Hughesnet will continue serving customers during its bankruptcy proceedings, but the goal is to focus on business and government customers rather than consumers.
www.pcmag.com
Their service sucked anyway...they were way behind the times...
True.
And if they had been paying attention to the many, many companies pursuing government grants to bring the Internet, the overwhelming majority being fiber, to rural communties the last few years they would have realized their customer base (homes with dial-up POTS, DSL, or nothing at all) would be shrinking.
I don't think I've been out driving a single day in the last 3 or 4 years that I didn't see crews of different companies, in different mostly rural towns and counties around me, either surveying, installing or connecting people with fiber.
Since 2006 for Internet access I've had HughesNet, Wild Blue satellite, CenturyTel ADSL and AT&T Fixed Wireless (cellular). None of those were capable of streaming TV since they either had a data cap (satellite, cellular) or high latency (satellite) or were less than 3.0 Mbps download speed (satellite, ADSL). The most irritating part of this was that those service providers KNEW they were the only game in town and took advantage of us. At one point in 2018 I was paying $78 per month for CenturyTel ADSL, no voice, just data only, for 2.0Mbps down/512K up! So I shed no tears for these satellite and local phone companies losing customers or going broke....it serves them right, IMO.
Imagine my joy when our local electric co-op brought us fiber in Sept. of 2022. It's been 4 years of absolute bliss. I got 1.0 Gig down/up, no cap, with a public and static IP. It's been rock steady and when a tree down the road fell and took it and the single, high voltage primary feed around the circle out last year the fiber crew literally stood by and watched the linemen restore electrical service then jumped in a re-strung the overhead fiber. We were out only 4 or 5 hours. I think the reason for their quick response is twofold: 1) the fiber people were established by and are part of the electric co-op and 2) they monitor their sub stations and control/monitor remote switches with the fiber.
Another nice benefit of this reliable fiber here: 90% of the time when we have a severe thunder and lightning storm go through we loose cell service for a day or two. I now have a reliable VOIP line for $14 a month...I've registered with my local 9-1-1 people and they know my address if I call from it.
