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How Much Do You Pay for Internet Service?

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  • Bozz10mm

    TGT Addict
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Oct 5, 2013
    9,616
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    Georgetown
    Seems like I oughta be able to get more than 6 mbps for my $49.95. Centurylink DSL is apparently the only thing available in my area. I haven't checked in a couple years tho. Not really having problems with 6 mbps tho. Sometimes we have 3 PCs going at once, very seldom get rebuffering when watching Netflix.
     

    Shady

    The One And Only
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Aug 24, 2013
    4,656
    96
    Seems like I oughta be able to get more than 6 mbps for my $49.95. Centurylink DSL is apparently the only thing available in my area. I haven't checked in a couple years tho. Not really having problems with 6 mbps tho. Sometimes we have 3 PCs going at once, very seldom get rebuffering when watching Netflix.

    you don't have a local cable company ? they provide Internet separate from TV

    I currently have 100mps for 50 a month but it could be better and cheaper if I was not out away from town.
     

    Sam Colt

    Well-Known
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    0   0   0
    Feb 22, 2012
    2,246
    96
    Austin
    $40/mo unlimited voice/text/data from Cricket. No contract. Refurb phone from WalMart online. If I ever have Internet in my home I’ll put my head in the gas oven. :)
     

    bbbass

    Looking Up!!
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Sep 2, 2020
    2,825
    96
    NE Orygun
    $48 for slow DSL.

    Thinking about going back to cable internet... last time I had it, they wanted a two year contract, gave me an introductory rate of $36, then raised it to $86 after six months. When I called to cancel, the lady said if I had told them they would have given it to me for $36... too late lady!!!
     

    kbaxter60

    "Gig 'Em!"
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Jan 23, 2019
    9,913
    96
    Pipe Creek
    We were paying $79/mo for HughesNet, which was a total and complete RIP OFF. Service was called "25Mbps", but given their latency and jitter performance, it was next to useless. Even better, they had 20 GB data cap that kicked in, so you get throttled to even lesser performance. We filed several complaints with them about the poor performance and the most they ever did was extend a little extra data to us. "Bonus time" ran from aout 2AM to 6 AM. So useful! I would never recommend HN to anyone, even my worst enemy. Unless there is just no other option (often the case in the sticks) it is a "no" from me.

    Thankfully, our very own Bandera Electric CoOp brought us fiber up the hill, which we have been on for about a week now. It is GLORIOUS. We have even streamed a couple of programs on YouTube, which was a non-starter with HN. Our service is $39/mo and it's 25Mbps, too, but performs as our latency and jitter are down in the single digits (from 700 ms or so).

    Summary: we are paying half as much and getting 10x performance. We'll take it!
     

    Bozz10mm

    TGT Addict
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    Oct 5, 2013
    9,616
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    Georgetown
    We were paying $79/mo for HughesNet, which was a total and complete RIP OFF. Service was called "25Mbps", but given their latency and jitter performance, it was next to useless. Even better, they had 20 GB data cap that kicked in, so you get throttled to even lesser performance.
    This was my experience with HughesNet also. That was 11 years ago, and I still get angry when I see their commercials. When you sign up, they don't tell you about the data cap and when you call their foreign customer service cause your internet stopped, they don't tell you then either until about the 5th call.
     

    kbaxter60

    "Gig 'Em!"
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Jan 23, 2019
    9,913
    96
    Pipe Creek
    This was my experience with HughesNet also. That was 11 years ago, and I still get angry when I see their commercials. When you sign up, they don't tell you about the data cap and when you call their foreign customer service cause your internet stopped, they don't tell you then either until about the 5th call.
    What I liked was that the rep I talked to when we subscribed said "If it doesn't work for you, you can cancel with no termination fees." Yet when I called them the first time, they said it'd be $300. Not negotiable. When I DID cancel, I made it clear that there would "no more charges of any kind". The rep agreed with me. Now, if I can just find the equipment return box that UPS lost...
     

    Bozz10mm

    TGT Addict
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    Oct 5, 2013
    9,616
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    Georgetown
    Yes, I forgot about the equipment return and cancellation fee. And the extra $5 charge per month to send me a paper bill. Cost me $240 to get out of it, but worth it to get rid of them. I had to climb on the roof and remove the equipment up there to send back.

    I jumped for joy when DSL became available in my area, albeit only 1.5 mbps, still much better and cheaper than Hells Net.
     
    Last edited:

    AZ Refugee

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    1   0   0
    Sep 23, 2014
    14,994
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    I used Wild Blue/ Hughes Net for to remote Navajo & Hopi Reservation projects I had in Arizona 10 plus years ago. 1st time it went smooth and worked well. 2nd time they came to the project, set it up and it worked for 2 days and quit. Called for service. The guy never showed up or would say he did when we knew he did not. I was getting nowhere with them so I had my controller cancel my credit card and get me a new one. Then they started calling me, wanting payment. I told them if they would send someone out to fix it, I would be happy to pay them. Never happened. Finally it escalated to one of the supervisors calling me about payment. I asked him to explain what it was I was to pay for. He said the service I agreed to. I explained to him that he was welcome to litigate it, but I was curious to know how he thought he could prevail for non payment of a service that I never received. I suggested that he keep the funds they had billed me for which equated tot he initial deposit and about 3 months of billing and cancel the account. He finally agreed. They were a joke. I do no know if they have improved since then, but I would guess very little.
     

    kbaxter60

    "Gig 'Em!"
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Jan 23, 2019
    9,913
    96
    Pipe Creek
    Not available down here in the South, yet, but soon? The new SpaceX Starlink setup looks to be the bees knees for rural access.
    I just read an article on Starlink today. It sounds like their latency performance will be better than HughesNet, because of the low orbits. No data caps, but starting at $99/month. Tests showed it performing very well, but keep in mind that it is not much loaded yet.
     

