HughesNet Review
I have had hughesnet for a little over 1 year. I am going to review the service as objectively as I can. First of all, I am a firm believer in receiving what you pay for. I paid $80 a month. I accept the fact that I must pay this if I want more speed than dialup. However, if you are going to severely limit what people can download, you should not be charging that high of a price. Why would someone pay for high speed internet just to have faster email access or browsing speeds. Get real, people what to take advantage of the all that the internet offers today. More and more websites have videos and games online. HughesNet is not going to make you happy if you do anything other than check email or download songs. Sorry, but I want more than that out of the internet. I just found out this week that cable is now in my area. I scheduled my installation immediately. Never thought twice, even with the $400 early termination fee. Termination fee, what is this a cell phone contract? I can live with the fact that I overpaid for what I have received for the past year, but you are going to charge me for discontinuing my service. What is up with that? What fees does HughesNet incur to stop my service. They simply do this believing they will keep customers who don't want or can't afford to pay the fee. That is total crap. Sorry, but I would not recommend satellite internet to anyone unless they are very tolerant of limitations and don't mind gouging prices.

Posted By: Mike6171 (69.19.14.×××), on Tuesday, July 15, 2008

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HUGHESNET SUCKS!!!
There is no other way to say it better. They mislead customers on bandwith an FAP, They keep reying to ipdrade me eventhough I just got service only 7 months ago.. I have the 7000 series modem. Then they said I need to upgrade my service from pro to pro +. These people at hughesnet are crazy. I am so mad at the pathetic level of service that I get.

Posted By: ripley9000 (69.19.14.×××), on Friday, March 21, 2008

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Hughesnet is pathetic
When will people learn you make more money threw volume , I have their service and they did not tell me anything about a bandwidth limit, 375mb
is not alot of bandwidth, if you have netflicks you will run out of bandwidth before finnishing the first movie, what is dsl for if you can download anything or watch any cool movies or play games, hughesnet needs to get a clue shape up or ship out.

Posted By: onstage (69.19.14.×××), on Thursday, March 06, 2008

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Not sure what's going on here...
First, I don't work for Hughes so this is a totally unbiased account of my 1st week with this company...

I purchased the pro package and have averaged around 1 meg down and 185 kbps up since I have had the service. The FAP for this package is 375 meg. I haven't come close to maxing out my FAP after viewing near an hour of videos on youtube. I read all this stuff and people are so set on bashing hughes, I am considering cancelling based on everyone's input. This is only because I am afraid something is going to go wrong later on down the road. Anyway, I would have to say I am pretty happy with what I have seen. Although I haven't had any problems, I can already tell their customer service is well below par. Hopefully, if things go the way they are now, I won't need them. I am wondering if they have made changes since these posts to improve service? Anyway, if anyone reads this and has anything positive to say, I would appreciate it. Otherwise, I will continue to worry about this service going from good to bad.

Posted By: bdavis14 (69.19.14.×××), on Tuesday, February 05, 2008

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This is Tami Putney-
okay dude... I got my Hughesnet on 10-20-06. It works great. What don't you people understand about the FAP? If your choice is crappy dial up or hughesnet with an FAP... you either stay below the FAP to keep your speed or you don't. What is hard to understand there?? I pay $80/mo my FAP threshold is 500mb. When I bought the service/equipment I decided to give myself the best chance of getting the fastest speed. Why not? I bought the fastest package that wasn't for businesses. It's like most things in life. You get what you pay for. Buy the shirt for $10 at a bargain center, it will surely wear out before the $50 shirt from Patagonia. I make sure I never hit the FAP. I watch what I download. Webpages NEVER affect me, I can surf for hours. I do not download full length movies and 100's of songs a day. If you are downloading TV shows then YES you will exceed your FAP- and your speed disappears for about a day and a half. You gain your speed back, but it is about 5-10mb/hour from what I can tell. I purposely exceeded to see what would happen. I agree, tech support is nearly impossible to understand, but what tech support isn't these days? Most tech support these days suck.
Remember this too--most people who leave feedback are really mad because they feel ripped off. People who are satisfied usually don't go back to leave feedback. I only left feedback because I HATED my dial up, and was thrilled that taking a chance and spending the money worked out for me. It's like everything else in life- some things work out for some people, the same things don't work out for other people!
No, I do not work for Hughesnet. That would not be fun. I am a nurse in Northern Michigan.

