Service Providers (Internet, TV, Etc)

Is Project Fi bad for you/your area? Will work with a 6P.

BrutulTM_sl said:

So I'm looking at the Verizon's plans and they seem pretty shitty. I can stick with my old plan (450 minutes/10c per text/2GB data/subsidized phone every 2 years/$69.99) or the "verizon plan" (unlimited talk & text/3GB data/no phone subsidies $64.99). I was resigned to losing the device subsidies but I had hoped to get some savings in return. Yeah it's $5 a month less and yes it's more service, but the extra service means very little to me since I have never gone over on my minutes and only once or twice on my data and text usually less than 50 times per month.

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10c per text would send me into a murderous rage just on general principle. I had no idea that there were carriers out there that still charged per text.

At 10c per text, you're paying $750 per MB of data. MB, not GB mind you. 1 max character text(140 char) = .0001335 MB, or basically 7500 texts use 1MB of data.

The thing is, texts shouldn't cost anything, it uses effectively zero bandwidth. I don't think Sprint or AT&T or anyone else charge anything extra for texting anymore. I have Sprint and I haven't paid for texting since the days of flip-phones.

Not surprised.

ATT Will Stop Offering 2-Year Phone Contracts On January 8th [Update]

I live a bit outside of town on some acreage and am having a difficult time finding solid internet options.

Currently, I have CenturyTel DSL which is getting me 1.5mbps down and 256kbps up for $70 per month. I have a bunch of devices using both wired and wireless internet in the house but we primarily use the kids tablets and a couple laptops for videos and games.

I am trying to find a good solution to get 3-5mbps consistently with unlimited data.

I have looked at existing options in the area which include:

• Quantum Internet (Wimax using Sprint) yielding 1.5mbps up and down at $50 per month.
• Verizon/ATT plans that are quite fast at my place (~20mbps) but routinely have data caps.
• T-Mobile seems to have difficulty in my area for whatever reason.
• Satellite ? unsure the details but have heard that it sucks.

Most recently, I ordered a Karma MIFI device with their neverstop plan which was touted as 5mbsp unlimited data for $50 per month. This was perfect for my needs, but they are now re-evaluating their business model due to underestimation of customer usage.

Any recommendations?

My dad has Hughes.net satellite at his lake house. It's really the only thing available other than dial-up and cell phone services. The speeds are actually pretty good(the advertise 10-15mbps depending on the plan) and he regularly gets it, but the latency is HORRID. Talking 500-1000ms pings. Definitely no online gaming, and while streaming video and music is ok once it gets up and going, doing any kind of VOIP service for phones is out of the question. Both wifi cell usage and things like Ooma are mostly unusable due to the high pings/delay in relaying real-time speech.

The pricing isn't bad(I think he pays like $50 per month) but they do data cap you fairly low(compared to cable companies), like 50-70GB per month depending on the plan you choose(but that's better than most cell phone providers offer with their hotspots/tethering)

Please join civilized society cavedude.

Well considering all those tax benefits, exclusivity and utility right-of-ways, etc. they always get in return for these grandiose service promises which never materialize for the resident's benefit because 'oh we got distracted' or other 'delays'... wouldn't hold your breath.

BrutulTM_sl said:

I have been using satellite internet for 7 years now and I have had both Hughesnet and Wild Blue and I can confirm that they both suck. Pretty sure joeboo is wrong on the data caps. I currently have a 14 GB cap with Hughesnet and an additional 10GB that can only be used between 2AM and 8AM. I pay $80 a month and if you're in off hours it will actually hit 5-10 Mbps but in the evening during prime internet hours I usually get less than 1Mbps. I would happily trade it for reliable 1.5 Mb DSL with no data cap.

Here's a speedtest I just took at 8:50 PM to show you the glory of hughesnet.

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How old is your actual physical satellite dish? My dad got a new one this year and his speeds increased 10x. Their satellites from 3-5 years ago are apparently trash compared to the new ones.

And it does look like they do a weird split cap thing. One cap for regular usage, and then a 2am-8am additional data amount. That's about worthless.