HughesNet rumors, experiences and future

[Josephinelcajon]

My prior experience with HughesNet was years ago. I used it literally in the back of my truck pulling a RV trailer. Pointing the dish was very easy speeds were very consistent and steady with zero problems. And customer service was absolutely top notch! Fast forward to 2017 I had HughesNet installed at a friend's business. I was told it was on SatMex 5. (There were no other options back then) speeds were very slow! I blamed it on old computers at first. Autopay was instant as in you did not get any notice of the bill you were charged and then told days later! They simply put up with it for all those years. Last month Tmobile launched g5 stationary internet and I suggested he try it and I can't believe how fast speeds are, simple to install and a flat $50.00 per month includes everything. I suggested I take the HughesNet to my house. My only option is ATT DSL. Account ownership was in my name already. It's been a nightmare and reflects in all the rumors I have heard but did not WANT to believe.

• Physically moving the dish, I was not expecting the larger commercial dish but was grateful for it. And the HT2000W modem is very nice as well as the single coax cable.
• Setting back up was crazy! Thinking I was on SatMex 5-8 and much later finding out it was EchoStar 19. The hidden install button on the control page. Birdog was absolutely worthless! Finding everything and navigating the new control panel was awkwards at first. Once I figured all that out installation and pointing the dish was very easy minus the tree in the way.
• Next was account management. Changing username and passwords addresses and phone numbers. 90% of it is extremely easy and fast 10% is impossible! I am told several times the service address cannot be changed even if you move. Hughesnet email cannot be setup after deleting the primary user account and creating a new primary user account. Contact information is in three completely separate systems that takes an act of God to change them all. Add a credit card and it becomes autopay (instant pay as I said above)
• I requested to move from EchoStar 19 to SatMex 8. Can only be done by an installer (understanding I am not certified) and to add the Express Repair for $12.99 per month and they will be able to make the change. I was told to expect three phone calls 1. schedule 2. confirm day before 3. Tech at least an hour before. I got one call 30 minutes before his arrival! Brand new guy that did not even know why he was there! Not to mention never heard of SatMex anything! His supervisor on the phone told us SatMex is now only for South America. He tried peaking the dish and was only able to get slightly below what I was able to get 106.
• Just during setup, the amount of data used is crazy and from what I have seen so far very slow!
• If I cancel, they do not want the equipment yet after 6 years later and forever they have a $20.00 leasing fee that cannot be removed. Vacation stop doesn't stop the leasing fee either. Cancel and come back and they have to install a brand-new system!
• Good news by me moving it I have no contract. With the launching of Jupiter 3 I am hoping for better speeds plans and pricing.

My Questions:

• Is SatMex 8 available and if not why?
• Can the service address be changed?
• Is there any way to drop this leasing fee without a new contract?
• Are all these used modems for sale really worthless as I have been told by HughesNet?
• Is a business plan better in anyway over residential?

Rumors are full of horror stories! You name it and its widespread that makes it feel like very few people are happy. It is no wonder they lost 60K subscriber's last quarter!

Future we can only hope and pray they make major changes to services and how they do service. I hope to put mine on vacation hold/stop and wait as long as I can to see.

THANKS!

 

[HipKat]

My prior experience with HughesNet was years ago. I used it literally in the back of my truck pulling a RV trailer. Pointing the dish was very easy speeds were very consistent and steady with zero problems. And customer service was absolutely top notch! Fast forward to 2017 I had HughesNet installed at a friend's business. I was told it was on SatMex 5. (There were no other options back then) speeds were very slow! I blamed it on old computers at first. Autopay was instant as in you did not get any notice of the bill you were charged and then told days later! They simply put up with it for all those years. Last month Tmobile launched g5 stationary internet and I suggested he try it and I can't believe how fast speeds are, simple to install and a flat $50.00 per month includes everything. I suggested I take the HughesNet to my house. My only option is ATT DSL. Account ownership was in my name already. It's been a nightmare and reflects in all the rumors I have heard but did not WANT to believe.