Bottom line. research things before you buy. be willing to accept the fact that if it doesn't work out you will be out money. period. Find other people who like this service. They are out there- how could the company exist if ALL the customers where like the people in this message board!

Don't get me wrong- when I can get blazing cable speed I am switching, until then this is a billion times better crappy dial up!
READ THE FINE PRINT OF EVERY CONTRACT YOU SIGN PEOPLE-ASK QUESTIONS-DO RESEARCH BEFORE INVESTING.ACCEPT THAT COMPANIES ARE NOT ALWAYS HONEST---THIS IS NOW THE AMERICAN WAY--

check out the hughesnet website for FAP FAQ's

Posted By: tamiputney (68.2.101.×××), on Wednesday, January 23, 2008

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Class action waiting to happen...
We got service when the company was still DirecWay and had no problems with it then. After Hughes took over, it has been nothing but a nightmare! I don't remember getting notified of the Fair Access Policy (FAP) - what a joke. As other reviewers have stated, exceed your allowed download limit for the day and you're basically without service for 24 hours. Yesterday I tried downloading an update to my iPhone (162.1 mbs) and almost had it downloaded when I lost satellite service. I started it again and hit that ridiculous ceiling of 225 mbs which stalled the download. I called the company - another joke - spoke to Wen(?) for whom English is clearly not a first language and got the run around. Despite the fact that the daily limit was exceeded because of losing the satellite signal (their fault!), I now have to wait until 5:00 this evening to try again. I was told that Hughes offered unlimited downloads between 2:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. I'm not getting up in the middle of the night just to download something. My advice: don't be taken in by their slick ads and promises. Once you sign on the dotted line, you're in internet hell until your contract expires or you buy it out. Dial up is better and much cheaper. Avoid the stress and save your money. These people are shysters of the first order!!!

Posted By: Jacee (67.142.130.×××), on Thursday, January 17, 2008

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BUYER BEWARE
Had the service installed december 28th,2007.Requested service be disconnected december 29th,2007.And so it begins-I had unknowingly entered sattellite service HELL-,A.K.A HughesNet.We Used the service for about 3 hours the night it was installed.Speed was about 3 times faster than dial up,but hey..I was a happy camper because they were my only hope of escaping dial up.therein lies the trap.They know they are your only hope.The next day I tried logging in to my mail only to find that my speed had been reduced to below dial up.So,here I am having shelled out $600 dollars less than 15 hours ago and I am looking at my computer operating at less than dial up speed.I felt raped.I immediately called hughesNet for support and they said I had reached my fap limit the night before..I had downloaded 6 pictures of a car the night before and apparently the pics used up most of my allowed fap of Mb`s and now that car had ran me over, backed up and ran me over again and it was being driven by an indian customer support rep from ...you guessed it-HughesNet.I asked the man to please disconnect service and now...2 weeks later I called them for an address to ship the equiptment back and they said my account was still active.So now they want to pro-rate charges.I explained that I had cancelled 2 weeks earlier and had even disconnected and boxed up the control box the very day I cancelled.
I could go on and on but let me sum it up...Installation fee=$200,equiptment fee=200,additional installation fee for a "non standard"installation =$150,a" whats this fee?"fee=$50,total =$600.What will be my refund after paying to ship equipment back? about $140.So I will have payed about $460 for 3 hours of service.The sad thing is that most people who read these reviews are people who are in the same boat---folks who didnt review the company before they payed..Desperate people who blindly placed thier hope in HughesNet to rescue them from dial up.WARN EVERYONE!

