Orby does it make sense

[N6BY]

I can't see where Orby will ever be a real competitor. They have a few channels on 2 transponders. They don't have locals. You have to pay for the equipment and installation. The DVR is substandard to say the least. Even if they happen to have the channels that you want it's not really such a good deal if you compare it to the free Dish equipment and installation and the Flex pak and other offerings. The only advantage that they have is that you don't have to credit qualify and that 'advantage' will not attract very desirable customers for them.

I've played with their system and run all the numbers and I just can't see where they're better than real satellite TV. They kind of remind me of that Rainier satellite guy who was selling those few C Band channels and a D9865 receiver. Another .

Only time will tell if they become a real competitor.

Some here love it, and I'm happy for them.

However, in it's current state it won't work for me. I'm fine with the lack of locals since I have a lifetime TiVo with an OTA antenna. But to switch to Orby it would be $149 for the DVR and $200 for installation. That's $349 just to start. Then I would pay $54 a month ($4 DVR fee) for 12 channels that I care about. So $1000 total for the first year, and $648 per year after (assuming they don't raise the price or go out of business). That's $83 per year per channel that I would actually watch, dropping to $54 in years 2 and beyond.

Right now with cable I have 30 channels I watch for $90 a month. Much better deal.

 

[JSheridan]

So then, why are millions are leaving? Channel bloat, multi-year contracts and exorbitant cost come to mind...

Orby is only one of the many alternative content providers to benefit from the exodus of traditional satellite and cable subscription models. To think that the these business models are thriving is to bury your head in the sand... Better read www.satelliteguys.us/xen/posts/4420847/ again. Never suggested that the satellite providers were dying, only failing.

In the spirit of this being an Orby SUPPORT forum, I will once again emphasize that as a 10 month veteran subscriber, I am very satisfied with the level customer support provided by a US based call center, the channel package, month to month subscription and cost vs value. It is a good fit for me, and I am OK if it isn't for you...

Very few Dish or DirecTV subs left for Orby. Most that leave are leaving for streaming. You keep talking 'subscription model is failing'. What do you think Orby's plan is if it isn't a subscription model. It's a subscription model with just a few channels, no locals, a lousy DVR and a 'model' that doesn't even offer the benefit of free equipment and installation. I know that you've always been biased against Dish and DirecTV and Orby is your new pet project. Too bad for you they're the ones with the failing business model.

 

[Titanium]

JSheridan, "Always been biased against Dish and DirecTV"? Where does that come from? I have been a commercial DirecTV distributor and subscriber, a Dish Network reseller, installer and subscriber, an AT&T subscriber and currently a Suddenlink subscriber. Nothing against Dish, Direct or other subscription service other than to recognize changing consumer habits.

"Your new pet project"? What is that? Other than to acknowledge that I am simply an Orby subscriber with absolutely zero skin in the game. Don't let your ignorant conspiracy theories get to far out in front of reality.

Quit acting like a troll...

 

[JSheridan]

JSheridan, Always biased against Dish and DirecTV? Where does that come from? I was a commercial DirecTV distributor and subscriber, a Dish Network installer and subscriber for many years, an AT&T subscriber and currently a Suddenlink subscriber. Nothing against Dish, Direct or other subscription service other than the changing consumer habits.

"Your new pet project"? What is that? Other than to acknowledge that I am simply an Orby subscriber with absolutely zero skin in the game. Don't let your ignorant conspiracy theories get to far out in front of reality.

Quit acting like a troll...

Are you not Titanium Satellite? If you're not an Orby dealer then the Orby 'model' sure fits with your FTA satellite business. We all have some skin in the game.

 

[Titanium]

Titanium Satellite is not and will not become an Orby dealer; but rather, I am a satisfied Orby subscriber. My skin in the game would be to keep enough money in the subscription's autopay account.

 

[truckracer]

Even after all the defections to streaming the numbers of subscribers for Dish and DirecTV are still in the tens of millions and will probably remain so for many years to come. That's a far cry from dying. They still make hundreds of millions of dollars of profit per quarter.

How many subscribers does Orby have? Maybe a few thousand at best? Compared to real satellite TV Orby isn't a serious competitor at all.

For now. If orby spends enough on promoting the service they will be a real competitor. I believe a good bit of tv subscribers do not watch sports or home shopping clubs. I am happy to not have to flip through 20 ESPN and fox sports networks trying to get to a real cable channel. I also do not like paying for them since I am not into sports at all.

