We take satellite TV from Viasat, our only choice. No one else can deliver a signal to us, and our former TV carrier, Centurylink, went to hell on us, claiming its equipment is too old to adequately serve rural customers. This is a situation that has affected customers all over its Western base.
By and large, Viasat is just adequate. Relying as it does on satellites in geosynchronous orbit (and I know, some say satellites do not exist – I remain unconvinced) at 22,236 miles above the planet, there is a natural signal delay. We first noticed this as our phone signal, which we had connected to the Viasat router, was unusable because of a talk over delay. Same with our cell phones, so we 1) had to go back to Centurylink for land line service, adding $50 monthly to our cost of service from Viasat, and 2) had to turn off our cell phone reliance on the Viasat signal too, using T-Mobile and its weak signal to the house for cell service. In the end we were overpaying Viasat for services they could not deliver. But we had no choice other than to go bare or return to DirectTV and their overpriced service, wanting us to purchase 60+ channels when we only watch one or two. That business model is either dead or dying but they refuse to let it go.
Viasat delivers two signals, one called “high speed,” which is rationed to us. During the time when we get high speed, it is a good deal. But “high speed” usually only lasts maybe seven days into the month, at which time Viasat starts pestering us to buy more service, in small bundles costing $40 each. They claim we are “overusing” our high speed service, which really only amounts to several hours per month of good service. If we were to play their game, in the end we would be paying them $300-500 per month for service. I call that “bait and switch.” We endure slow service for the better part of the month, ignore their emails telling us we need to buy more service, and their gratuitous advice on how we should watch less television. In the end, they have put the blame for lousy service on our backs.
That is their game, and we have no alternative. Hughes Network came by the house, but needed for us to cut down one of our beautiful trees to provide, and we refused. Verizon … let me get this straight, quoting their agent precisely, said “We can’t deliver anything to your address”.
Along came a perfect storm. I was looking forward to watching the Cincinnati Bengals play the Kansas City Chiefs for the AFC championship. I know, it is professional football and is probably rigged, but man are those good teams stocked with amazing athletes and coaches. I asked my wife to make no plans for me, as I intended to watch that game beginning to end and do nothing else.
Viasat service went to hell right at the beginning of the game, which was constantly interrupted by a swirling arrow in the middle of the screen, ending in a message that said “Oops! Something went wrong.” I gave up, and turned to radio to listen to the game. I did that using SiriusXM, as we do not get decent radio service up here either.
What made it a perfect storm, in my view? The game was at the end of the month, when most of Viasat customers had used up their high speed data allowance. Generally we can eke by on a weaker signal, but that evening was impossible. The signal was gone. What happened? Tens of thousands, if not millions, of Viasat customers called the company (they could not access them online because the signal had gone to shit) to purchase more high speed data in order to watch the game.
Viasat had a financial bonanza. As I see it, it was completely their doing, totally under their control. At the start of the game they weakened the signal to force customers to pony up more money for decent service. (Usually when the signal goes to hell, Viasat claims weather interference, but this happening at precisely the beginning of that game makes me very suspicious. The earlier game, San Francisco at Philadelphia, received better service.)
As I see it. It’s a lousy company offering lousy service. Some time this year an Elon Musk company (read DARPA) called Starlink will complete its service offering to Colorado, which we had to pay $100 to get in line to receive. Starlink depends not on geosynchronous satellites (which do not exist, I am told), but rather with low earth orbit satellites 500 miles above the surface (which also do not exist, I am told). These satellites pass overhead and hand off the signal to the ground just as cell phone towers hand off our phone signals as we travel. Starlink is now delivering 300 mps on the download, compared to a top speed from Viasat of 24 mps (with the company constantly advising us to pay more and be happy with 5 mps).
The purpose of Starlink is to solve the problem that rural people have with Internet signals. We are guaranteed to get a signal, as our dish will be pointed straight up, and trees will not interfere. Our neighbors who have Starlink are very satisfied with it, and at $100 per month, find it a better deal than Viasat’s $150-$500 effective cost.
Viasat insisted that we enter into a two-year deal with them for their lousy service, and will penalize us if we terminate early. There is no price I would not pay to get rid of them.
Piece of Mindful 
WHY???
Why do you even allow those poisons in your home, that you KNOW are poisons, because you study them for many years.
Everyone STILL in 2023 supporting ANY of those globalist fascists is not only a moron, watching TV is participating in satanic rituals.
Same for buying at Amazon, having a slave job for the Nazis and shopping at any chain supermarket.
Types like you would have been chased out of the village, covered in tar and feathers.
The good ol’ days…
How come you are so utterly dumb to watch and even PAY for TV, while wielding an air of morality?
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I was going to write the same thing.
Why do you have tv service??!
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I should have mentioned that I watch TV because many shows are very enjoyable, and I also enjoy watching football, the only sport that entertains me. Our TV is off for most of the day, only turned on in the evening wherein I watch a detective mystery if I can find a good one, and my wife and I watch a serialized James Herriot show before we turn the TV off at 8PM and I open a book.