Posted By: tire_friar (63.27.180.×××), on Monday, January 14, 2008

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HUGHESNET FAIR ACCESS POLICY FAR FROM FAIR!!!
I have been forced to be a Hughesnet customer for over 3 years now. It is the slowest Satellite connection I have ever had.
I run a small business and have the Business Pro account. With my monthly bill right at $100.00 a month using the DW6000 which is (suppose) to run 3 computers, we NEVER have been able to run two at once. I complained numerous times and always get an Indian with broken english and Techs that know very dance around the fact they advertise something they don't have, thats High speed.
Now this Fair Access policy is a joke. Hughesnet introduced the DW7000 modem, suppose to be faster, better etc...Only $120.00 a month AND I would have to re-new the contract that is I quit them within 16 months I would be charged $300.00. I refused to do it and stuck with my current set-up after all theres no way I could possibly use up exceeding the download threshold with one old computer and such a slow connection-WRONG!!! Within a week I woke up to a rude awakening. I couldn't open my email, nothing was working so I go to their trouble shooting site and it claims I had exceeded my threshold. I quickly got on the phone and waited for the Tech to tell me that one of my computers on the network hub was using to much, try unpluging one computer. Then I informed them that I was the only computer on this multiple connections network hub!!! I got the ole BS lines and within an hour they lifted the restriction. Then 3 weeks later it happened again. This time I was furious and let them know it. For 24 hours they had a restriction on me so slow that it would take 20 minutes (NO JOKE) to open an email.
I contacted my son who is a Computer Graphic's designer and Tech for Turner/Fox broadcasting in Hollywood, through the logmein site he accessed my Internet and seen where I DID NOT exceed any thresholds that I had been running right at 30 to 40 percent of my usage!!! He contacted Hughesnet and they lifted the restriction.
I wake up Christmas Morning, just 2 weeks later, and here I am all day under a restriction!!!
I failed to mention that 2 days this month my Internewt was down due to a Tech problem at Hughes, so this makes the 5th day without Internet.
Hughesnet (Used to be DirecWay) is now merging with some outfit called (Myway)
If you have other options Use them as HughesNet will rob you blind. I forsee them getting into hot water over this Fair Access Policy. I'm stuck with it because I am to Bullheaded to give in to their coercment to buy their DW7000.
Thanks for letting me Rant!!!

Posted By: rockinrodes (66.82.9.×××), on Tuesday, December 25, 2007

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Is there a rating lower than 1 ?!?!
Wow. I just got it today. When i started to load my favorite online game the installer quickly took off, and yes, he left boxes laying in my yard. I chucked out 125 bucks for a 'non-typical' installation so they could put it on a six dollar pole with a six dollar bag of quickcrete. Thankfully, thats all i am out, i quickly removed all funds from my credit card and closed out my account. They can't hurt my credit.

I only use internet connectivity for playing online games. I got constant 2 second lag. Meaning, you cannot play an online game. I contacted customer support in a chat box... i typed 3 sentences before i even saw the first one appear. i typed numbers 1-20 with a return after each one, and finished before the number one appeared on the screen. The lag is horrific. They have been trained to call it "LATENCY"... oh, 'sorry for the inconvenience caused by the latency, sir'... b.s. its not just an inconvenience, 2 seconds of lag renders this product useless to me. Please leave feedback with the better business bureau. This place should have disclaimers... about not being able to watch movies on the net, listen to music, download, play games,... etc... basically if you want to do more than leave 'latent' emails.. don't bother. UG. I feel violated.

Posted By: shawnwierck (72.171.0.×××), on Saturday, November 03, 2007

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how about the other comapny wildblue
does anyone know if the other satelitte company wild blue is better than hughesnet? i really need to know becasue im an ex hughesnet member thinking about coming back to the service

Posted By: Rebel (65.81.254.×××), on Tuesday, August 28, 2007

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I think a class action suit is in order.
What FAP doesn't say is that when the throttle you down they make email and web browsing totally unusable. I have two days to discontinue the service and get my equipment money back. Guess I'll do that.

Posted By: Another idiot. (69.19.14.×××), on Wednesday, August 15, 2007

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Sign a PETITION!!!
There is a petition that might help even though I doubt it. If we all go to www.petitiononline.com/dpcfap/petition.html and sign our full name we can make that list bigger and atleast be heard. Fight the F.A.P.