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[truckracer]

Well at least these guys have real channels, the Rannier service the only channel I heard of was the NFL network.

It would not even be fair to a legit company like Orby who is headed up by professional execs comparing them to Ranier. That's like comparing a drug dealer to a pharmacist.

I am a bit critical of tv services and systems. I love the low tech basic aspects of Orby. A very easy company to deal with.
Everything is cut and dry. No tricks or baiting.
As far as I am concerned at this point they have my business forever.

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[JSheridan]

For now. If orby spends enough on promoting the service they will be a real competitor. I believe a good bit of tv subscribers do not watch sports or home shopping clubs. I am happy to not have to flip through 20 ESPN and fox sports networks trying to get to a real cable channel. I also do not like paying for them since I am not into sports at all.

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I don't think that spending a lot will help them much even though they have to do it to get known. Between the upfront cost, limited channel selection, no locals and all the other negatives there's only so many people who will find Orby attractive. The questions are how many people will that be and will they make enough money to survive.

 

[truckracer]

I personally have no use to have DVRs, 250 sports and home shopping club channels. I do not need a satellite provider to charge me 12.00 for locals that are free.
I do not need extra receiver fees.
No need for the super fast internet fees so I can use the internet from the cable company to replace the cable company!!!

Cord cutters crack me up buying a 100.00 + internet package so its fast enough to watch tv. Hey ......theres still a cord. You simply traded one form of data for another.
Orby works when the cable is out or too slow. Big storms come, knock out trees and break the cable...no problem instill have tv.
If I want home shopping and religious channels I get those on free to air.

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[NYDutch]

I personally have no use to have DVRs, 250 sports and home shopping club channels. I do not need a satellite provider to charge me 12.00 for locals that are free.
I do not need extra receiver fees.
No need for the super fast internet fees so I can use the internet from the cable company to replace the cable company!!!

Cord cutters crack me up buying a 100.00 + internet package so its fast enough to watch tv. Hey ......theres still a cord. You simply traded one form of data for another.
Orby works when the cable is out or too slow. Big storms come, knock out trees and break the cable...no problem instill have tv.
If I want home shopping and religious channels I get those on free to air.

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I agree Orby is a good fit for certain elements of the sat service market. Your description of the streaming requirements are a bit exaggerated though. We regularly stream TV programming on cell data connections in the 5-10 Mbps range with minimal to no buffering. Even our $15/mo Spectrum service at our NY cottage is only 30/5 Mbps, yet it handles our DishAnywhere service ok. Given that we would have the same Internet services we currently have with or without streaming TV programs, I think it's fair to say that streaming adds nothing to our Internet costs. If anything, it gives us an opportunity to get more for our money.

 

[truckracer]

I agree Orby is a good fit for certain elements of the sat service market. Your description of the streaming requirements are a bit exaggerated though. We regularly stream TV programming on cell data connections in the 5-10 Mbps range with minimal to no buffering. Even our $15/mo Spectrum service at our NY cottage is only 30/5 Mbps, yet it handles our DishAnywhere service ok. Given that we would have the same Internet services we currently have with or without streaming TV programs, I think it's fair to say that streaming adds nothing to our Internet costs. If anything, it gives us an opportunity to get more for our money.

In my location, you would never get any kind of connection for 15.00 a month.
Xfinity bottom speed here is 20 megabits down 3 up. It starts at 49.00 month. You will see 3 to 6 actual download. Frontier dsl will get you 250k to 1 meg max for 19.99 month.
To get an Xfinity package to stream HD with no buffering, I have to spend over 100.00 month just internet. Thrown in Netflix, hulu and sling, I am well over the cost of satellite.

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[truckracer]

The added bandwidth demands for streaming is driving internet costs higher and higher.
There no way we would have enough cell data to stream on AT&T or Verizon here.

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[NYDutch]

The added bandwidth demands for streaming is driving internet costs higher and higher.
There no way we would have enough cell data to stream on AT&T or Verizon here.

