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grohgreg
Dunno. Ask The Chief
join:2001-07-05
Dawson Springs, KY

grohgreg to MeAgain4

Member

to MeAgain4

Re: HughesNet Gen4 Buyer Beware

said by MeAgain4 :

I'm sure ALL new customers will be thrilled with Gen4, until they start hitting their caps far sooner than expected!

Give it a month or three, and I'm sure the low cap damage complaints will start rolling in!

Depends upon what you're comparing it to. Folks switching from conventional/terrestrial broadband, perhaps. But I'm a 12+ year Hughes subscriber, paying $80/month for a 13GB allowance - and I seldom use the off peak window. So you won't hear any complaints from this Gen4 upgrader.

//greg//

MeAgain4
@direcway.com

MeAgain4

Anon

said by grohgreg:

said by MeAgain4 :

I'm sure ALL new customers will be thrilled with Gen4, until they start hitting their caps far sooner than expected!

Give it a month or three, and I'm sure the low cap damage complaints will start rolling in!

Depends upon what you're comparing it to. Folks switching from conventional/terrestrial broadband, perhaps. But I'm a 12+ year Hughes subscriber, paying $80/month for a 13GB allowance - and I seldom use the off peak window. So you won't hear any complaints from this Gen4 upgrader.

//greg//

Ahh, well 7 year Hughes user here, and NO WAY is that an upgrade for us! Speeds sure, but allowance and ability to browse freely (and by browse I mean factoring in / knowing and being used to the limits current/older and new/Gen4)... not by a long shot.

We barely swam by on the Pro plan, on 7000S, hitting FAP once or twice every few months if we weren't paying attention. So I guess that isn't so bad, but the only reason that was possible was the addition of the free window at night, otherwise it was always a daily pain (Like when it was bucket style w/ no free time). Now on the basic plan on 9000, and we seem to be doing OK on that, due to the free window and the 2 day rollover. If there wasn't rollover I'm sure we'd have to go back to the Pro plan for it as well.

I tracked our total up/down last month, and we hit 20GB with 11 days left in the month, so maybe we could swing it on the mid priced Gen4 plan, but I doubt it. And I seriously doubt that would be possible once you factor in the speed improvements and all that offers to a heavy browsing user. Without that free window at night, there isn't even a place to plan large downloads you need, you'd just have to download them as needed and hope and pray you don't run out a week before refill time.

It already took years to get used to working around Hughes current limits/quirks, I think it's crazy for anyone to even think about taking a few more years to get used to their new lower limits and tighter restrictions.

I know, we all have our likes and dislikes, and we all browse differently, so there will always be users in both boats. I feel sorry for anyone that blindly jumps to Gen4 that actually uses the internet daily (Many hours of heavy browsing I mean, not just email and check a few web pages here-n-there), especially families.

We were so ready for Gen4, and VERY anxiously waiting being able to get it! But without a bucket, ZERO free time, rollover, ect. and miniscule monthly allowances, there's no way we could enjoy those faster speeds. Well, maybe we could for a week or two (Or less) haha!

grohgreg
Dunno. Ask The Chief
join:2001-07-05
Dawson Springs, KY

grohgreg

Member

said by MeAgain4 :

Ahh, well 7 year Hughes user here, and NO WAY is that an upgrade for us!

When I used the word "upgrade", it refers to hardware upgrade. I'm perfectly content crossing straight over from my current $80/mo plan to the counterpart Gen4 plan. I was merely stating that it's adequate for my usage patterns.

But from your little rant, I think it's reasonable to conclude that you spent those 7 years on the basic $50/mo plan. From that one can extrapolate that you are unwilling to spend the extra money to get the extra data allowance. So in the unlikely even you transition to Gen4 - you'll probably take this very same rant with you. Actually, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see you complaining about the chintzy Exede allowance some day.

So besides depending upon what you're comparing it to, you also have to accept that you get what you pay for. If that proves insufficient, you have only yourself to blame.

//greg//
One More Too
join:2010-09-09
Galena, IL

1 edit

One More Too to MeAgain4

Member

to MeAgain4

said by MeAgain4

We were so ready for Gen4, and VERY anxiously waiting being able to get it! But without a bucket, ZERO free time, rollover, ect. and miniscule monthly allowances, there's no way we could enjoy those faster speeds. Well, maybe we could for a week or two (Or less) haha!
[/BQUOTE :

It may well be the case that Gen4 is not for you, but your complaint about no rollover with Gen4 plans is one that is not valid. In fact, the Gen4 plans have a rollover that is substantially more generous than is the rollover with your existing plan.

What you have now allows you to rollover unused bandwidth into the next day, but, if you don't use it in the following day, you lose it. With the Gen4 plans, you essentially have a rollover that allows you to maintain access to unused bandwidth for the entire month.

For those customers who use virtually all of their daily allowance every day and who use the FAP-free time regularly, they may well have access to more bandwidth by staying with their current service plans. I suspect, however, that the more typical customer has ups and downs from one day to the next with regard to daily bandwidth usage, and I also suspect that the more typical customers only rarely use the FAP-free time. And, because the rollover does allow customers to maintain access to unused bandwidth for the entire month, the more typical customers will actually end up with access to more bandwidth with a Gen4 plan.

My typical daily usage, for example, averages under 100 MB per day. With a Gen4 plan, I would be able to have my normal usage and also be able to scatter several full length HD movies into the mix without having to do so in the middle of the night. That is something that would be completely impossible with the existing plans.


MeAgain4
@direcway.com

MeAgain4

Anon

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