Posted By: Austin (4.154.131.×××), on Saturday, August 11, 2007

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Tami Putney is an idiot and must work for HughesNet!
First off I'd like to admit that I'm an idiot also! I just fell into the trap set by HughesNet today. My dish was installed by 3pm and by 5pm I was already hitting the FAP! I did the smallest plan (the one that costs $59 a month) with a thresh hold of 200mb per 24 hours. So yeah, 2 hours into it I am unable to use my dish so I'm typing this on my dial up. You'd think they could slow you down to maybe half speed rather than nothing at all. Screw them for taking advantage of people who can't get dsl or cable. My dial up runs at 31.2kbs and my dish is now running at 29kbs. What a deal! Dial up $14.95 / HughesNet $59.99! I swear it sucks, DO NOT BUY A DISH FOR INTERNET!! If you do it you'll be sorry.

Posted By: Friends do not let friends buy HughesNet! (4.229.162.×××), on Friday, August 10, 2007

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Do not purchase HugesNet!
Things were fine until the new FAP "Fair Access Policy" guidelines were implimented. My family is paying out the arse for internet that is only slightly better than dial-up...once you exceed your limit though, the service becomes completely unusable. I didn't understand what was going on, and had to call their customer service (which was terrible wby the way), and talked to some Indian chick who informed me that we'd exceeded our download and wouldn't be able to use the service until 24 hours later. You know why it happened? Because my step-mom was watching YouTube videos. The service won't even let you watch YouTube. Once the limits are on, the iTunes store won't load, and the average web page takes at least 5 minutes (I wish I was joking). HughesNet never informed anyone of this change, and keeps trying to sell the advanced service. They are bending everyone over and sticking it to them. This is the worst service i've ever seen...I hate living too far away from DSL (we are actually just 100 feet out of range...) I am going to do anything I can to get rid of this service, because these people are conning everyone.

Posted By: Scott Hawksworth (67.142.130.×××), on Friday, August 10, 2007

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HughesNet Internet is a Joke
My experience with HugheNet is lower than whale poop as HughesNet Internet is slower than snail poop. The service has been getting worse by the week. They definitely have a throttle on some streaming sites. I will dump it as soon as possible.

Posted By: John Vaughn (66.82.9.×××), on Thursday, August 02, 2007

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WWW.HUGHESNET.NET
SO TURE EV1.LOOK DON'T BE A FOOL AND GET HUGHES NET...

Posted By: PAT ATKINSON (66.82.9.×××), on Thursday, July 26, 2007

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Hughesnet is a ripoff
AVOID Hughesnet. It is the biggest rip off out there!!!

Posted By: Kim Geldard (66.82.9.×××), on Monday, July 23, 2007

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Lol@hughes
Hughes net is a joke of an internet service. Some days the internet will drag along for no apparent reason, some days it will be decent. Oh and you can forget about downloading any large files because you will get the renowned FAP. Oh the joy of having your internet completely screwed over for a day at a time. Gaming is a joke, you cant dowload anything without being fapped, customer support is full of crap, and this service just sucks in general.

Posted By: Anonymous (66.82.9.×××), on Tuesday, July 17, 2007

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SO angry and this is all i can do to vent about this terrible service
We have no other options where we live, none - ok well we can pay $350 a mo for 2 year contract to get a T1 run to our house. We started with DirecWay and an improper install that led to an excruciating 1 month in customer service hell last april right as they switched to being Hughes net. Someday i plan to write a book about it it was so incredibly absurd trying to get the service i was then paying $100 a month for operable. They didn't even credit me for the month nevermind the 6 hours a day (every damn day) I spent working thru their phone tree, describing the problem AGAIN and again giving my name rank and serial number over and over, being put on hold then having the call dropped or being made to go through the motions of trying some stupid thing or the other that the next service rep would say was a dumb idea.
It worked sorta well off and on since then until this April when the new FAP policy was put in place. We are not regularly heavy users - more like steady users but somehow we have managed to trigger this INSANE 24 hour blackout (16k max) about once a month since then (usually going over by a meg or 2). and NO, i am not going to pay for a newer modem so i can then pay 10-25 more a month and be locked in with them for another 15mo. If they were willing to upgrade me for free and not require a commitment i would consider giving them another chance, but as others have noted here their attitude is if you don't like your service, too bad for you.
I found this site while looking for some sort of software i can use to measure my 24 hr usage to try and avoid this while I ponder whether i really want to rent space in town so i can have consistent internet in a quiet place on a daily basis.
Dial up or a Sprint modem (which is great if you have a cell tower near by) is both cheaper and more reliable... sigh... DON'T enter into ANY long term contracts with these folks, when they suck you are trapped.

