Wild Blue satband and changes to the access without notice
Without satellite broadband, people like me who live outside cities and need to run online businesses are usually up a creek to put it politely - it’s pretty hard to do that sort of thing using dialup (it CAN be done, but it’s NOT easy).
In fact, I did it on dialup (on 30+ year old analog lines, at that) for several years. Then Wild Blue became available affordably in this area, which was MUCH appreciated needless to say. And for 6 months or so, it was pretty great.
However, on about the 15th of January, out of the “Blue” as it were, I received an email stating “WildBlue has been made aware that your bandwidth usage over the past 30 days is approaching the Usage Threshold, as defined in WildBlue’s Fair Access Policy (FAP).” And so on, for several paragraphs of stuff. Now, I’d read the FAP when I signed up with them, and for 6 months I had cursorily watched the “meter”, and was nowhere close to threshold.
So digging into the fine print in the email, I discovered that in NOVEMBER, they changed some of the “meter rules” - without so much as sending customers an email to let them know policies had changed! And the policy they changed was to massively reduce the amount of download bandwidth you’re allowed on the “low end” plan. Of course, download bandwidth is EVERYTHING you do online really - from email to loading sites, to downloading Windows updates…. you know, EVERYTHING.
Good thing I have backup dialup, because I still have a business to run, I have a contract with Wild Blue into May which I can’t break before it’s done - and I have to keep the usage under their new limits or THEY will break the contract and charge me untold amounts of money on top of what I’m already paying them monthly.
Now I’m watching the “meter” on a daily basis to make sure I dont have another problem. I’m using dialup for simple surfing. And what I really think about the policy change? I think Wild Blue decided they were losing money bigtime on the low end plan, and they thought by now people like me would be so set on using the higher bandwidth that we’d just roll over and play dead - by immediately saying “oh, I guess I better just go to the more expensive plan”.
Not me. Not now. Not ever. And Wild Blue is out of my business and life the MINUTE the contract is done. Got a new company with satband available in this area, SkyFX; their usage policy is very fair, and quite a bit more attractive than Wild Blue - for less money.
03/16/07, 1:53 PM |
I edited this entry and made it an FCC bitchslap too. This is the sort of thing that writing some clear regulations on would remedy. Consumer notification of changes to the TOS should be MANDATORY, with an ability for a consumer to exit a contract with no penalty if the company changes the TOS. This is exactly the kind of consumer protection regulation that is needed in the telecommuncation, wireless, cable, and broadband areas. Comcast has done something similar to its broadband customers, but they didn’t even tell people what that ceiling was, just turned them off if it was breached.
I’m glad I found you that link to SkyFX!
03/16/07, 2:54 PM |
Oh, good thought! I spaced that, thanks for taking care of it…. and thanks for the link to SkyFX as well - the install package/equipment is less than Wild Blue, and I’ll get 4 months free just for going with them AND there’s no contract to sign.
Am I looking forward to May? Damn betcha!