Starband

I used to be a StarBand dealer/installer. Your best bet if you are looking at satellite based internet service is to use WildBlue or HughesNet. StarBand has been on it's way out for a long time now. I use cellular based internet from Verizon now.

I am currently stuck with Starband for the next 20 months. I purchased Starband based on their website packages shown on their homepage, only to find out in the End User Agreement that there are restrictions not specifically stated in the packages listed. The customer support is only available during certain hours, and expect a minimum of 25 minutes before talking to tech support. I ALWAYS get the response that "We are currently experiencing a lot of calls at this time", but that is ALL the time! I recently had problems with the service dropping off for 30 minutes every hour or so, and tech support kept having me try different troubleshooting steps such as checking the weather conditions (it was a clear day with no clouds, fog, trees or anything to block my dish - it was actually perfect conditions) then disconnecting the router etc. until I was online again. Then it went out again even without the router connected, but it was after hours to contact tech support. There is no way to co... Read more

I had starband internet service for 7 years. During that time, the service would go out during a storm and sometimes the service was so slow it would constantly time out. In eally 2009 I upgraded our modem because according to tech support that was the only way I could hook a wireless router into the system. The wireless never worked. In May, 2010, I received an email that I had gone over my bandwith usage. Until then, I didn't know what bandwith was. The email stated the service would be slowed down for 7 days as a penalty. I was taking online college courses and when they slowed down something that was already slow, I could not do what I needed on line. Three days later I had a wifi system installed and called Starband to disconnect. I was told I had to pay $299 for contract cancellation. I replied that our contract had been signed in 2003 to which the tech said since I upgraded the modem, it was an implied new contract. Two weeks later I was still getting starband email ... Read more

I had Starband for 2 years, till this month when I canceled. I was actually very happy with the service until they swapped over to a new satellite in July of 2009. Everything went down hill after that, while I never needed tech support prior to the move, I now found myself calling in frequently and found them to be useless and uncaring, more than that, a couple of guys at Starband tech support were rude, with no concern for customers. I'm a bit of a tech'y, I have 4 pc's, can rebuild PC's etc, and keep my PC's running cleanly. My household internet use is casual, no gaming or other bandwidth hogging. Until Starband figures out whats wrong with their new satellite system, I would rate them VERY POORLY. Any kind of drizzle, light snow, sometimes just being overcast and the internet is lost. They made me pay the tech to come out and troubleshoot the install, but did give me a month credit for having to pay they guy. He found nothing wrong. Again after the satellite swap, we experien... Read more

This evaluation is based in South Central New York State near Pennsylvania boarder. Pro: anything is better than dialup, Con: No local tech support. Will NOT work to Attend or Moderate video portion of Webinars (voice portion handled by phone). Email not accepted by some Internet providers In the morning, speed less than 40 percent of what you pay for. Their own phone and Email Tech Support admits this is normal. Afternoon and evening speeds are 20 percent or less than what you pay for. I'm not a customer or dealer. I'm a technician that has assisted several Starband Customers. Local satellite dealer will no longer support or install Starband. All above comments based on extensive testing and working with Starband Tech Support. Most have switched to Hughesnet. Service is faster and none have had problems since Hughesnet Installed their system. As always, never use any Satellite Internet Service unless it's your last resort.

The Good: - A little faster than dial-up The Bad: - Tech Support is awful and unhelpful. They suggested I cancel my service because I was unhappy that they block Tivos from connecting. - They also block the Wii, Playstation, and Xbox as well as Tivo so if you want to get online to play or even get service updates, you won't be able to. - MUCH SLOWER than promised. Expect to get 30-40% of the speed they say you can get. The fine print says you will get "up to" the promised speed so they never have to give you what you pay for. - Their email stinks and is blacklisted by many other email systems - hotmail for one blocks anything from Starband email so you will never be able to communicate with anyone with a hotmail account. - Lots of service outages. Heavy cloud cover will kill your signal. They also do checks or updates on your modem and will reboot it on you at any time without warning. - Lack of installers and dealers. Chances are slim you live anywhere near a dealer ... Read more

