And so I get satellite internet...

[Greg King]

Alright, I am about to break down, call Dish Network and get me a nice new package. They have three different plans that they offer and all are exactly the same as Wild Blue's offerings. This is because Dish's internet runs on the Wild Blue network.

I am thinking about going with the second package, the "gold." Anyone have any input or experience with this? It's free installation, which is reassuring as well considering most other satellite internet companies charge an arm and a leg.

 

[NicePants42]

/me is glad to have cable service.

My only observation is the obvious: For $10 more per month (14% more than $69.95) you get 50% more download bandwidth, 25% more upload bandwidth and 100% more hosting space. Seems like the Platinum plan is the best value if you use the speed, since you're already paying an extra $20/month for an additional 512kb/s with the gold plan.

If that extra $10/month is important to you, then I'd suggest the silver plan. I'd also suggest the silver plan if they allow you to change/upgrade your service at any time - you can always upgrade if you need more speed, but until then you aren't paying for service you don't need. I'm sure that you'll be able to upgrade your service if you want - what company would say 'no' to taking more of your money?

Summary: Gold plan is not a good value unless you know that your speed requirements exceed those of the silver plan, but you won't benefit from speeds exceeding 1Mb/s. I say start with Silver.

 

[Rob Williams]

For $80, they give you 20MB? What is this, 1995? I agree with Nate, the Silver might be a good place to start, just to see how things play out. I'd be wary about entering a long contract as well.

Bear in mind that Silver is about 10x the speed of Dial-Up, which you have been using now for many months. If it's reliable... then it might not be that bad after all. Did you look more into the Verizon wireless options though, or whatever it was? Satellite is definitely a last resort.

 

[madstork91]

I pay ~$50 for both my cable internet and cable tv... I have ~ 1.5x's the speed of Silver's Down... and 3.5x's Its upload.

I say this not to gloat but to get you to see the value of this deal, I wouldn't touch it, but I am not sure what your restrictions are concerning what is available to you (Indianapolis I would think has something better... But I've never been there)

All that being said... do these packages even include Satellite TV? If you don't know... or the answer is no... SCREW THAT!!! unless you have no choice and you make ~1mil a year.

 

[Greg King]

My situation is this...

Last January, I purchased 30 acres about 30 minutes west of Indianapolis. I am 8 minutes from 2 major suburb cities, Plainfield and Mooresville, yet I cannot get anything faster than dial-up. I am dialing in for free to my college's PPP server as I absolutely refuse to pay for dial up. SBC (AT&T) does not provide DSL on my street, even though I get their damned phone service, and Comcast wont touch this area with a 10 foot pole. So, my options are satellite or dial up. There isn't any other option.

 

[NicePants42]

Bear in mind that Silver is about 10x the speed of Dial-Up, which you have been using now for many months.

Silver = win. They'd be stupid not to let you upgrade, if it turns out that you want to.

 

[Rob Williams]

How difficult is it to move 30 acres of land closer to Plainfield?

 

[Greg King]

Silver = win. They'd be stupid not to let you upgrade, if it turns out that you want to.

I was told earlier that I can upgrade within the contract at any time.

 

[madstork91]

Silver FTW I suppose...

As for the comcast and DSL woes... That is ****ed up... Almost as much as when they shut off DSL to my house because there wasn't enough of a demand in my area, only to reroute it again 4 months later when a new development was going in down the street. WTF?

How do we, the public in america, give rights to companies like comcast and SBC to run lines, and get tax breaks only to hear from them, "oh I'm sorry but we just choose not to run line to you... Yeah we realize in 20 years we will prob need to anyways for other ppl... But screw you today. Oh and we will prob lay off some workers who lay lines because we do not have anything for them to do at the moment."

 

[NicePants42]

How do we, the public in america, give rights to companies like comcast and SBC to run lines, and get tax breaks only to hear from them, "oh I'm sorry but we just choose not to run line to you... Yeah we realize in 20 years we will prob need to anyways for other ppl... But screw you today. Oh and we will prob lay off some workers who lay lines because we do not have anything for them to do at the moment."

We give them that right by selling off their stock if it's not performing well.

 

[madstork91]

That is not something that everyone can participate in as it has the barrier of the dollar.

Thus the poor (who should be the main benefactors of such an agreement with the government) get screwed.

This was meant to be managed as a public good contracted out to a corporation precisely because the poor were going to be left out. (and were left out when telephone lines were initially ran) Here we are nearing 100 years later in that practice and it sucks donkey balls. Not only that, but a lot of congress wanted to give some telecoms the right to tier the internet last year, thus dividing up the internet even further from what can and cannot be accessed by the poorer populous.

:-/

I would like to add that in the "deals" section of the forum there is a post about SBC being required to provide $10 DSL for 2 years... But they aint advertising it.