Complaint Review: hughsnet satellite internet provider - Internet

 Hughsnet oversells its satellite capacity leaving consumers with much less bandwidth than specified in contracts. This is masked by sophisticated throttling techniques unknown to most unsatisfied consumers. You may get contractual download speeds when running a speed test but once you try to download a large file or stream video say hello to throttling. As such, forget about streaming unless you want to watch a program in less than standard definition. If you just browse websites the service works fine but in today's world where most people stream video Hughsnet just can't deliver on their contractual promises. Although the contract does state that speeds are only guaranteed up to a certain agreed upon amount, the facts dictate that Hughsnet employs throttling continually because of over selling its product. In essence, consumers seldom if ever get the bandwidth paid for when attempting to stream video or download large files. Even more frustrating is when one contacts customer service. There is a pat reply of attempting to blame the lack of bandwidth for streaming on the consumers equipment - router etc., stating everything is fine on their end. The bottom-line is they have over-sold the capacity of their satellites and use sophisticated throttling techniques to split the available bandwidth among their customer base, especially during prime time usage. This also explains the phenomenon of receiving acceptable speeds during testing, leaving you to believe you're getting what you subscribed to. Keep in mind that a speed test takes about a minute so throttling won't kick in, but when their equipment senses streaming or downloading - longer than a minute or so - the throttling slows the speed down based on how many people are using the system. Hughsnet continues to oversell its satellite capacity and use technological gimmicks to compensate.

These unscrupulous marketing schemes mislead people upfront convincing them that acceptable video resolution when streaming and downloading at speeds close to agreed upon values are possible. But once the contract is signed and reality exposes the truth Hughsnet strong-arms complantants wanting to terminate by demanding its $400 dollar early termination fee. Hence the reason for thousands of complaints. As we now know a satellite only has a limited amount of capacity (bandwidth). We also understand that for a business to survive it needs to continually grow revenue. The problem Hughsnet has is it only has a few satellites but without added customers (revenue) it cannot sustain itself. To get around this obstacle it must add customers and while doing so it must further divide an already limited amount of bandwidth. In technical terms this equates to throttling a practice forbidden by the FCC under net neutrality. Compared to a cable company that can easily add additional capacity when needed, a satellite company does not have the ready option of deploying another satellite without incurring a huge cost. So again, it must compensate by continually dividing bandwidth as more and more customers are added. This reduction in bandwidth is most notable during attempted streaming and downloading of large files . Still during other times bandwidth comes to a complete stop. During these episodes bandwidth is significantly reduced from contractual values essentially violating federal law by using confusing measurements to hide its throttling of data. This falls under the False Advertising clause of: Manipulation of measurement units and standards. This means: Manipulation of measurement units and standards can be described as a seller deceiving customers by informing them with facts that either are not true or are using a standard or standards that wouldn’t be widely used or understood which results in the customer being misinformed or confused.