We were FAPPED last fall and decided to go for the Platinum package to get more upload bandwidth. Got FAPPED again in February and connectivity virtually stopped at night. During the day was tenuous at best. Decided to revert subscription from Platinum to back to Silver so we are only paying $50 for nothing. On March 12, we sign up for $9.95 dialup with Toast.net, which gives us unlimited access & no bandwidth restrictions. No FAPs on dialup. Save a total of $20 a month with both services. Save satellite speeds for surfing at night. Dialup for uploading & downloading, will also connect when its raining or snowing. Agreed, wildblue and dialup suck.

Then last night, I called to ask why our service hadn't been restored in over 30 days since our last FAP and was told we'd been FAPPED again on March 13! I asked them how it was possible for us to violate the fair access policy when we've had no connectivity for a month and I was on dialup all day on the 13th! When I was transferred over to Wildblue technical support, he announced the FAP was no longer active. So they did see the error somewhere and it wasn't mine. Miraculously, our connectivity was restored, we were back online in no time. Then a storm blew in and we lost the satellite for the rest of the evening. Yea dialup!

While we can't fix it we can hit them where it hurts, in their wallets. Reduce subscriptions, don't renew. I'd suggest to anyone with Wildblue or any service where there is a Fair Access Policy and try what we've done. Reduce your service to the lowest package and get a dialup for backup. Dialup is slow, but at least it connects and I will always be sure to get online. It won't be long before FIOS or Cable internet will finally reach us. When our satellite subscription expires, we won't renew.