Satelite info for the Big Land (Hughes: power lines, credit card, house)

[Manmountain]

Looks like the mbps are up there and the price is very reasonable. 2 year warranty . Looks like $69 monthly - $299 for the dish - aprx.$500 for instal.

I wonder how many watts it uses? Cant be much? What are you using Rance?


ALASKA SATELLITE INTERNET: PLANS & RATES (http://alaskasatelliteinternet.com/surf/page.php?3 - broken link)

Where no other Internet option is available, or existing Internet services are marginal or undependable, there is no better or more economical option available for high speed Internet than HughesNet. This is especially true for countless remote Alaska locations where communications are nonexistent or limited to high-cost satellite phones. It is truly a modern-day miracle that an inexpensive, small, economical-to-ship satellite antenna can be installed at a wilderness site, to provide inexpensive, high quality Internet service. The same holds true for Bush villages and the many fringe areas around Alaska’s larger cities

The monthly service charges are:

name cost "up to" download "up to" upload FAP Ant.

Home $59.99 700K 128K 200MB .74, .98
Pro $69.99 1000K 200K 375MB .74, .98
Pro + $79.99 1500K 200K 425MB .74, .98
Office $99.99 1500K 300K 500MB .98 only
Bus. $179.99 2000K 500K 1250 .98 only

The "Pro" service is very popular in that it provides a significantly higher level of service as compared to the "Home" service at only $10/mo more.

A static IP for “Pro +” service is available for an additional $10/month. For “Small Office” and “Business” service levels, 5 static IPs are available for $20/month. The equipment cost is standard Nationwide, including Alaska, and is based on two-year commitment and professional installation. However, unlike the lower 48 states, in Alaska, installation is not included with the purchase price, and is an extra charge paid directly to the installer. This is also true for installations in Hawaii and certain other US territories.

The Fair Access Policy (FAP) is designed to identify and control extra high usage, so that everyone gets consistently good service. It well known that often just a few users account for most of the bandwidth consumed. The FAP policy institutes a 24-hour throttling of speed for users who go over the level of service they have subscribed to. There is no extra charge for high usage, unlike for some services, and Hughes does not cut off the service. We can provide more information on how FAP works for those not familiar with it. All the consumer/small business satellite providers, HughesNet, Wild Blue (unavailable in Alaska now), and Starband, use some kind of FAP. We have found it not it to be an issue for our business and personal use. We strongly suspect that other Internet suppliers have some kind of FAP policy - they just don’t tell us about it, or it is in the fine print. Of course if you have a slow connection that limits your Internet speed and results in slow downloads, a Fair Access Policy is unnecessary.

.74-meter antenna: $399.98, less $100 HughesNet mail-in factory rebate. It is cheaper to buy, easier to ship and to mount, and usually has lower installation costs.

.98-meter antenna: $699.98, less $100 HughesNet mail-in factory rebate. It has a very strong fiberglass reflector, allows the customer to subscribe to the top two levels of service, and it has a stronger signal in very heavy precipitation. The .98M antenna is more expensive to ship and to mount.

Equipment is stocked at several major points in Alaska, and in most cases, shipping expense to the customer can be avoided by having the installer hand carry the equipment to the customer site.

The equipment belongs to the customer, and the customer can take the equipment to their new location if they move.

The optional HughesNet Promotional Program adds $20 more per month to each service level, but there is no up-front equipment cost for the .74-meter antenna. For the .98-meter antenna, the up-front equipment cost is reduced considerably (down to $299.98), with the same $20/month added to the standard monthly service charge.

There is a HughesNet warranty on the equipment for the full 2-year commitment period. If a modem were to give any trouble, Hughes would simply send out another, and exchange it for the problem modem. For a radio problem, Hughes would replace the radio (transmit-receive equipment on the antenna) and pay the installer to change it. There could be some logistics charges depending on how far an installer would need to travel. We have seen that very few customers need warranty assistance.

In Alaska, the equipment cost does not include installation. The customer pays the installer separately for that, as they are independent contractors (certified by Hughes) and don't work for Alaska Satellite Internet. We have enough installers trained so that they are competitive. The system is a good bit more complex than a satellite TV receiver, since it is also transmitting to the satellite, and the FCC has some strict requirements for this as well as to protect the public from microwave radiation. Safety and performance are primary reasons that a certified professional installer is required for these systems.

For the .74-meter antenna, we would make a rough estimate that an installer would charge somewhere around $500 (plus logistics costs for remote locations) but the customer would need to talk to the individual installer to get an accurate quote. Obviously, multiple installations at remote locations would reduce the logistics costs for each installation.

We recommend that the customer be involved in the installation, which could possibly give some cost savings, but mainly provides the equipment owner with a personal training course in the system, which would be useful in the unlikely event any system troubleshooting or maintenance was needed. It may be that the installer would need to look at the customer site first, for which they have not been charging the customer in the immediate area around the cities and villages in Alaska where installers are based.

When the customer talks with the installer, the cost and time schedule should be discussed, as well as what will be done to mount the dish, how the cables will be routed, etc. The HughesNet system needs a clear view of the southern - southeastern sky.

There are some things we can do to pre-qualify the customer site over the phone, a good idea before having an installer travel a long distance. An easy method to help determine if HughesNet can work in an area with lots of obstacles is to walk around the site on a clear day and determine where the sun can be seen without obstructions at a particular time of day. This will vary between 11:00-11:30 AM when on Standard time, and be in the range of Noon - 12:30PM later when on Daylight Savings Time. The customer should be able to stand directly in the sun by a wall or other good mounting point, and not have any power lines, cables or tree branches in the way.

Another way to determine if a mounting point is satisfactory is to look at any Dish TV antenna on the site or adjacent property which points at satellite 119. The HughesNet satellite antenna is pointed above and to the right of the TV dish, and in the fall, winter, and spring, the satellite is generally higher in the sky than the sun is.

Unfortunately, in Alaska, TV and Internet aren’t practical on the same dish, and we have no combined TV packages. At this time, Alaska Satellite Internet doesn’t sell, install, or service Dish or DirecTV installation, although individual installers might be able to assist the customer in this area.

Installers are often also skilled computer technicians, and often can assist the customer with wireless or cable networking and setting up and servicing computer systems. Be sure and ask for a quote for these services if desired.

Alaska Satellite Internet can furnish the equipment and set up the customer account with Hughes. A credit or debit card is required to set up the HughesNet account; we can take other forms of payment for the equipment. It should be noted that a charge is not made to the customer credit card for the HughesNet account until the equipment is actually placed in service and the customer has Internet access.

[starlite9]

Originally Posted by Manmountain

Looks like the mbps are up there and the price is very reasonable. 2 year warranty . Looks like $69 monthly - $299 for the dish - aprx.$500 for instal.

I wonder how many watts it uses? Cant be much? What are you using Rance?


ALASKA SATELLITE INTERNET: PLANS & RATES (http://alaskasatelliteinternet.com/surf/page.php?3 - broken link)

That is what I install during the winter months for them. Works very well and what I use at the house since I am way off the normal grid where only phone modem is usable.

[Manmountain]

Thanks Starlite9-- and it looks like efficency gets better every year--

[Rance]

I use DishNet for the TV...and ACS for the phone and internet. Got the dish, installed, with one reciever ,for 300 bucks...and I pay 70 bucks a month for phone internet combined.