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At our current location in Alaska we were not able to get what everyone else had which was ACS DSL. Needing internet badly for college classes we took the only route possible and subscribed to Starband through our local internet provider. We opted for the Nova 1500 since we wanted fast internet with multiple devices using it at once. In the beginning it worked great for about the first month, then after that it worked alright but we just kept telling ourselves something is better than nothing. A year after getting it, in May 2012 we started noticing that it was very slow. As the days went on it was not strong enough for our mobile devices to even use. As we neared June the internet was so slow, dial up seemed to be faster. Taking an internet speed test shocked our socks off, we were promised up to 1.5 mbps of download speed, and on the speed test dated 6-15-12 we were getting 0.07 mbps download speed and upload speed 0.01. We contacted our ISP furious and they told us we would have to directly talk to Starband. After contacting Starbands Tech Support for 2 weeks straight, being on hold waiting for a representative to help us after waiting a hour each day at multiple times of the day we said screw it. We did another internet speed test to see if things had gotten any better and our results as of 7-1-12 were 51kbps of download speed and 12 kbps of upload speed. Seeing as Starband was NO help and never had a tech available we decided we did not want to be part of a company that had such poor customer support as well as a terrible product. We made the switch to a different company at the beginning of July and couldn't be happier. When our ISP came out and installed our internet he said that I was not the only unhappy Alaskan customer and that there were many of us, who too dropped Starband when they failed to try and help. We were lucky, Starband had been requiring people sign a 2 year contract but we never signed this contract for 2 years so we were able to get out with no fees. Later that month while I was looking at my credit card statement, I found that Starband had charged us for that month. This time I called, I was determined to get a hold of someone, speaking to a customer service representative finally, I told them I wanted a refund for July seeing as we didn't use the internet as well as not getting it. The rep said he couldn't help me since there was no recorded problem and going round after round with him, I asked to speak to his manager. Where he told me much of the same thing, since there was no recorded problem (even though calling every day trying to reach them and never getting through) he couldn't refund me the money. I told him to look at the recorded history which he did and I said cant you see that we were getting crap for internet? He said that he wasn't a tech and couldn't properly analyze that for me. I was fed up with this company so I told him to have a nice day knowing he treats his customers like crap and I happily told him that we canceled our service with them seeing as their product failed in every aspect. This company must not realize that by treating their customers like crap and not trying to work with them or even be available to speak with, they ultimately shot themselves in the foot. Thank you for your time! And I hope this helps other people from wasting their time, money and energy on a company that wont give them the time of day. (review was emailed from domain gmail.com) lodged 11.6 years ago
Starband never came close to meeting its advertised download speeds. When I complained I was told the were "working on it." After 6 months with no improvement I gave up and cancelled my account. They still charged me a $200 cancelation fee. I asked for it to be waived as they didn't keep their end of the deal, and was denied. DO NOT DEAL WITH THIS COMPANY! (review was emailed from domain sasktel.net) lodged 12.2 years ago
I HAVE BEEN WITH STARBAND FOR OVER 8 YEARS. THEY WILL CUT OFF YOUR EMAIL SERVICE IF YOU ARE 15 DAYS LATE ON YOUR BILL.I AM VERY UNHAPPY WITH THEIR SERVICE. I HUNG IN THERE WITH THEM WHEN SERVICE WAS DOWN ON THEIR END FOR OVER 2 WEEKS. AND THAT IS THE WAY THEY TREAT YOU. (review was emailed from domain starband.net) lodged 12.7 years ago
Still the best thing going I can find...and a pain in the butt. AS soon a cell phone comes around I'll go that way probably. In one location I tether Metro PCS 24/7 and get 105K member for 22.2 years, 6 visits, last login: 22.1 years ago updated 12.8 years ago