Posted By: hgm (66.82.9.×××), on Thursday, July 05, 2007

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Should be against the law.
If anyone out there is a politically active type, please do something to help shut these con-artists down. The service is crap, the speed is non existent, and the prices are downright insane. I'm considering net zero or ANYTHING. I work for a corporation doing website management. It's a publicly traded multi million dollar company. Every time I have to do the least little thing I have to run to the nearest city, which is about thirty five miles away, find a cybercafe, and do my work. It's pathetic. We're thinking of selling our house and moving, because Internet is how I make my living. I can't work with Hughesnet. It's ludicrous.

HUGHESNET SUCKS.

Posted By: Ed Sebright (67.142.130.×××), on Monday, July 02, 2007

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Same problems as others
I consistently get download speed of around 300kbps, which is ridiculous. I've also bumped into the new fair access policy a few times. I had the standard plan, so I upgraded to a newer modem and the next plan level, in hopes of getting faster speeds, but they're STILL THE SAME! During the day my download speed sometimes crawls to 200kpbs.

I've talked to customer service countless times, but they're completely useless. I hope I can get out of the termination fee and go elsewhere!

Posted By: Amy (69.19.14.×××), on Wednesday, June 27, 2007

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Once Good, Now Utterly Appalling - AVOID Hughes.net if you can
Was Direcway customer turned into a Hughes customer - 5+ years now. They used to be a decent, fastish Satelite service, but since becoming Hughes.net the service is sporadic, flakey, unreliable, slow, add to that, this new restriction on downloads and, well, you're paying $50+ per month for, well, nothing much. Utter rip-off merchants, unintelligable customer service IF you can even get through to them. Yep, they all hide away and take your money don't they these days. Like just about all these large corporations these days with their shoddy, badly made products and con-men pretend services, you're stuck with like-it-or-lump it. Take your custom elsewhere, and in a few weeks/months the new lot are ripping you off. The only solution I can think of is to go back and live in a cave; but no doubt Hughes and their ilk already own all the caves and will charge you access fees for them.

Posted By: Jerry Cornelius (66.82.9.×××), on Wednesday, June 13, 2007

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HUGHESNET SCREWS OVER ALL OF THEIR EXISTING CUSTOMERS WITH NEW FAP !
I've been a Hughes customer for 2 1/2 years. Service was good. April 18th of this year they chnaged their FAP Policy. 375 meg download cap for a rolling 24 hours of usage. Used to be every 1-4 hours of high usage and the fap would shut ya down for about 12 hours to about 24k (Yes 24k is not a typo) Now the shutdown automatically lasts for 24 hours when you hit the 375 meg a day threshold. I hit the threshold last night at 9 pm and I just got my service back. While you are on the cap the max download speed you will get is 16k so the service is unusable for 24 hours. So even though you buy 375 meg a day if you get 376 you are shut down for the next 24 hours making the 375 meg you paid for that day unobtainable. Luckily my contract is up in July and I'm going to WILDBLUE where I will get almost twice the data threshold for 10 dollars more per month. The 79.95 month plan at Hughes only gives you about 13,000 meg per month and WILDBLUE will give me 22,000 meg monthly. Oh and by the way Hughesnet made this change saying they were giving their customers abetter deal by upping the rate from 350 day to 375 day. Nice guys. 25 more meg a day but if i hit the fap threshold of 375 day i get shut down to 16k for a minimum 24 hours. DO NOT BUY THIS SERVICE!!! Two months ago I would have told you it was a very good service where land based broadband is not available but now it is an unusable service that will only give you serive every other day if you hit the magic threshold number on your plan. You will have to constantly monitor your usage because if you go over by one meg you will be shutdown to 16k for 24 hours. This new FAP makes the service unusable. Sorry Hughes but im goin blue. You guys suck, you're liars, your cheats and your common thieves. Changing the service and then telling people doesnt matter whether you like it or not you still have to pay a cancellation fee if you want out. Anyone wanna buy some used Hughesnet equipment? I'm gonna have some for sale cheap the end of the month. On second thought I'll burn it. If I sold it knowing what I know now about these crooks I would almost feel like an accomplice.

