Dumping your home phone system ???

[Ken Salisbury]

The only reason I have a home phone is because I need it to get my DSL line. I never use the phone for anything else. I rely on my cell phone which has free long distance and more hours than I ever come close to iusing. My home phone is only good for receiving requests for charitable donations and political campaigns which we all know are a pain.

At the present time my phone bill is $50/mo and my DSl is $55/mo. It seems to me that I am flushing at least $50/mo down the toilet.

I am considering dumping my home phone, discontinuing my DSL service and switching to satellite internet service. Does anyone use Hughes Internet Service. What has been your experience.

[Joe Pelonio]

When I looked into it there were two plans, one required several hundred up front to buy equipment, the other with renting was about $100/month.
Unfortunately we found out from the neighbors that neither satellite TV nor internet will work, they have tried and had terrible results because we are totally surrounded by 100+ foot fir trees that block access to the signal. You need a direct shot at the satellite.

We also looked at cable dsl and phone. That too was about $100/mo for TV, Broadband, and Phone. We don't trust them to put "all our eggs in one basket" because of problems with their cable TV equipment and service over the years. So we still have a land line and dsl through the phone co.
and like you get mainly political calls and surveys since each of us has a cell.

[Doug Jones from Oregon]

Ken...I can't help you with the Hughes Internet service, but, I can tell you that I recently went to a Verizon cellular service for my internet fix.

It is a little bit slower than my DSL line was (but my dsl line pretty much sucked) but it is working fine. I do like the $125 combination bill for phone and dsl that I got rid of and I've enjoyed the freedom of taking my notebook and the net on the road...could not do that before.

Of course, you do have to be within a cell site.

At the old homestead where I don't live anymore, we dumped the home phone lines years ago when cable net became avail...and was very happy with that.

Doug

[Matt Warfield]

Ken,

You may want to inquire with ISP's in your area about providing access over dry copper. You should be able to get a dry copper line from your phone company for 5~15 bucks per month(last time I checked in my area it was $4/mth). Dry copper is essentially a security system circuit where you're using the phone company's lines but not their circuits. Worth looking into as it's more reliable and consistent than satellite, IMHO. But on the other hand, if you're mostly doing SMC and email, then the extra lag time of satellite probably wouldn't bother you much.

Best of luck,

[Kent Fitzgerald]

Can you get cable service? A lot of cable providers are offering pacakge deals with phone, TV, and internet (faster than DSL) for under $100 / month.

I looked into Hughes net a bit, and I wouldn't consider it unless you really don't have any other options. It's expensive, not that fast, and subject to outages. When I checked, they were advertising "better 99% than reliability." Sounds pretty good, until you consider that 99% reliability could mean up to 15 minutes of down time per day.

If you end up sticking with the phone co., getting a new, unlisted number should eliminate most of the unwanted calls.

[Ken Garlock]

Ken, while you are in the market, take a look at Wild Blue satellite service. I think they may be a less expensive than Huges Net in the long run.

[Jim Tobias]

Ken,
I dumped my regular home phone service andf the long distance carrier and added Digital phone to my cable service, Time Warner Roadrunner DSL (which is also my internet service provider. The digital phone service is less expensive than the regular home phone service and the long distance carrier.
I have a DirecTV satellite for TV and love it. I've had it for 12 years and I can count on 1 and 1/2 hands the number of times the serivce has been out. If the weather is so severe as to impact the service, the TV should be turned off anyway.
I have thought that the Hughes satellite service (which is with DirecTV in our area is mostly for people way out that have no other choices. Why else would anyone pay the $100 plus bucks /month for internet service?

Jim

[Ken Salisbury]

Can you get cable service? A lot of cable providers are offering pacakge deals with phone, TV, and internet (faster than DSL) for under $100 / month.

I don't need a package with TV. I have Direct TV with Tivo and HDTV and would not swap it for unlimited Bud Light . I just can't see having to pay >$100/mo just for internet service. Hughes advertises home package internet at $59.99/mo.

[Sam Howe]

Before I went back to Hughes satellite internet. Expensive, lousy customer service, prone to trouble, unreachable customer service, a real pain to sweep the snow off the dish to get it going again, and the customer service is horrible. Also, the customer service stinks.

We dumped it a few months ago and went with cable internet. Cheaper, faster, and a LOT more reliable.

By the way, don't try to get an answer out of customer service, they never reply

Sam

[Mark Rios]

Ken, I didn't read that you had checked with Direct TV for net access. Here's a brand new deal that I found on their home page. You can enter your phone number to see if they have a deal in your area. It's the box on the right. Sounds like a good deal and would be perfect for you if available in your area.

http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/global...20tv&HBX_OU=50


hth


BTW Ken, I'd reccomemd NOT going with the semaphore flag thing. It takes WAY too long to download video; the flags are just too wavy.

[Jason Roehl]

Ken, I've never heard anything good about satellite internet. I'd go cable if it's available in your area. You can get all the features you have on satellite generally, even non-regional sports if the cable provider is good. Right now, I pay <$90/mo for digital cable (70ish channels) and internet, with a dual tuner, 40-hour DVR (similar to TiVo--but I can record 2 shows at once and watch a third that's already recorded, or off the VCR's or TV's tuner). If I had a hi-def TV (maybe soon), HD would be included. And my cable speeds blow DSL out of the water (3-4 Mbps). I'd look into the cable option a little closer. Consider your satellite + DSL vs. comparable cable w/internet.

[Mark Pruitt]

Ken,
Before you make that kind of a move, check to see if uploads can be accomplished as quickly as downloads. If you listen to the TV commercial, you hear the gal say "faster surfing, faster downloads" which leads the unsuspecting consumer to believe that uploads are equally fast. I have heard HughesNet users say that this is not the case. IIRC, Dennis Peacock is a HughesNet customer. Get in touch with him for a first hand report. (I think Matt Meiser is also a HN customer.) The other reservation I have about that service is the price. Over $500 just to hook you up, and too much a month IMHO. Some people who live in the boonies where DSL is unavailable seem to like the service, but in that kind of situation your only other option is dial-up (which in rural areas can be even more painfully slow--DAMHIKT.)

Have you looked at the option of using your cell phone for Internet access? I don't know if you can get high speed access that way or not.

Good luck

Mark

[John Shuk]

Ken,
I believe some of the telcos have relaxed the rules about requiring you to have dial tone to get DSL on the line. Might want to check. $55 a month seems a bit high for DSL as well. I know it varies state by state and company by company. Call and see if there is a lower price available. If you aren't using the home phone to make alot of calls I would think you could bring that cost down a bit too by changing the service.
I hate the idea of folks disconnecting from the telco system.
It's how I make my living.
Disclaimer: Verizon employee.

[Matt Meiser]

The only good thing about satellite internet is that its available where nothing else is. Sprint is building out a high speed cellular internet service in our area. As soon as its available we'll dump Hughesnet. The lag is annoying, but HTTPS is painfully slow--takes me about 30-45s to log into Paypal or Ebay. It also doesn't work with my VPN at work (but strangely works great with one of my client's VPN's) Mark is right--uploads are painfully slow. Downloads of large files are quick though. Just last night I downloaded iTunes (35MB) in a couple minutes.

[Lee DeRaud]

If you aren't using the home phone to make alot of calls I would think you could bring that cost down a bit too by changing the service.

Second that. That $50/mo number sounds like it includes some kind of long-distance service, which, as you say, is unnecessary with the cellphone. My landline cost is only $28 (PacBell/SBC/AT&T or whatever they're calling themselves this week)...and $7 of that is for the voice-mail.