Wildblue refugee now happy with Sprint EVDO

reddirtranch · EVDO Newbie Joined: 13 Dec 2007 Posts: 2

I had been on wildblue since Oct 2005. I don't know what took me so long to ditch them. During the summer of 2006 I kept an ISDN dialup as a backup their service was so unpredictable. I gave up on calling customer support, they read from a script , unplug the modem for one minute, recite an incantation and sacrifice a goat etc... They even lied to me once, told me they were sending a service tech out and even gave me a date. When there was a noshow, they expected me to call their distributor directly, told me they never set up a service call and their CSR never said they were. I didn't push the issue. Eventually things cleared up so the problem was 100% on their end. Lately they had been fairly reliable with the exception of the Saturday after I received my EVDO setup when they were down for 26 hours with no clue.

Three weeks ago, I took the plunge. Ordered the sprint EX720 and MB6000 router. I don't know what took me so long. Its not quite as fast for large downloads, 800-1400k vs 1700k, but the latency is so much less that I don't care. FTP Uploads were painful on wildblue, especialy if I had to upload something with alot of small files. I did a website update yesterday and couldn't believe the difference.

As far as 3Gstore, I can't say enough good things about their service. There was a problem with my sprint account, I received a call from 3Gstore, 30 minutes AFTER they had closed to make sure my issue was resolved. I wish everyone had the same level of customer service as 3G store. They Rock! If wildblue had just 5% of the competence level and commitment to customer service as 3Gstore they wouldn't be hemorrhaging customers like a stuck pig on the slaughterhouse floor. Sprint's customer service on the other hand...well, I hope I never again have to call them directly.

Thanks 3Gstore!

freightliner · EVDO User Joined: 02 Oct 2007 Posts: 54

I too am a WB refugee. The difference is that I am in the Verizon coverage area now (no Sprint) and I never had any service or equipment problems with WB. Sure, when they rewrote the FAP I felt ripped off. When they implemented DAMA scheduling, latency became so pronounced that online banking and VPN performance was severely diminished. But overall, the WB experience was just so-so. At the time of initial signup in Oct '05 I was without an alternative. You can bet when I saw the "EV" icon finally pop up on my Verizon phone, I eagerly terminated my WB contract after the compulsory 2 years and got my EVDO equipment (with the exception of the card and router) from the 3G store. I agree there is no better source for EVDO.
Even with the 5 gig "cap" Verizon is a great provider. I have gone way over on my monthly bandwidth consumption consistently without the dreaded throttling. I guess that I am in an area where Verizon does not have a lot of EVDO data customers. Verizon's customer support is top notch so far and I have no complaints.
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mj911sc · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 16 Jan 2007 Posts: 21

Trying to make someone who is a WB user jealous...I am glad for all of the WB refugees I see here...I only wish someone would make EVDO available to me...

Good luck!

Todd4300 · Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 5:21 pm Post subject:

I never made the mistake of getting into wildblue. Wink

I found the wildblue uncensored forums and read about too many people having problems plus I was too far away from installers to take that chance. They would have to travel 3+ hours one way and figured I would be pretty much out of luck if I had problems.

I did have a one-way satellite for several years and it was good enough but they sold out and I had been on dial-up for the last 3 years till Verizon at some point got wireless up somewhere in these mountains.

I was lucky enough to find this website in a search and after 3 days of disbelief that the verizon map showed REV-a coverage way up here I jumped and ordered from 3G store and was up and going in a few days.

buckron · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 10 Mar 2008 Posts: 17

Hello to all, I just registered and would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself.I live in Canada eh! But we Canadians have very similar problems.The WB version here is Xplornet..the downloads are actually good if they do not limit you (have to share wih others on your beam) But general surfing on the net is painful, about the same as dialup during busy hours.I am on KA band so there are issues with big downloads like movies,KU is supposed to be way better but its older technology? anyway KU gives u a static ip address rather than dynamic.Bottom line..i am tired of paying over $60 mth for internet thats not much better than dialup and way less reliable,bad weather and your down for extended periods.Its designed for remote locations? BS the modem alone sucks 100 watts of power..who designed that stuff? Love the idea of a laptop a pc card and a 12 volt router.Tomorrow i get my stuff..a Novatel U720 pc card, and a D-Link Dir-450 EV-DO router..I will let you know how i make out...Can not wait to call the satellite internet provider to cancel,i can not afford to replace their equipment anyway, the modem alone is $300.I am looking forward to learning from this community as i am green as they come,just read about cellular broadband a few days ago,[/b]

CraigCraig · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 15 May 2007 Posts: 120

buckron · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 10 Mar 2008 Posts: 17

My ISP provider will be Aliant which is owned by Bell.I am told i am in a 1X service area. I get my card tomorrow so i will know then what speeds i get. I am told that 1X is about 150 kbps i have no idea but i will be happy with that because dialup around here averages about 38-46 kbps.I am on the fringe of EVDO i am told...so i may experiment drive around with the usb card on the dash and see if i can find the higher speed, big brainer...um .....locate the high speed tower take a GPS waypoint..get a yagi use compass for bearing and see if i can pick it up.Sound good?