Starband Satellite Internet - not achieving claimed bandwidth throughput claimed

# 9 for January 23, 2002

Complaints.com received the following e-message on January 22, 2002:

From: Kevin [Email User]

Starband Satellite Internet - not achieving claimed bandwidth throughput claimed

During the first week of December I purchased the Starband 2 way satellite 2 way Internet dish. Based on advertisements and talking to support prior to purchasing the equipment and having it installed for $749. Based on what Starband themselves had told me I would be seeing 150k uploads and 500k

downloads. I own a collocated server in the state of Michigan that I have on a T1 line with almost no load on it whatsoever. Other users having cable modems are able to see around 150k to it. I have never been able to see over 6k uploading to it. I know the paths should be good and have run tests to determine routing and throughput. It would appear that Starband is limiting the upload speeds. I have seen many daily outages of service. I can not surf then I can not access any news groups. By all indications of the modem I am connected and all should be well. The first thing Starband wants to know is what my signal strength is. It ranges from an 8.4-7.9 I did find one tech who said that was excellent. Over and over again settings have been checked and tests run. I was also told the FCC limits them on upload speed and they are not allowed to give us that much bandwidth. Then why do they advertise it? In all, it had been one unhappy circus dealing with Starband. They advertised and told me one thing via telephone before purchasing the equipment and they stick there heads in sand after they have your money.

Always on connection? Right! Blazing speeds? Right! Fraud? Right!

I have after about 30 days terminated my services with them after a never ending month of calls to support. I am not waiting to see if we will be fighting about the $499 early termination fee. As I have seen it, they did

not keep there end of the contract on performance and support. I will not go down without a fight and perhaps a court battle. Formerly Email User Email User