    Axxe55

    Retiretgtshit stirrer
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Dec 15, 2019
    47,022
    96
    Lost in East Texas Elhart Texas
    I used Wild Blue/ Hughes Net for to remote Navajo & Hopi Reservation projects I had in Arizona 10 plus years ago. 1st time it went smooth and worked well. 2nd time they came to the project, set it up and it worked for 2 days and quit. Called for service. The guy never showed up or would say he did when we knew he did not. I was getting nowhere with them so I had my controller cancel my credit card and get me a new one. Then they started calling me, wanting payment. I told them if they would send someone out to fix it, I would be happy to pay them. Never happened. Finally it escalated to one of the supervisors calling me about payment. I asked him to explain what it was I was to pay for. He said the service I agreed to. I explained to him that he was welcome to litigate it, but I was curious to know how he thought he could prevail for non payment of a service that I never received. I suggested that he keep the funds they had billed me for which equated tot he initial deposit and about 3 months of billing and cancel the account. He finally agreed. They were a joke. I do no know if they have improved since then, but I would guess very little.

    Just my personal observation and experience with our HughesNet service.

    We went to using HughesNet satellite internet about three years ago. Installation was done very well, and service was pretty dang good until about six months ago. We were over our two year agreement, and we now own all of our equipment and and are no longer leasing, and just paying for the service, which runs about $74 a month. About six months ago, the signal quality degraded and finally got to the point we couldn't even connect to the internet at all. We call HughesNet, and they tried to fix it remotely and couldn't so they scheduled a service repair for our system. That was on a Thursday IIRC and they were suppose to be there the next Tuesday. We got a call Monday morning, and were informed they had a cancellation that afternoon, so we took it. The repairman had it fixed in about fifteen minutes because all it needed was some fine tuning of the dish to get it back to be able to receive a good signal again. He said it was normal for them to get out of adjustment over time due to wind, rain and other things. He even showed me how to use my smart phone or laptop to do exactly what he did to do my own adjustments to save having to call out a repairman and to save the cost of the repair call, which cost us $85 for them to come out.

    So far, we are well pleased with our service. And that was really the only issue we have had with our satellite internet. Where we live, in very rural part of Anderson county in East Texas, we don't have a lot of options for internet service. We had DSL with our landline which was through Windstream, and the service for our phone and internet were very poor. We also decided to cut out using DishTV as well. We had been with them for about 14 years, and the price kept going higher and higher. I think we were up to about $300 a month just for satellite TV service! Our total billing a month before HughesNet, for phone, internet and satellite TV was over $500 a month. Including our subscription TV services, satellite internet and our cell phones is about $155 a month.

    Our HughesNet isn't perfect, but for the savings, and the service we get, I am quite pleased with it. So saving about $350 a month, goes a long ways for us. In many ways, regarding customer service and being taken care of when there are problems, we are way better off with the way we have in now.
     

    Younggun

    Certified Jackass
    TGT Supporter
    Local Business Supporter
    Rating - 100%
    6   0   0
    Jul 31, 2011
    53,619
    96
    hill co.
    Using NextLink now. Paying $130/month for 35Mb down and 7Mb up. Peak out at around 37.5/7.5. During peak it will sometimes drop to around 15/5.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     

    TX OMFS

    TGT Addict
    Industry Partner
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Nov 3, 2014
    4,756
    96
    San Antonio
    There’s a new wireless outfit attracting customers in the area, but I live closer to a creek bottom with a tree line on one side and a ridge on the other. I’m fairly pessimistic about the odds of them being able to hit a tower.

    That's what we do. No cable or DSL option here. The wireless is faster than the dial up option we have. I get a good AT&T wireless signal but still use the wireless instead of an AT&T hotspot.

    We're halfway down in a valley with a couple of ridge between us & the tower. They weren't sure about it but were able to connect from our roof. Not additional pole needed.

    We're about 18-20 down. Costs about $150. Unlimited data.

    You should have them out & see if it will work.
     

    Younggun

    Certified Jackass
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    Local Business Supporter
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    6   0   0
    Jul 31, 2011
    53,619
    96
    hill co.
    That's what we do. No cable or DSL option here. The wireless is faster than the dial up option we have. I get a good AT&T wireless signal but still use the wireless instead of an AT&T hotspot.

    We're halfway down in a valley with a couple of ridge between us & the tower. They weren't sure about it but were able to connect from our roof. Not additional pole needed.

    We're about 18-20 down. Costs about $150. Unlimited data.

    You should have them out & see if it will work.

    See the post directly above yours. I didn’t realize it but it’s actually an update to the one you quoted.

    We have the dish/antenna mounted on our own 40’ tower. We get slightly faster speeds than what we pay for about half the time, and usually between 20-25Mbps down the rest of the time. Paying $130 for 35Mbps down and 7 up.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     

    Younggun

    Certified Jackass
    TGT Supporter
    Local Business Supporter
    Rating - 100%
    6   0   0
    Jul 31, 2011
    53,619
    96
    hill co.
    Only hitting 2 and 7 right now, lol. Guess it’s peak time.


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