If you're considering getting HughesNet as your Internet service provider, I'd like to save you some possible headaches (and dollars). The short answer is: don't do it. You'll be better off with dial-up service. Seriously.
We moved to a small farm a year ago (2008), and when Comcast said they couldn't connect us with cable, and DSL also wasn't available, we chose the (supposedly) next best thing: satellite Internet. Once it was installed, it was slower than we'd expected, but we figured it was better than dial-up. Then one day we went over our daily bandwidth limit, and suddenly had no signal at all. (We had been told that if we went over the limit, our signal would drop to dial-up speed for 24 hours, then go back to normal.) After 24 hours, we were still getting NO signal, so I called their support line. After talking with two different people, I was transferred to someone higher up. He explained that "if I'd read the fine print," I'd see that it says they throttle the signal back. "You might get dial-up speed, you might get nothing." And the 24 hours? Again, somewhere in the fine print it says "about 24 hours. Could be more, could be less." After a week of no signal at all, I called again. They remotely checked our modem and found they couldn't get the signal going again. They sent us a replacement modem, which took another week. But it didn't matter - we got the same results: no signal.
When I said that I wanted to cancel, they reminded me that I'd have to pay a $400 fee because I'd signed a two year contract. Or I could convince someone I knew to take over the contract and have it installed at their house. (Yeah, like I'd do that to a friend...) Or I could put everything on a six-month suspension. I was tired of battling them, so I agreed to the suspension, and started driving to my wife's office three or four nights a week to use DSL.
Well, six month is up, and without notice I started getting billed through my credit card again. I called to cancel and was again told that I'd owe $400, because I'd signed a contract. I said, "I believe the contract also said that I'd be getting service." The support person said,
"The reason we're charging you an early cancellation fee is because we are providing you with service - you're just not getting any signal."
We made a mistake: we didn't do our homework. We should have searched the Internet for some reviews of HughesNet. After we started having problems, my son found a site that said, "Only get HughesNet if you can't get dial-up." I'd go one step further and say you should only get HughesNet if you have no possible way to get to a public library, or other place with public Internet access.
If I'd found a page like this one, it would have saved me a lot of headaches and a good deal of money. I hope this helps someone else.
If you're considering HughesNet, think again...