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Did you know Verizon has a prepaid service called "VISIBLE" that supplies unlimited talk, text, and data for $40/mo with no contract? The hotspot feature only supports one device connection, but that one device can be an access point that allows many connections. The hotspot speed is supposed to be throttled to 5 Mbps, but for the past couple of months they've been advertising it with no throttling that will continue for the life of the subscription even if throttling is reintroduced for new subscribers. Their basic ZTE Visible R2 phone is only $19, or free if you have an eligible phone to trade in. I'm getting the phone today to check out the service. If it works as well as others have reported, I'll replace my current $65/mo Verizon unlimited data hotspot plan with it.

Visible | The Future Of Phone Service

 

[DetFan]

Cant you get all of those channels for 20 bucks with Philo and get locals the same way as Orby offers them?

This company makes no sense to me.


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[truckracer]

Did you know Verizon has a prepaid service called "VISIBLE" that supplies unlimited talk, text, and data for $40/mo with no contract? The hotspot feature only supports one device connection, but that one device can be an access point that allows many connections. The hotspot speed is supposed to be throttled to 5 Mbps, but for the past couple of months they've been advertising it with no throttling that will continue for the life of the subscription even if throttling is reintroduced for new subscribers. Their basic ZTE Visible R2 phone is only $19, or free if you have an eligible phone to trade in. I'm getting the phone today to check out the service. If it works as well as others have reported, I'll replace my current $65/mo Verizon unlimited data hotspot plan with it.

Visible | The Future Of Phone Service

That's a nice offer. Currently AT&T throttles us after 8 GB. It slows down to 200 KB/S. We dont have good high speed LTE here anyway. All the broadband here is hit and miss on ping times and speeds run all over. At times we get good speeds and others it runs like dial up. Definitely not reliable.

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[truckracer]

Did you know Verizon has a prepaid service called "VISIBLE" that supplies unlimited talk, text, and data for $40/mo with no contract? The hotspot feature only supports one device connection, but that one device can be an access point that allows many connections. The hotspot speed is supposed to be throttled to 5 Mbps, but for the past couple of months they've been advertising it with no throttling that will continue for the life of the subscription even if throttling is reintroduced for new subscribers. Their basic ZTE Visible R2 phone is only $19, or free if you have an eligible phone to trade in. I'm getting the phone today to check out the service. If it works as well as others have reported, I'll replace my current $65/mo Verizon unlimited data hotspot plan with it.

Visible | The Future Of Phone Service

Just signed up for it online. Sim card is on its way!! Thank You for the info.

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[NYDutch]

Cant you get all of those channels for 20 bucks with Philo and get locals the same way as Orby offers them?

This company makes no sense to me.

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You probably can, although I haven't compared channel for channel. That doesn't remove the need for a good unlimited Internet service with decent speeds though. Orby fits a niche market right now with no Internet needed, and hopefully that's enough to make them successful. Competition is good for consumers...

 

[NYDutch]

Just signed up for it online. Sim card is on its way!! Thank You for the info.

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I got my Visible phone and service this afternoon. I'm playing with it now, and so far it's looking good.

 

[Mochuf]

In my location, you would never get any kind of connection for 15.00 a month.
Xfinity bottom speed here is 20 megabits down 3 up. It starts at 49.00 month. You will see 3 to 6 actual download. Frontier dsl will get you 250k to 1 meg max for 19.99 month.
To get an Xfinity package to stream HD with no buffering, I have to spend over 100.00 month just internet. Thrown in Netflix, hulu and sling, I am well over the cost of satellite.

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Any package from Xfinity that costs $100 is either a Gigabit service or includes tv. I've never seen them advertise any normal speed internet only service for anything near $100. Hell I can get Blast internet (200) with their 10+ tv package that includes locals for $60 a month (before taxes and fees). I have a Comcast competitor (WOW!) and I pay $44.99 for 200/10 service that will go up $10 after 12 months plus SlingTV for another $35. Can you supply a screen shot of the Xfinity page with the $100/month internet service.

 

[truckracer]

Any package from Xfinity that costs $100 is either a Gigabit service or includes tv. I've never seen them advertise any normal speed internet only service for anything near $100. Hell I can get Blast internet (200) with their 10+ tv package that includes locals for $60 a month (before taxes and fees). I have a Comcast competitor (WOW!) and I pay $44.99 for 200/10 service that will go up $10 after 12 months plus SlingTV for another $35. Can you supply a screen shot of the Xfinity page with the $100/month internet service.

There are no competitors here. Frontier dsl that runs 1.5 mbps is your other option that is not an option.
You will never get 100 mbps here. You may pay for it but it wont happen.

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