Interesting that many complaints here are clearly due to having not read/understood the agreement. I read the details before I get into a contract, then don't expect anything different. I agree that DSL is better (cheaper start-up, no limits), but if that is not available, then via satellite, I think Starband is the best option. I recommend you re-read your original contract- you get 1/2 the usage limit before they slow you down. Then it is a rolling seven day period before you can get your speeds again. That is much better than having to wait a month with Hughes! Check the usage charts in "my account" to see where you are. Usage shows up after 24 hours. Also the verizon plug-ins offer even less usage and charge you per kb if you go over!! Think about upgrading if you need more use. I'm sure some frustration can occur due to the limited number of dealers, and starband won't pay them to come look at your installation/troubles, so if they are far away, it could be expensive. Maybe i... Read more

I get 30% to 40% of my 1000 KBPS service... Once in a while we hit 700 !! Tech support gives me the run-around... one guy says "I can't understand why it's so slow... I give the problem to an engineer". No change in speed....the next rep says it normal!! I complete my end of the contract... I pay my bills.... they don't provide a reasonable service level. Reasonable DL speed for what I pay for is 800Kbps. Do your homework if you're thinking of buying !!!!!! "Run Forest Run"

Their product is OK - but beware if you ever need help their customer service sucks. I called 4 times today, got put on hold for 5-10 minutes each time. No one ever picked up 3/4 times. The 4th time when I did get a live person, they offered to transfer me and I was immediately disconnected. Would not recommend.

Starband tech support is okay. But their customer support (billing/accounts/service plans, etc) really suck! I upgraded from the 480 series modem to the Nova 1000 modem due to software conflicts with the StarBand software and the accounting software I use, and THEY CANCELLED MY PROTECTION PLAN INSURANCE FOR THE DISH! They claim it's not offered with the Nova package. IT'S THE SAME DISH! Now I have to pay for all repairs out of pocket, and where I live, that include a $150 "trip fee" added on to the service fee and the materials/parts costs. And when I ask to speak to a supervisor, there's never one available. Their agent "Ty" (no other information available) has single-handedly lost me as a customer. I am in the process of signing up with a Wi-Fi service. There's nothing else available up here in the mountains (no DSL, Comcast, etc) When I first got the StarBand system (EXPENSIVE), it was the only option available here other than dial-up. Now at least I can sign up for Wi-F... Read more

I'm a former employee and I'd like to say that working for them is about as bad as having their service. The tier 3 team is basically all black except one person and if you ask a question or need help they look down on you for it and talk about you behind your back REAL bad. Once T3 or anyone in mgmt decides they don't like you they will ride your ass straight into the ground with 500 different ways to measure things to say you're not meeting expectations. Example? Oh look here Johnny, you should be averaging 4.3 calls an hour and you're only doing 4.1. After a week or two JUST THAT is enough for them to start writing you up. If you punch back into your phone 1 minute late from lunch or a break it's called an "occurence". Get a couple of those and you're written up as well. Get wrote up twice and you're gone. They can basically always pull a couple stats from somewhere as 'cause' to get rid of you. Even if, like me, you daily had customers requesting to speak with supervisors... Read more

Starband is awful, except it's better than Hughes. Starband gets slow, when I had Hughes it just stopped working for days on end, and their tech support was even ruder and dumber than starband's. I don't understand how tech companies in general expect to stay in business when their products are such crap that you have to call tech support, you wait on hold, push 50 buttons to enter your acount number, etc., etc., etc., and still have to give the number to the "tech" when they answer, listen to interminable messages about how important your call is to them (it's so important that they don't bother to answer for 20 mins+) and then tech support just reads you a script that is available on the net, which you already did, that didn't fix the problem. Starband does all of the above, but they do get it working, unlike Hughes, which just keeps taking your money 'till you give up and go away (and eat the $800 for the modem)

I dunno, Starband's always been pretty good to me. I've had the service for over three years now and am about to upgrade to their new Nova plan. They usually answer my questions thoroughly when I call, service has been uninterrupted since I've had it and I always run at or above the stated speed. It IS annoying when they throttle me back (it's happened twice), but when I call, they promptly set me back up again. So, good reliable service--no major complaints from me.