• Physically moving the dish, I was not expecting the larger commercial dish but was grateful for it. And the HT2000W modem is very nice as well as the single coax cable.
• Setting back up was crazy! Thinking I was on SatMex 5-8 and much later finding out it was EchoStar 19. The hidden install button on the control page. Birdog was absolutely worthless! Finding everything and navigating the new control panel was awkwards at first. Once I figured all that out installation and pointing the dish was very easy minus the tree in the way.
• Next was account management. Changing username and passwords addresses and phone numbers. 90% of it is extremely easy and fast 10% is impossible! I am told several times the service address cannot be changed even if you move. Hughesnet email cannot be setup after deleting the primary user account and creating a new primary user account. Contact information is in three completely separate systems that takes an act of God to change them all. Add a credit card and it becomes autopay (instant pay as I said above)
• I requested to move from EchoStar 19 to SatMex 8. Can only be done by an installer (understanding I am not certified) and to add the Express Repair for $12.99 per month and they will be able to make the change. I was told to expect three phone calls 1. schedule 2. confirm day before 3. Tech at least an hour before. I got one call 30 minutes before his arrival! Brand new guy that did not even know why he was there! Not to mention never heard of SatMex anything! His supervisor on the phone told us SatMex is now only for South America. He tried peaking the dish and was only able to get slightly below what I was able to get 106.
• Just during setup, the amount of data used is crazy and from what I have seen so far very slow!
• If I cancel, they do not want the equipment yet after 6 years later and forever they have a $20.00 leasing fee that cannot be removed. Vacation stop doesn't stop the leasing fee either. Cancel and come back and they have to install a brand-new system!
• Good news by me moving it I have no contract. With the launching of Jupiter 3 I am hoping for better speeds plans and pricing.

My Questions:

• Is SatMex 8 available and if not why?
• Can the service address be changed?
• Is there any way to drop this leasing fee without a new contract?
• Are all these used modems for sale really worthless as I have been told by HughesNet?
• Is a business plan better in anyway over residential?

Rumors are full of horror stories! You name it and its widespread that makes it feel like very few people are happy. It is no wonder they lost 60K subscriber's last quarter!

Future we can only hope and pray they make major changes to services and how they do service. I hope to put mine on vacation hold/stop and wait as long as I can to see.

THANKS!

I've installed Hughesnet for about 9 years and I never heard of any Bird other than Echo 17 and 19. My region has a lot to do with it, I'm sure.
If you need to repoint the Dish yourself, use 192.168.0.1 in a browser on a device connected to the Gateway.
Since you have a HT2000, you're already on WiFi.
You've found the almost invisible I to click on, then Install/Renistall, it will reboot and then ask for GPS coordinates and the next page will show you the settings and polarity. I believe it's this page that will allow you to change Sats and Beams. What I don't know is if you have to call Hughes support to get them to change anything on their end.
Polarity is changed by removing the set screw on the "eye" at the Trias. The arrow to the bottom is Right hand and to the Left is Left hand.

The pointing page has a slight delay on your phone so just take your time and once you hit over 30, you're there and can fine-tune to get the highest possible signal. Then lock it all down and hit next and it will provision and register. Once you have 5 green check marks, you're done

 

[navychop]

How much longer will they survive with OneWeb, StarLink and others coming or already here?

 

[HipKat]

How much longer will they survive with OneWeb, StarLink and others coming or already here?

residential service, maybe not so much but Hughes has a huge commercial market

 

[Josephinelcajon]

I've installed Hughesnet for about 9 years and I never heard of any Bird other than Echo 17 and 19. My region has a lot to do with it, I'm sure.
If you need to repoint the Dish yourself, use 192.168.0.1 in a browser on a device connected to the Gateway.
Since you have a HT2000, you're already on WiFi.
You've found the almost invisible I to click on, then Install/Renistall, it will reboot and then ask for GPS coordinates and the next page will show you the settings and polarity. I believe it's this page that will allow you to change Sats and Beams. What I don't know is if you have to call Hughes support to get them to change anything on their end.
Polarity is changed by removing the set screw on the "eye" at the Trias. The arrow to the bottom is Right hand and to the Left is Left hand.

