I had Hughes Net for years and hated it. I had multiple issues and they sent out techs to fix it every time. I've had everything replaces at least twice, and sometimes four times. They even replaced my cables. Each time it was a different company that came out. Hughes hires local companies to service and install their systems, and you never know who will show up. What will happen is that guy will spend his time there badmouthing the previous guy, and the guy who comes next will do the exact same thing about the previous guy.
Customer support is in India. They are alright, but you have to play the game of working your way up to somebody who will really help, or send out a tech to fix the problem. Expect to spend hours on the phone playing this game.
If it rains, it wont work. If it's cold out, it migh not work. If it's windy, cloudy or just because, it might not work. Residential sattelite systems are limited in how much power they can have, kind of like over the shelf asperin compared to prescription strength.
They use remanufactured equipment and if a tech shows up with three brand new, unopened boxes, you still might not get one that works. I speak from experience. And after waiting another week for three more brand new boxes and getting one that worked, it lasted one month past the warrentee of six months.
At the time, I didn't have any other options.
I've found that as cell service and technology increases, areas that didn't have coverage now do. When I bought my land, I couldn't get a signal with Verizon. Now I have a very strong 3G signal and I'm waiting for them to upgrade it to 4G before I upgrade.
If I had to do it over again, I would strongly consider a slow, but reliable phone line over satelite. For all th money that I spent, and for the days it worked well, it wasn't worth it for the days it didn't work, and all the frustration it caused me with trying to get it to work.
If you get Satelitte and have to call customer support, tell them it is clear skies outside when you call. No matter what it's like outside, the only thing that will keep them talking to you is if it's clear skies outside. Anything else and they will tell you to call back if it doesn't get better when the sky clears up. Clouds are such a huge issue for satelite that the wont even talk to you about an issue if there are any clouds in the sky.
Good luck,
Eddie
