After successfully launching their new EchoStar XVII satellite last July, HughesNet is starting to take the wraps off of speeds and pricing for the company's new "Gen4" broadband services. Despite earlier rumblings that they'd be offering speeds up to 20 Mbps, the company's new tiers come in 10/1 Mbps, 10/2 Mbps, or 15/2 flavors, which help bring HughesNet in line with the faster services recently offered by Viasat/Exede. Based on this website, the new Gen 4 speed tiers are as follows:
•
Power: 10 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up for $60 a month ($50 promotion) with a 20 GB monthly usage cap.
•Power Pro: 10 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up for $80 a month with a 30 GB monthly usage cap.
•Power Max: 15 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up for $100 a month with a 40 GB monthly usage cap.
Interested users may want to pay particularly close attention to the new Gen4 services
FAQ, which explains how they're determining usage limits for users. The company is introducing something called "bonus bytes" to be used only during off peak hours (they're included in the plan cap totals above):
quote:
With HughesNet Gen4 your total monthly Data Allowance includes two components: 1) A generous anytime Data Allowance that can be utilized at any time, including during peak daytime hours. The amount of your "anytime" allowance depends on the plan you choose. The Power plan comes with 10GB, the Power PRO plan comes with 15GB, and the Power MAX plan comes with 20GB. 2) Each HughesNet Gen4 plan also comes with an equivalent amount of extra Data Allowance called Bonus Byte, which can be utilized during the off-peak, nighttime hours (2AM-8AM in your local time zone.) Bonus Bytes are a value-added feature you can get only with HughesNet Gen4. With Bonus Bytes and the Download Manager tool offered with HughesNet, you can schedule large downloads such as Microsoft software updates to take place during the night so they only use Bonus Bytes and have no impact on your "anytime" Data Allowance.
It looks like HughesNet is trying their best to keep pace with new competition from Verizon's fixed LTE service
Home Fusion, which offers users service in $60 (10 GB cap), $90 (20 GB cap) and $120 (30 GB plan) flavors. For those of you stuck in regions where you don't have fixed line options, what are your thoughts on the new plans?