The pointing page has a slight delay on your phone so just take your time and once you hit over 30, you're there and can fine-tune to get the highest possible signal. Then lock it all down and hit next and it will provision and register. Once you have 5 green check marks, you're done

SatMex 5 was at 117 West for me in San Deigo and the thousands of "Snowbird RV'rs" In Baja Mexico and Arizona it was a perfect position at due south 180 degrees an elevation of 55 degrees and zero skew! It had a major malfunction and completely failed. Several guys designed and made tripod mounted dishes for portable RV use. HughesNet was at first extremely worried about this and made us all go through a light training online.

Pressure Builds on Satmex After Satellite Setback

Satellite fleet operator Satmex of Mexico, already under pressure to sell itself or raise cash to purchase a badly need

spacenews.com

SatMex 8 was quckly designed and launched then moved into the 117 West slot.
Back then it was an act of GOD to change Sats. Now I was able to change right on the install page. From EchoStar 17 or 19 and transponders it did complete the commissioning and did allow it to work but I wonder how long. As in would I get flagged or lock my account. Years ago HughesNet was extremely concerned with balancing the loads across Sats and transponders. It was a roulette table of what sat and transponder to use for that installation with little choice. If line of sight was not good, you sent a picture of it and waited for them to make up their mind.
SatMex was a Mexican government owned system that Hughes leased bandwidth from. SatMex 5's failure even though it was insured caused an already unprofitable system to fail and was sold off. Hughes should have bought it.

Satmex - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I was able to peak at 107 and so long as the wind doesn't blow the tree, I am good. I am going on vacation stop and wait for Jupiter 3 and its impact.
HughesNet will easily survive with its massive government and military contracts! Even its residential will with Jupiter 3 and a hybrid cellular backhaul system they recently launched.
Changes they need to make for residential is 1. Data limits and plans 2. Customer service 3. Residential policy's All easily changed by years end IF they want to!

 

[Josephinelcajon]

residential service, maybe not so much but Hughes has a huge commercial market

Look on top every store gas stations market government building fire station hospital military base all have use HughesNet.

 

[navychop]

I believe OneWeb is geared toward commercial accounts.

Money doesn’t talk, it swears. And business wallets will drive renewal decisions.

 

[Josephinelcajon]

I believe OneWeb is geared toward commercial accounts.

Money doesn’t talk, it swears. And business wallets will drive renewal decisions.

And with the new younger generation running companies will have a much different mindset.

 

[Josephinelcajon]

As I get re-acquainted with HughesNet I found this interesting and informative article

What is Hughesnet Fusion?

If you’re currently weighing the pros and cons of providers in your area or a current HughesNet customer thinking about upgrading, we’re here to explain exactly what HughesNet Fusion is and if it’s right for you.

www.highspeedinternet.com

 

[navychop]

Not holding my breath. Lots of ideas are dead. I see a couple of them every day in my neighborhood. Data services. OBE due to cell phone advances.

BTW, if you had the terrestrial connection, why would you need Hughes? Never mind any BS from them.

 

[Josephinelcajon]

Not holding my breath. Lots of ideas are dead. I see a couple of them every day in my neighborhood. Data services. OBE due to cell phone advances.

It had a poor excuse for why not just use T-Mobile 5g home internet by saying it can use a weaker cell signal LOL HughesNet then charges you another rental/lease fee on top of the modem! All I see are fees and additional costs for EVERYTHING they can. T-Mobile gave my friend his first bill it was exactly $50.00 as promised.

I put HughesNet on vacation today. Retentions today admitted after two years I own the equipment and for the past four years I should not have been paying the lease fee. He gave a $100.00 credit and submitted for another $500.00 credit. But could not go back further than that. $20/mo times four years $960.00!!! Makes me sick!

 

[HipKat]

As I get re-acquainted with HughesNet I found this interesting and informative article

What is Hughesnet Fusion?