Starband has been in a continuous decline for the six years I had the service. At the beginning, I was able to get about 50% of the download and upload speed I was supposed to get -- at the end I was getting only about twice the download speed of a dial-up modem and slightly less than the upload speed of a modem. When I started, I was able to run two computers on the service, although not at a great speed. At the end, we had to switch off using the single dial-up account because even small web pages took up to five minutes to load up. Even doing a few hours a day of typical web surfing and email can exceed the bandwidth limits that are imposed and put you into a purgetory where the service become totally useless. With typical usage the same on different days, the service sometimes reported 0 bandwith and other times up to 250 mb. There is no real time bandwidth measures and the figures they use to decide when to degrade your service lag a day. At the end I cancelled the service and fig... Read more

I'm in good company with all those poor souls who had no other choice, but who said it stinks. Nothing but problems for 6 years, mediocre software, no or incompetent support, limited hours or on hold forever, dsl finally came, need I say more...

One can never get a direct answer to any question without the tech going thru a litany of text and coming back to the reason the wuestion was asked with out an understandable answer.

The switch to 1-GB per week of bandwidth usage means that I can only 'get away' with renting one 2.5-GB movie per week from Amazon for my Tivo. I got my bandwidth 'restricted' for every violation from a single Tivo movie rental to downloading to my PS3 one too many video game previews! I only hope I can continue paying my penance for each violation and not eventually get cut-off. Starband has turned into a nightmare. With over $800 invested in the satellite dish, it's difficult to let go. I have obtained a Sprint USB modem on their super fast network, and I'd swear its bandwidth is literally 10-times faster than Starband's. Sprint has no bandwidth restrictions. The problem is that I can't use a USB modem on my Tivo. So I keep Starband as a backup Internet account and keep it plugged into my Tivo to load content (which doesn't use that much bandwidth). My guilty pleasure is doing the bad thing with Starband and indulging in a 2.5-GB movie from Amazon, getting restricted access for 7 day... Read more

I used to be a starband dealer about five years ago but quit because they would not give me my commissions. I would call two times a day begging for my commissions. A few times I heard people laughing in the background. I had to buy a starband recently because I wanted to get internet from my rv while traveling. The 1 gig per week stipend is a joke. The way the "measure" bandwidth is a joke. Their "tech" support is a joke and they also are liars. I can't think of one redeeming quality this company has. That have declared bankruptcy protection at least two times in the last 7 years. Their customer support is run by illiterate condescending hacks and they are always extremely rude. Avoid Starband at all costs.

I have been with Starband since 2000. At first the service was great. It has recently gotten slower and slower and stoppped working all together at times. Now I get a message saying that because I surfed Google Earth I used too much bandwidth and it was unfair to the other customers if I "hogged" too much space. So now everything is slow because they throttled me back for over use only on one day. What about the other 7 years, every day that I never used "too much bandwidth"? When I paid mega bucks to have this system put in - then mega bucks to go to Sky Edge because I upgraded to Vista I never signed a contract with these guys so can change whenever I danged well please - all I can say is stay away!!! I am changing as soon as possible. This service isn't what it used to be at all. No wonder they are bankrupt! P.S. Only 1 star because there are no zero stars!

Don't buy Starband. I have had it now for 6 years and this past year they bring up this ICE that was never in the contract I signed. They oversold there service and now can't provide to those who have had it for years. This time I used 750mbs and they throttled me back to 9. So they are cutting you back even more. It has never performed as stated and promised. Look to something else before buying this crap. Dial up or wireless card is better than this.

