfathered allowance @ 425 daily, and after the upgrade recently we were moved back to the base plan w/ 9000. So yes, now we are unwilling to go back to the Gen4 $80 a month plan. And that is for two reasons, why pay more for less data and tighter restrictions? And, now that we are back on a cheaper plan that offers more than the $80 we were paying with the 7000S it doesn't make sense to go back to $80 a month again (For less allowance)
If we had not just moved to the cheapest plan, and was considering the $80 a month Gen4 plan as an upgrade, then we'd still be concerned about the 30GB monthly limit. Sure we might currently only use that amount or just under, but that is ONLY due to the current constraints. A much faster service provided by Gen4 and the monthly limitation still would not be an upgrade (Aside from hardware as you mentioned). And with faster service, everyone will be using much more than they are currently simply because it would be possible due to faster page loading, easier to actually browse, ect.
So, if the plans were actually more instead of less, we'd upgrade in a minute, even back to the $80 a month plan! I feel in order for Gen4 to be an upgrade, or at least even compete evenly with the current plans, Gen4 without any free time would need to be at least 30GB for the base and 40/45GB for the mid-range plan. currently they are less allowance than what's offered with older hardware and those plans due to the daily limits, rollover, and free period.
Again I apologize, I didn't mean any of that to sound argumentative or directed at you! I was just replying directly to you initially in order to let you know how long we'd been using Hughes.
@ one More Too
I don't really have a complaint with Gen4 no daily rollover, mainly the monthly limit and LOW cap amounts! I only mentioned it due to how the rollover works with older hardware currently, without a monthly limit in place. I do fully understand what you mean about rolling data with Gen4, and you are correct. But the lower overall monthly limits are what concerns me, mainly with no daily amount or daily reset, and MUCH faster service, you could easily burn through your monthly allowance without blinking an eye and then either be limited for weeks at a time, or have to try and limit yourself for weeks at a time in order to not run out. Having to do that, or even worry/think about it, doesn't sound like an upgrade to me at all.
You're right about the amount used daily, we are heavy users and don't always use a full days amount, and don't always use the free period. But we are not a single user household, and we browse heavily all day, so we do often use very close to our limits in the non-free periods on many days a week, especially on the weekends, even without downloading anything just browsing. And watching our total bandwidth with a router I can see how even the middle priced Gen4 plan would be a hindrance for us compared to what we have now with the 9000, or even what we had with the old 7000S
That faster Gen4 speed and monthly limit will immediately catch up to MANY users! I even suspect the light browser like you mention will easily get used to doing more just because of the faster speeds being possible, and would very quickly start having to learn how to limit their usage in order to restrict themselves around the monthly limit.
You guys very well may be right, Gen4 is probably an upgrade for a very light user, but for a family or even a single heavy user I don't see those plans as fitting for anyone like that, especially considering the offered speeds!
I'd be much happier with 5Mbps and much higher caps, but that's just my dream haha! If it wasn't for our recent hardware failure and subsequent forced upgrade to 9000/Gen4? (New contract), we probably would have switched to Excede due to it's Gen4 speeds but nightly free time offering. Now we have to wait out our contract with 9000