Below the Din

Two words: I’m free. Free from Fair Access Policies. Free from high latency and low service. I’m free.

We moved to a rural area a few years ago, where everyone had a dial-up connection and satellite TV. I really needed something faster if I wanted to do any type of work at home, instead of driving into “the city” to the office. I heard about Direcway, and as part of my next contract, I was able to get them to pay for the service.

Now, I had no illusions about what I was getting into, including high latency (1200-2500 ms) and service interrupted by rain. Still, what I got was nothing but aggravation and bad service.

To be fair, the first few years were adequate. Then, for roughly a year, my connection would trickle down to the point where I timed out of every site I visited shortly after 8 a.m. Sometimes, I’d have random issues at night, and that’s when I called tech support. Though support is a very loose term.

I would call their support number, where I would promptly have to sit through a 30-second explanation of how I can do all types of wonderful things I can do by wonderful things I can do by logging on to their customer service site. Which would be great… if I could actually connect to the site!

Moving on, I’d get the technician, who would promptly attempt to do their job and diagnose the problem. However, the problem was rarely solved. In fact, I called so often, that I would make sure to do those before I called so we could get past that. However, after explaining the symptoms, my recent history of bad service, and the steps I’ve already done to diagnose the problem, they would promptly say, “OK,” then ask me to do all those steps I already did.

During this 12 month period, Direcway was bought out and became Hughesnet. I was running out of patience, and though I was out my contract period, my sources cable and DSL were nowhere near the horizon for our area. Then, 15 minutes into one random call someone suggested upgrading my modem to the new HN7000, that may fix my problem. He emphasized the “may.” But “may” was still a better option than my current situation, so off we went.

“How much?”

“$199.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes, it’s $199. Or we have a lower rate if you choose to resign for 15 months.”

“How much is that?”

“$49.”

I clenched my teeth and gave the go ahead. So the modem arrived, and I still had problems, though they appeared a bit more random. You can imagine my tone on the immediate call I made to HN tech support. However, the modem offered more diagnostic tools than my previous modem, and there was some
magic code that told them I had set off the three words that would come to be the bane of my access: Fair Access Policy.

Simply put, if I download more than 200 megabytes in a 24-hour period, my connection gets throttled. It doesn’t matter what it is or from where I got it. You can’t contest it; you just have to sit there and take it.

OK, so let’s say for the sake of argument that my connection going down at 8 a.m. every day after doing some light web surfing was enough to trip the FAP. Why couldn’t they tell me that? Why did they let me buy a new modem for something that, as enraged as it made me, was supposedly under my control?

(Oh by the way, three months after I re-upped my contract, DSL came to our subdivision. Great. Now they tell me.)

Well my tipping point came when, after I powered up and sat through 30 minutes of a FAP-like connection, I checked to find out that I had blown my Fair Access Policy. Even though both of my computers had been powered off for 24 hours and war drivers aren’t exactly common out in our neck of the woods.

I called Hughesnet, and apparently I blew my download limit when the only thing I was doing was playing Super Smash Brothers Brawl on my new Wii. Offline–I wasn’t connected to the WFC. No system updates were downloaded, so when did I blow my FAP? Finally, I had him switch me to the billing department so I could know–to the minute–when I could cancel without having to pay the $300 penalty. I thought I had a roughly month left, because I could do, you know basic math an all. Imagine my delight when I was told they didn’t have me under contract.

Guess who had DSL installed within five days. It’s cheaper, faster, and NO FAPS!

So the point of this whole point of this sob story is to tell you that if you know someone in a rural area, just have them stick it out with dial-up until broadband comes their way. Sure, Hughesnet doesn’t sell themselves as more than just a way to surf the web faster, but as things like podcasts and streaming video gain popularity, it won’t be long till they are doing more than basic web surfing and blowing their FAP, and wind up with a connection that seems no faster than the dial-up they wanted to drop in the first place.