If you’re currently weighing the pros and cons of providers in your area or a current HughesNet customer thinking about upgrading, we’re here to explain exactly what HughesNet Fusion is and if it’s right for you.

www.highspeedinternet.com

This is the next step, we're just starting to be trained on it

 

[HipKat]

It had a poor excuse for why not just use T-Mobile 5g home internet by saying it can use a weaker cell signal LOL HughesNet then charges you another rental/lease fee on top of the modem! All I see are fees and additional costs for EVERYTHING they can. T-Mobile gave my friend his first bill it was exactly $50.00 as promised.

I put HughesNet on vacation today. Retentions today admitted after two years I own the equipment and for the past four years I should not have been paying the lease fee. He gave a $100.00 credit and submitted for another $500.00 credit. But could not go back further than that. $20/mo times four years $960.00!!! Makes me sick!

We broker those T-Mobile accounts. I love them, where the 5G Unlimited is available, I've gotten many people to switch from Frontier. At one farm, I set up the T-Mobile tower with 4 hard-wired/daisy Chained Google WiFi 6E Routers and 4 Google Battery cams watching the property and in and around a large Implement building/shop with no issues.

 

[Josephinelcajon]

I appears that ViaSat will beat HughesNet into space and operating their new system of not one but three in this launch.

SpaceX - Falcon Heavy | ViaSat-3 Americas Rocket Launch

The ViaSat-3 is a series of three Ka-band satellites is expected to provide vastly superior capabilities in terms of service speed and flexibility for a satellite platform. Each ViaSat-3 class satellite is expected to deliver more than 1-Terabit per second of network capacity, and to leverage...

www.spacelaunchschedule.com

ViaSat-3

The ViaSat-3 constellation will offer global satellite broadband coverage and unprecedented capacity

www.viasat.com

 

[Josephinelcajon]

ViaSat, I think has new updated plans after their successful launch! HughesNet still hopping to launch theirs in August. I am sure HughesNet will be very similar as ViaSat has done once its up.

Meanwhile I continue hearing great things about T-Mobile 5G internet!

 

[Bruce]

.Meanwhile I continue hearing great things about T-Mobile 5G internet!

If it is available, sign up now, with it’s trial period, no real loss.

Since I live in what is considered to be a rural area ( I do not consider it a rural area), Cell Service is awful, glad I have Charter available, I use wi-fi calling when at home.

 

[Josephinelcajon]

If it is available, sign up now, with it’s trial period, no real loss.

Since I live in what is considered to be a rural area ( I do not consider it a rural area), Cell Service is awful, glad I have Charter available, I use wi-fi calling when at home.

I will and was going t but my expenses were too high. Next month I will be able to try it out. Sadly they dropped a $200.00 incentive down to $50.00. I am very rural in a small gold town. I currently have ATT DSL and HughesNet on standby/vacation mode. We have good 5G BUT EVERYTHING is ran by a single fiber line including our DSL and all the cell phone towers. When all the tourist come up on the weekends it quickly gets over loaded. Locals stay home streaming, and tourist are streaming on social media and sending photos out. My ATT DSL feels like it is heavily throttled all the time not just weekends. Speeds will be right on 25mbs yet you can't open a basic email at times. other times I can stream 4K. I have ATT unlimited cellular with a grandfathered plan includes my hot spot. I use it from time to time. Speeds are very good 200mbs average still feels throttled at times and scared if I overuse it, I will lose it as many have done just that.

This guy knows and shows you how to tweak and maximize the T-Mobile device!

https://www.youtube.com/@NaterTater

 

[Josephinelcajon]

Echostar 24 launch info!


View: https://youtu.be/tUqZ78lchKY

 

[ggarzatx]

How much longer will they survive with OneWeb, StarLink and others coming or already here?

hughesnet bought one web... in the near future hughesnet will lunch all the leo sats from one web to a geo sat at 900 miles from earth...

 

[navychop]

Geo S is 22,236 miles.