Starband is HORRIBLE. I've been a customer since 2000. The ICE policy is ridiculous. You get 1 GIG of download over a 7 day period. My kids can do that in a day on myspace and youtube. Then you get "throttled" - only thing is, it doesn't just slow down, it stops working. Stay with dial-up, do not do business with this company.

I agree Starband has lost the edge. Several years ago, I purchased the equipment (original the 180 modem, for $900) in 2002. connection speeds were good. But every year uplink/downlink got slower. Now it compares with dial-up, even with the 360 upgrade modem. Do they care or offer any real solutions - NO. I have gone to Sprint PCS, requiring a dual band repeater (900/1800) at my expense with a directional antenna only because of my remote location. It does the job very well. The PCS service works great in-town and on the road in most major metropolitan areas. Sprint provides better performance and it cost less than Starband. I recently terminated services with Starband 10/02/2007. Good-Bye, forever. [email protected] (or for a few days [email protected])

I have had starband for about 4 yrs now. Only other thing available is dial-up with antique phone lines in this area. The first 2 yrs were fine. 3rd year got slower so they changed my cluster which got it a bit better but not much. For the past 6 months my service is terrible. Techs are not any help. They've told me that the modem is going out, the lan is going out and that my dish needs adjusting. Fine so I call the "local" guys (the original installer quite working with them 3 yrs ago). The nearest installer is about 40 miles away and took 6 calls and 6 weeks to get an appt set up. I wait for them all day and nobody showed, so I call them. Oh they can't make it that day and have no idea the next time they'll be in the area. So I call the next installer, 65 miles away. They don't come this far. In the mean time my signal is in and out all day long and I work from home. 6 months later and still no help. I just found out that T6B braodband (radio waves) is in my area!!!!! ... Read more

They are not even a one. They totally suck. They have no control of there installers and most of them are shady to do business with its always there fault if something is wrong and the installers say they are crazy.Bottom line is you have to pay the installers everytime they come and with starband that is alot. You buy it and you are stuck with only a bill and no service.

Stay away from all kind of satellites if you can, especially starband. It's so slow, it makes a snail seems fast. All the services from them are absolutely horrible, except the sell people I guess.. since they want your money. lol I just canceled Starband today and switched to Sprint evdo wireless. oh boy what a big difference. The ping time that I'm getting from starband is normally around 900-1200, and the wireless is less than 200. And the best thing about Sprint wireless, no fap! If you are planning on getting starband, save yourself some trouble. Get anything else that is out there. If dialup is the only option, heck stick with it till wireless is available or something. I paid 100 bucks to cancel Starband since I'm still within the 3rd year contract. But I'm more than happy to pay for that. And about the fap, it's ridiculous like everyone else has said. 1gb for 7 days? you can't do crap!! Once you get fap'd, the page will rarely load to open, unless you adjust and ... Read more

Starband sucks definitely!!! I have had it for 7 years. They have virtually NO customer service. They close by 2-3pm for those of us on the west coast. Even tech support is always closed when you need them and if you do get them you have a 1 in 5 chance of getting a decent tech guy. The bandwidth limit is ridiculous. All of a sudden my speed was non-existant. I couldn't even open my mail and I had no idea why. I am cancelling in the next couple weeks and probably going to Hughes - I'm not sure they are much better, but more bandwidth is cheaper with them and it appears they have tech support 24/7.

I have had Starband service for 5 months now. Works just fine. Satellite broadband is the only option where I live. I have had no issues with my service at all. Paul Negaunee, MI

Starband is always breaking down. Sometimes it take minutes to load one page. Also Starband is bankrupt!

