By Guest. on 23rd Apr 2008
Guest.'s Ratings| Reliability | 9/10  |
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| Customer Service | 9/10 |
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| Speed Consistency | 8/10 |
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| Value for money | 7/10 |
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| Overall value | 8/10 |
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 Guest.'s recommendation |
Good Points
Great option if you can't get DSL or cable. The key to good service is a good dealer and installer. I apparently have both.
Bad Points
Latency of course. But compared to dialup it's no slower at its worst.
General Comments
I did a LOT of research online before signing up for Wildblue, and I have come to the conclusion that an awful lot of people (not all, of course, so probably not YOU, so don't flame me.) are making up or exaggerating their problems with the system in my opinion.. If they really are having the issues they are describing, I suspect they probably should be complaining to or about their installer or local dealer rather than the entire Wildblue system. I can't say enough good about Wildblue, who installs for Mid-Wisconsin DBS. The people who answer their 800-number tech support are amazing. (Now I'M sounding like I work for them!). I went with Wildblue after first attempting to use data cards from cell phone companies, because they had gotten better ratings than either Wildblue or Hughes. They did NOT work for me. One (Verizon) didn't work at all in my area, but to their credit, they gave me a full refund when I returned everything several days later (rather than making a special 30 mile trip to return it right away). The second (Alltel) took two tries to get me the right card, and then it was about as fast as dialup as far as I am concerned, and that was AFTER I went out and bought a cell signal booster for our house. They charged a non-refundable $25 activation fee PLUS a pro-rated amount per day, even though the quality was lousy, and I ended up keeping it as long as I did only because of a problem with getting the second card into their local store. So... word to the wise. If you've had any problems with using your cell phone in your house, don't even think about using a data card for internet there.