I don’t apologize for that, and do not appreciate the intemperate remarks, Gaia. Each of us has different forms of entertainment. I have not been to the movies in ten years, do not watch news or listen to radio. I enjoy podcasts that are comedic. You want I stop that too? Have I mentioned that I am retired? That I read a lot? I kind of have a full life post-working years. I wish for you the same.
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I understand exactly what you’re saying, Mark. I don’t have a tv, but I watch Netflix and Amazon Prime on my phone and also enjoy reading. I know full well that Netflix is pure propaganda and we all know who co-founded it, so there’s no question about it being propaganda…. but, I’m retired myself, alone since my husband died (the guy in the avatar photo), and surely can’t go out at night all by myself. I make no apologies for what I do for entertainment, just like you make no apologies. We’ve ‘been around’ long enough to be able to recognize media manipulation when we see it and can just ignore it. Italian TV is awful, in my opinion, so I watch the streaming platforms and /or read a good book. I totally agree with your response.
Thanks very much for the post, too! I’m in a very similar situation and at the mercy of Vodafone for internet service. Ugh!! I hope your situation improves and quickly!! Ciao!
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Go to why-ohh-you-tea-you-bee-eee and download old 70’s and 80’s games. (Download them and get out of there. Do not watch them from that website. Use a separate media player.)
Never, EVER watch anything produced—by anyone!—in the past ~30 years.
Cancel all content subscriptions, even free ones, and watch only those shows that you own on dvd (or vhs).
That’s a start.
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The purpose of Starlink is not fully known. I can only speculate, however, I am pretty certain it has more to do with surveillance, deterrence — a “deterrence by punishment” approach by imposing consequences to deter bad behavior (“full spectrum dominance,” IMO, means a range from military threats to a below-threshold social credit score)– and the architecture of a digital/blockchain global governance system, than it does helping rural internet users. No hu-man, or trans-human left behind, in other words.
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I got all of that from Stephers, a soilant green outlook, dystopic and depressing. It puts me in a state of mind that is akin to “come and get me” as I sit in a cave with a rifle pointed at the opening. There is no war in Ukraine, China is not doing social credit scoring, the climate is not changing in any fatal manner, and we live our lives as before. They got most of what they wanted with the vaccines. For that we have to wait and see how resilient humans are to poison. Beyond that, why would they run a satellite over our heads to monitor morons? We are no threat. There is no cost benefit. The revolution is on on permanent hold due to bread and circuses. Always has been.
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Data. It’s all about the data, IMO. If “data is the new oil,” they want yours too ( and everyone’s, including every living thing they can “track and trace” and manipulate on blockchain systems).
I agree, we are no threat.
We — our data actually — will generate huge $$$profits from emerging markets in a vast array of synthetic investment opportunities based on digital twins of everything that can be monitored for its data. The “coverage” is expanding exponentially.
T-Mobile 5G and Starlink have a “deal” for all of us. https://www.t-mobile.com/news/un-carrier/t-mobile-takes-coverage-above-and-beyond-with-spacex
How exciting!
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It reminds me a bit of the underpants project that Cartman put forth on South Park:
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That was the underpants gnomes. How do they profit off of (kids) underpants? Sell them to sickos, just like out data!
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Some 2013 numbers, just for shits and giggles. https://www.more-with-mobile.com/2013/06/prices-and-value-of-consumer-data.html
Prices now, ten years later, are higher, or lower? I do not know.
Who’s data is it anyway? Dominion now, and forever, or at least since Genesis: 1:28.
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https://privacylaw.proskauer.com/2022/10/articles/e-commerce/amazons-recent-acquisitions-highlight-the-value-of-consumer-data-and-the-evolving-privacy-issues/
This is an update, without a price and values graph, discussing the rapid expansion of data related investments by Amazon and regulatory efforts to explore and control anti-trust laws in the data gathering business. Note: We are not anything more than “consumers” to these pirates.
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If billions of dollars can be shipped overseas for a staged wargame, seems like we could have more affordable internet service among other things. I know people that reside in fast food places for hours a day because of the free WIFI.
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There were rumblings years ago that municipalities ought to provide Internet for citizens as part of the public service sector, paid for by taxes. As I recall, the private providers rose from the earth like buried ogres, as Internet was a profit center not to be toyed with. People now pay hundreds per month for the service, and out here in the foothills, the service is crap. If Musk and company, even if just DARPA agents, can make a difference, I am OK with it.
I get lousy service from Viasat and pay $129 per month for it, and it would be $229 per month but I complained so loudly that Viasat gave me a $100 discount per month for one year to shut me up. Our only choice was Viasat, and for that reason I had no choice but to sign their two year contract, for which they gave me 19 pages of word barf to protect themselves. My fear is that in addition to the normal penalty they will take back the $100 discount when we switch to Starlink.
Good companies protect themselves using good service. Bad companies use word barf contracts.
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