Wow. Sure wish I had researched a bit more before plopping down the funds and signing the contract with these guys; I see my level of satisfaction with this outfit is universal. I can't add much to anything not already said below; the Starband satellite "service" is the biggest crock I have ever been associated with. It's difficult explaining to my son that what the rest of the world does routinely and without question gets you quickly in bandwith jail with Starband. I pay fifty bucks a month for maybe 10 days a month of "high speed" service because we STAY in bandwidth jail.If they don't have the bandwidth available to service a customer base to what is routinely regarded as normal levels of activity by other providers, they should be a bit more up front about it and stop presenting themselves as a product for the masses.As noted below, if there were a zero I would check it for the rating.

I have had starband for a little over 3 years. To begin with, my equipment was damaged upon arrival and I had to wait a week and a half for replacement parts.....then they sent the wrong parts, so I had to wait an additional 2 weeks for the right parts. After finally getting the system installed, I was very pleased with the service UNTIL RECENTLY. Now they are cutting my speed back because of supposed bandwidth over-usage. I am on the computer LESS now than I have been on average for the last 3 years and I don't understand how I can be over-using my bandwidth. This past week (on Wednesday) I did windows updates, plus my virus program updates and ended up exceeding bandwidth....yet again. I'm fed up, and I am looking into WildBlue right now, and will be switching ASAP if possible! If I can't get WildBlue I'll just go back to dial-up since I'm paying for dial-up speeds anyway. It will be a lot cheaper to just have dial-up! Unless Starband makes some changes, I would never recomm... Read more

Starband used to be great a couple years ago. Now things have changed drastically for the worse. The ICE policy is absolutely ridiculous. Just normal surfing and moderate downloads will put you in danger of being whacked. The speed has dropped quite a bit lately (and it never was nearly as fast as they claimed). They are definitely on the outer fringes (or maybe beyond) the contract with their customers. Support for older equipment is basically non-existent. They will tell you that you must buy their "new" equipment, which puts you under another 2 year locked contract that's fishy at best. Something very, very, very bad has happened at Starband. I used to be very satisfied with their service (I've been a customer since they started), but now I'm having to look for another provider. Stay away from Starband, at least until they get their act together (which will most likely be never).

I had Starband almost 5 years. I went through 4 modems during this time. The insurance they offer is a waste of money. The one time I tried to use it they told me it was Starband's problem and wouldn't replace the modem. I spent $400 for a service call and $175 for another new modem and Starband gave me a month of service $49.95 free. When I went to replace my 4th modem, the tech person said that as long as I had to buy yet another, I should consider "upgrading" to their new Nova Sky Edge modem, supposedly better quality, better everything, so I did. I had a signed contract with Starband when I initially signed up saying that if I cancelled my service with a year I would pay a $200 fee. That time had long passed. So after 28 days of living with the worst service ever from Starband via this new wonderful modem, I called to cancel altogether and go to Wildblue. I was informed that when I purchased the Nova modem, I entered into a new contract and was going to be charged $499 to canc... Read more

Same here, had good experience with Starband in the past although their online tech support was next to non-existent. But untill recent, bandwith was never a problem. Now they have the ICE policy and the system has effectively become pointless. Receiving a few emails with large attachments is sufficient to get you FAP'd. I don't download movies, music or anything. Also their "real time" bandwith monitor does not give results untill the next day and in several cases I have not been able to figure out why my bandwith use was exceeded while I have been out of office most of the day! Probably have to look for another system since my starband modem has effectively become a very expensive paperweight

Simply put - Starband sucks!!  I had it for nearly 6 years.  At first, it was unlimited bandwidth then somewhere along the line that changed to a FAP that was extremely restrictive to say the least.  Did no good to try to argue with them since the contract I signed up with clearly stated "unlimited access".  Now if you use more than 800Mb of bandwidth in a 7 day period you get dial up speed.  WTF!!   As for there advertised speeds of up to 500Kbps downloads, Best I have ever seen in 6 years was 70Kbps.  Also the way they measure bandwidth usage is flawed.  If your system is up and running, you have plenty of bandwidth and not anywhere near getting FAP'd and some bad weather comes through and you lose your signal for a bit while you were surfing the net, when it comes back you get FAP'd because there system now says you used 2Gigs of bandwidth.  Maybe it is just me but that seems a bit impossible to do in a 15 - 30 minute time frame especially if "THE SIGNAL IS BLOCKED BY CLOUDS AND BAD... Read more