Posted By: Fukedby HughesNet (66.82.9.×××), on Wednesday, May 30, 2007

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Don't be a rube like I was
I thought it would be great having fast internet. The guy got everything installed then told me about download limits (FAP). The equipment was $600 so I hung in there. It was marginally better than dial-up. Two months after it was installed cable internet came to my neighborhood. After the new FAP policy was instituted it was SLOWER than dial-up and three times as expensive. I closed closed the account and went to cable. I can't even give their equipment away.

Posted By: DC Madman (24.143.88.×××), on Wednesday, May 23, 2007

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New HughesNet FAP Policy is a huge step backwards
Hughesnet recently changed their FAP policy, limiting you to ridiculously low limits. If you exceed those limits (175M in 24hrs) they throttle the connection to about 1K for a period of 24 hours! Absurd.

Lousy tech support. Lies from sales. Slower than dial-up.

You don't want HughesNet as your provider. Again-- a dial-up connection is cheaper, and ,while it is slower it is not limited in the amount you can download.

Posted By: Francis Filliway (66.82.9.×××), on Tuesday, April 24, 2007

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HughesNet is a ripoff
This company is a ripoff. They pretty much have a monopoly in this area so they basically take advantage of the customer because they usually going to live in a rural area with no other options of getting decent Internet connections.

When I called to get the service installed I was told I would only have to pay $398.98 and ended up getting charged around $600.00. They fail to tell you that you also have to pay for the first two months of service up front. To top that off THAT company charged me $29.99 just for making the phone call to set up the install! Of course I called and complained how asinine it was how they were billing that charge to the consumer and not HughesNet for selling their product.

The installer who came out to install the system charged me $22.50 for "extra" cable which was a joke. He didn't even run 50 feet worth of cable, and I only have it set up on a single computer. Then he threw the boxes the equipment came in all over my yard when he left!

They also don't tell you about their "Fair Access Policy" so if you actually use your connection and download files and go over an absurd Mb limit they shut down your connection to around 18 Kbps download speed. This is what I am paying $69.xx a month for? They promise speeds up to 1 Mbps download but on the best day I only got around 800 Kbps. I had cable before I moved to where I am now and only paid $69.00 per month for both Internet and cable television service and to top that off had download speeds of around 4 Mbps!

As every rant about this company also states, their customer service sucks and they can't even speak English.

Also as mentioned if you want to cancel the service you get stuck with a huge fee because you have an 18 month commitment.

Basically if you live in a rural area you are just screwed. You get promised a speedy sportscar and get stuck with a flashy body containing a lawnmower engine.

Posted By: AngyCustomer (67.142.130.×××), on Friday, March 23, 2007

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The 2 most satisfying purchases to date in my life are: My Subaru and My Satellite Internet!
HughesNet service is wonderful! The installer makes the difference. Satellite Installations Specialists of Imlay City did a great job. It took 6 painstaking hours in a rain storm for them to install, but they did it and I have NEVER had trouble. I have been a customer since October- I have no other options for high speed internet- I am completely satisfied. I was worried at first because of all the negative testimonials, but even in the worst Michigan snow storms my ground/pole mounted satellite is perfect. The speed is fine, it's not Cable internet- it's close to DSL speed. I sometimes have trouble with streaming video, but I learned to accept it. The $79/month is worth it to me. The start up was painful, but just do it when you have extra money! I have mine set up on a wireless network with Macs and a PC. I have gotten joy from my system and would recommend it to anyone who has no other options. If you have questions you can ask me at tamiputney@yahoo.com! Have a great day!

Posted By: Tami Putney (66.82.9.×××), on Thursday, March 08, 2007

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Do NOT purchase HughesNet as your provider
We have had nothing but problems with this expensive product. The tech support is in India and you cannot understand them. They promise to send the "techs" out within 5 days, and you never hear from them for an appointment. This is the worse service possible. We spent over $500 for installation and over 80/mo for poor service. It is slow, much slower than DSL, in fact, we are going to lose about $300 to close the contract, but I would rather lose and go back to DSL. I have had to purchase an aircard just to get service at home.

Posted By: Beverly Johnson (166.214.19.×××), on Sunday, September 17, 2006

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