Huge Hughes

Today a Russian Proton rocket was launched successfully from the space center of Baikonoer in Kazachstan carrying the Ka-Sat satellite.
It was safely put in orbit and this satellite will be operational in four months.

The Ka-Sat satellite was build by the European company Astrium and has a capacity equal to 40 TV-satellites.
It will serve over 1 million households in Europe with high speed internet connections.



The Ka-Sat satellite is owned by the European communication company Eutelsat.
It has a height of 6 meters (20 feet) and its wingspan is over 40 meters (131 feet).
This satellite costs 350 million Euros. (460 million $)

In the USA are several companies offering internet access through a satellite connection.
Hughes Network Systems is one such company having over one million customers.
It uses different satellites but no matter how, it is by now an outdated system with low transmission speeds.
But worse is the policy of Hughes towards their customers.
It is driven by hunger for profit no matter what.
It si capitalism at its worst.
Check for example the Consumer Affairs website for Hughes Network Systems for the most horrific stories.
Where people write things like:

How many individual complaints reporting the same problems with this company does it take to get a response from Consumer Affairs or The Federal Trade Commission? Does Hughesnet have a loophole within the law that makes it okay to falsely advertise, compromise the privacy of their customers and real them in with false claims of "Special Promotions" that offer free installation and equipment, that not even a month into service you are billed $ 495.82 for?

Or

One of their commercials used to make fun of DSL, saying it stood for dismally slow line. Nothing could be farther from the truth. We installed DSL just yesterday and it is wonderful. Probably 10 times as fast and a lot cheaper and no fair access policy, which is only a way to rip people off. I hope I hear of a class action lawsuit against them because I can't wait to get involved. I don’t really believe in lawsuits but these people are crooks and they need to be put out of business. Please Please Please stay away from them.

Or

I have had 5 years of the worst internet service. I have called HughesNet over 200 times. The customer service is outsourced to India as are all of US Companies. The signal and bandwith is terrible and is not High speed service as advertised. On its best day it is a hair better than dial up. The modem has to be restarted several times a day in order to try to get a connection.

Or

This has got to be the worst company in history. They are nothing but crooks who oversell their own product and pass the shoddy end product on to their customers who are forced to accept it without recourse. I really never thought of mental anguish before dealing with Hughesnet, now I know why it is a factor in lawsuits. Hughesnet needs to be forced by law to uphold their contracts with their customers who presently have no voice whatsoever. A class action lawsuit is the only way I can see where they can be made to account for their actions.

For now there is only the knowledge that it is a temporary matter.
Logic and history learns that in the future Internet will be everywhere at high speed.
And hopefully private companies will not be allowed anymore to be involved in this type of public services.

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Check:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/internet/hughes.html



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