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pilot_in_fla
join:2008-04-29
 ·StarBand Communica..
| reply to bajadudes
Re: educated consumers are good customers
As I indicated in my review, the Starband service has been in slow decline for some time. It was in calls to support that I found out about the bandwidth limits which they indicated were new. It was in the second call to complain that they told me about the connection limits -- those are not documented at all as far as I can tell but they do explain the extremely poor performance I have been experiencing.
I'm not aware of anything that I am doing that would use substantial bandwidth. When I use dialup, it looks like about 10 mb/hr doing typical light browsing. I asked Starband tech support if they had tools to identify high-bandwidth situations and they indicated they had none. I don't think the after-the-fact bandwidth data are accurate since sometimes a light usage day will show 0.0 mb and other times in excess of 250 mb.
I did evaluate the usage policies for HughesNet and Wild Blue -- the HughesNet policy seemed to be a bit better but I wouldn't buy without having some questions answered.
Fortunately, I didn't have to explore the options of another sat provider or even another analog phone line with a couple of bonded modem connections although the latter would equal the performance of Starband at a much lower cost. Instead, for something less than 1/3 the cost, I am a happy new Embarq DSL customer! | |
bajadudes
@rr.com
| Starband, Like all Satellite ISP's imposes a bandwidth restriction policy. They and all the others have been doing it openly for years. I am surprised you are just finding this out now?
They have a bandwidth monitoring page that a user can access but admittedly it is 24 hours behind and not always accurate. You however as the end user of the service can accept responsibility to stay within the terms of your contract by pro actively monitoring your own usage with any number of free bandwidth monitoring software applications.
Hughesnet users do it all the time.
Starband will always give you one get out of FAP free card the first time you call to complain, warning you that you need to comply with the limits for your service plan. After that it's up to you to live with it or upgrade to higer level service plans that can realistically deal with the bandwidth you want to move over the sat link.
Starband is also the only company that gives you a bandwidth happy hour between Midnight and 6AM EST during which you can download and up load all you want without it counting toward your total.
The number of simultaneous TCP/IP sessions permitted has always been 64 and does not change when you are fapped.
In short, the policy is clear and stated publicly, they give you one warning, You have a free period every night for heavy use and finally YOU are responsible for living within the terms of the contract that you agreed to. Having been with them for 6 years you probably renewed that contract on several occasions....did you not read the fine print?
I agree,FAP sucks big time but it is not by any means a thing unique to Starband.
I also agree that if anyone has any other choice besides dial up then satellite is always the system of last resort. If you have no other options then it's better than sliced bread. If you have other options, then take them
Starband has 12 month contracts and 24 month contracts.
Max in Raligh NC
Admitted Starband / Spacenet Dealer
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