Starband has consistantly backed out of their contract with me and then tells me it is not so. The bandwidth usage issue is a big one for me. I am not home durring the hours when they say I am using too much bandwidth. Now I am told after spending the megabucks for the system iI purchased, I will not be able to use it with Microsoft Windows Vista at all. Needless to say I am not a happy camper right now. I have to say I would never reccomend Starband.

I wish I had never bought this stupid satellite. If you are considering buying Starband please go somewhere else. At the beginning I was told I could use Skype over Starband. That has never been possible. I was promised unlimited bandwidth. Without warning they FAP'd me. Basically, grounded my internet speed because I was using it too much. When I complained they accused me of abusing the system. The tech manager was so mean to me it made me cry. What customer service! I was not abusing the system since they promised me unlimited bandwidth. They told me they had changed their terms of service and I no longer had unlimited bandwidth. These days I have uploads at dial up speed. What happens when I complain? They tell me that this is within spec and there's nothing they can do. I'm paying over a $150 a month for what is essentially dial up. And I'm locked into a contract. Do yourself a favor and avoid the lying crooks at Starband like the plague!!!!!!

Very expensive for what you are getting... very slow upload speeds.

I've had Starband for 5+ years. Tech support stinks,outsourced overseas I suppose. Hold time is ridiculous. Fortunately I haven't had many serious problems. Would like to compare to Wild Blue?

They oversold their accounts and now slow their users with their ICE policy (FAP) equavalent. We use around 750 Megs dl a week going to web sites no downloads of music, movies, news groups etc. but just emails, ebay usage and chat rooming. They slow you down 11kBs throttled or now threatening to shut you off completely. They only get a 1 rating from me since i can not do a 0. I have been with them for 5 years. Going to Wildblue when its available here!

Sorry 48fan for your experience with StarBand so far. As a Dealer/Installer, we fully support and recommend Starband above Direcway hands down (and WildBlue). If you search on the WildBlue rating we did, you will see our comparison of that. If you want a solid, consistent, VoIP and video capable satellite service that you can take mobile, then StarBand still fits the bill. The service is actually getting better and better as commercial customers and other "squatters" on IA7 satellite get moved off, the service will be more constant. I will have to agree as well with most customers that StarBand "Customer Service" is to less than desired as they streamline that organization. Of course it is all up the how the installation was done as well and your tight relationship with the Installer. Over time, if the installation was not done to high standards, the dish does get out of alignment and there is a very tiny window to point at and not a whole lot of room for error. All systems should be... Read more

Starband had me repoint my dish a month ago because I was complaining about my bandwith getting slower and slower, well that seemed to help for a little while, but again I am seeing speeds drop to what feels like dialup speeds! I am paying $10 to $20 dollars more a month for a fraction of the bandwidth others are getting with Cable and DSL. I am really feeling discouraged and cheated. I am getting to the point where I am willing to go without internet access again. I hate to say it but as soon as something else comes along (which looks like WildBlue for me) I am going to have to drop Starband as my service provider despite any contract. Starband boasts 500k speeds to sell there service I have never seen speeds like that? the majority of time is between 100k and 340k, mostly on the lower end, combine that with the latency and it really sucks. $50 a month is to much money for inconsistent speeds like that. I really dont see Starband in the market much longer if their service continues to... Read more

Good system. Only bad point is the startup cost, buying the satellite & having it installed, runs about $800. Monthly charge $60, not much worse than cable but faster. We have been with them for almost 3 years now & have no complaints.