I saw a commercial last night for Dish's "high speed" internet service. Is it a true satellite-based ISP, like Hughes Net? Does anyone have any experience with it as far as reliability, speed, etc? How does the pricing compare to cable internet?
DishNET internet
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In fact I think it is Hughes NEt. HughesNet is now owned by echostar. echostar and legally separate corporations but they are inextricably linked. Echostar provides equipment and satellite to DISH and DISH resells satellite internet in some markets.
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DishNet can be either HughesNet or Exede depending on what's available in your area and what the technician installs. Both limit your data usage. Exede is currently working much, much better than the HughesNet Gen4 but neither can come close to an average cable modem for performance and value.
And...trust me, HughsNet has absolutely no relationship to the phrase "high speed internet" in any way, shape, or form.
If you have access to DSL or cable internet you should do yourself a favor and skip the satellite internet. Satellite internet is really only meant for customers in rural areas that have no other options. I will admit that satellite internet is MUCH improved over what it was a few years ago.
Well that depends on what beam you are on. For the most part Hughes has all the bugs worked out now though on all beams on GEN4.
I installed one new Viasat setup (Exede) last September and was very impressed with the speed considering its satellite. I've attached a screen shot of a bandwidth test I did right after activation.
Keep in mind that was through a wireless router and on my phone. I imagine it was faster right out of the modem.
DishNet is a good if you do not have any way of having broadband from any other service. The rate for the amount of data is high and the usage overage charges are even higher.
Agreed 100%. The first thing I ask a potential customer is if they have any other option. If they do, then I say go with it. If not, then we talk sat options. For TV you can't beat satellite in my opinion. For internet, its a last resort because of the low data cap. Speed wise though the new stuff is amazing.
If you can get atleast 3 Meg DSL or cable internet, then keep what you got.
Exede and Hughesnet is great only when nothing else is available.
Exede and Hughesnet is great only when nothing else is available.
My DishNet (exede) is much faster than my old wildblue service but it is not as fast as my Verizon phone 4G LTE hotspot. The negative for the hotspot is sometimes I can't get connected. You just have to be very careful about the amount of data you download. I don't do more than 1 or 2 movies on demand in a month. My only really choices are DishNet or wireless phone data plan.
Donna
Donna
I appreciate all the feedback here. I have access to cable modem, so I think I'm going to stick with that for now. 
I appreciate all the feedback here. I have access to cable modem, so I think I'm going to stick with that for now.
That's definitely your best bet.
Gen4 working the bugs out, OK I'll agree with that because a month or so ago it was much, much worse. I have both systems sitting here in front of me and I assure you that Exede12 is far superior to Gen4 in every way. Download speed, upload speed and general responsiveness is FAR BETTER on Exede12. That might change in the future but that is definitely the way it is now. There's no comparison.
I got to try out the new DishNet service and it was faster than my Frontier DSL (due to their congestions they have had for months). It was able to stream 1080p streams on Youtube during the evening hours. The issue I found with it was you had to wait for it to start loading but after that it went fast. I would still stick with the slower DSL connection due to the data caps satellite broadband has unless you do not do much downloading or videos.
I live in southwest Ohio, in the boonies and signed up for satellite last year. The speed is about as fast as my friends ATT Uverse, but more expensive. Of course there is a long ping time - usually more than a second, but speed is 6-8 meg.