The actual service is expensive for what they offer but in a rural area, they can get away with it. The real hooker is that they cheat on bandwidth monitoring to cap your usage below the advertised limit. Their tech support just blows you off if you complain and never follows through on a complaint. It may not be a deliberate effort to steal, rather a faulty monitoring system or misuse of that system by their personnel. I did get a tech support person to disclose that they sometimes play "catch-up", ie. fail to monitor sometimes and catch up on subsequent days. That tells me that they are messing around with the system in ways that it wasn't designed to work. I suspect that this is a dirty little secret that they just don't have any incentive to deal with. member for 12.8 years, driveby review (so far) lodged 12.8 years ago
The Good: - A little faster than dial-up The Bad: - Tech Support is awful and unhelpful. They suggested I cancel my service because I was unhappy that they suddenly started blocking my Tivos from connecting for updates. - They also block the Wii, Playstation, and Xbox as well as Tivo so if you want to get online to play or even get service updates, you won't be able to. - MUCH SLOWER than promised. Expect to get 30-40% of the speed they say you can get. The fine print says you will get "up to" the promised speed so they never have to give you what you pay for. I pay $70 a month for speeds similar to a $20 DSL connection. - You are strictly limited to how much you can download and upload each week. Each level of service has a different download limit and if you go ove they will drop your connection to dial-up speed for several days. - Their email stinks and is blacklisted by many other email systems - hotmail for one blocks anything from Starband email so you will never be able to communicate with anyone with a hotmail account. - Lots of service outages. Heavy cloud cover will kill your signal. They also do checks or updates on your modem and will reboot it on you at any time without warning. - Lack of installers and dealers. Chances are slim you live anywhere near a dealer or service installer so any time something goes wrong you have to pay an installer to come from a long distance away. This is not only expensive, but time consuming so expect to be down for many days until someone can show up. Phone support refuses to help you until you have a dealer look at your system and can prove the problem is not on your side. - Expensive and a poor value. The service costs a LOT for what you get. I could go on, but the bottom line is: search around for ANY other option before you settle for Starband. --hallmike (review was emailed from domain juno.com) lodged 14.1 years ago
I had this service for approximately 4 years, first starting out with the residential service and later the business package. Latency was a big problem (especially for business applications) and numerous service interruptions were the rule rather than the exception. Modems and connectivity to a small home office LAN were problematic. The local installer was a good guy, but customer service from StarBand itself was typically pitiful. member for 15.7 years, 57 visits, last login: 12.4 years ago updated 14.1 years ago
I have used the Starband service for about one month. With the exception of extremely severe weather locally and at the upload location, the service has been consistent and well within the speed estimates quoted by Starband. Connection resets during sessions are extremely rare. I appreciate the static IP address as well. Company service is courteous and competent. We have a local representative in our very rural area. His service has been nothing short of excellent, both in terms of initial installation and willingness to respond to questions. I researched all the satellite services available. Starband stood out positively. I am very satisfied with the actual service. member for 14.8 years, 2 visits, last login: 14.8 years ago lodged 14.8 years ago
I use dialup here for years, but remote desktop and vpn are not very usable at 41kbps (what i get from modem). There is no DSL or CABLE here and ISDN would cost more than satellite when you add the cost of the ISP. The installer was prompt, courteous and knowledgeable and helped workout a tricky installation (the house is in a valley). I bought the Nova 1500 package (which comes with a huge dish and a SkyEdge modem). I usually get 1.4 mbps down and 40 - 60 mpbs up (higher at nights on clear days). Rain does slow it down and heavy rain loses connectivity. Its slower during peak hours. A neighbor of mine uses direcway (Hughes) and based on our tests my service blows his away. Overall, WAY WAY WAY better than dialup. I recommend it. member for 15.5 years, driveby review (so far) updated 15.5 years ago
I use HughesNet at my home on the proplus plan, and Starband Nova1500 at the office. The Nova is much more reliable than the hughesnet system. Speeds, latency are about the same for both systems. The Nova 1500 has a Higher Fap, than the Hughes ProPlus plan with a price difference of just around $15 between them. I prefer the Starband Nova 1500 over the HughesNet HN7000s ProPlus any day. member for 22 years, 1503 visits, last login: 10.1 years ago lodged 15.6 years ago |