Pros and Cons of Wild Blue vs. HughesNet

Both HughesNet and WildBlue offer several different packages with variations in pricing, access and download speeds. HughesNet's basic package includes up to five e-mail addresses and round-the-clock tech support. HughesNet offers the choice of either buying or leasing the required equipment and often has special offers and rebates to help customers save on equipment costs. WildBlue offers a basic Value package but its Select package is more comparable to HughesNet's basic service. The Select package includes up to five e-mail addresses and free virus and spyware protection for the first 12 months. Wild Blue customers lease equipment, either paying a monthly free or pre-pay for a two year lease. WildBlue also charges a set-up fee to start service.

Both HughesNet's Basic plan and WildBlue's Select plan have download speeds of one megabyte, or MB, per second, and upload speeds of 200 kilobytes per second. WildBlue Select, however, offers a more lenient data transfer allowance than Hughesnet Basic, with a download threshold of 12,000 MB and upload threshold of 3,000 MB per month, compared to HughesNet's daily limit of only 200 MB either way.

Fair Access Policy, or FAP, is a satellite Internet provider's policy regarding exceeding your daily or monthly data transfer limit. These policies result in restricted speeds for a "recovery period" if you exceed the data threshold. HughesNet's FAP reduces data transfer speed to 56 kilobytes per second (kbps), which is comparable to dial-up. WildBlue's FAP reduces its speed to 128 kbps. However, HughesNet offers a three-hour early morning download period during which any data you download does not count toward your daily allowance. WildBlue does not offer a similar free period.

Both HughesNet and WildBlue offer 24/7 technical support. HughesNet outsources its customer service overseas, while WildBlue's customer service representatives are based in the U. S. Additionally, HughesNet offers a two-year service and repair warranty on purchased equipment.