HomeFusion Data Caps

[stuartbp]

I have had Verizon Homefusion for about 2 weeks now. It seems to work well most of the time. I had one outage overnight and called customer service. They created some sort of repair report and it was working again by the time I got up the next morning.

My question is, What does Verizon have planned for the raising or elimination of the data caps? For a primary home service, these data caps are terrible. $60 for 10gig? Really? If anyone does have this service, don't plan on streaming netflix, or having many long Skype conversations. It's funny that the further into the future we go, the more internet we use. Now lots of electronic devices in your house can be connected to the internet, yet data caps are no where near keeping up with actual demand.

I'm not totally against data caps. It's just that the current data caps for this service at the price points they are at are terrible. $60 for 20 gigs seems reasonable to me for the time being. That would at least satisfy the average household. $90 for 30 gigs, and $120 for 60 gigs would be the common sense caps. But Verizon is more interested in profit than customer satisfaction.

Over the next year or so Data Caps should be raised even more for the price points mentioned. Internet access is no longer just a luxury, its a necessary part of today's world. Compare it to telephone service before it was available to everyone. If you can't afford a phone, the government will now give you one.

[rcschnoor]

stuartbp wrote:

My question is, What does Verizon have planned for the raising or elimination of the data caps? For a primary home service, these data caps are terrible. $60 for 10gig? Really? If anyone does have this service, don't plan on streaming netflix, or having many long Skype conversations. It's funny that the further into the future we go, the more internet we use. Now lots of electronic devices in your house can be connected to the internet, yet data caps are no where near keeping up with actual demand.

I'm not totally against data caps. It's just that the current data caps for this service at the price points they are at are terrible. $60 for 20 gigs seems reasonable to me for the time being. That would at least satisfy the average household. $90 for 30 gigs, and $120 for 60 gigs would be the common sense caps. But Verizon is more interested in profit than customer satisfaction.

Over the next year or so Data Caps should be raised even more for the price points mentioned. Internet access is no longer just a luxury, its a necessary part of today's world. Compare it to telephone service before it was available to everyone. If you can't afford a phone, the government will now give you one.

Comparing this to the way people have migrated from cities out to the suburbs, it is amazing that oil companies don't just lower the price of gasoline to keep up with the demand that is caused by the increasing needs of gasoline! Just because you want/need something more does not mean the price of that item will lower!

Additionally, comparing it to telephone service before it was available to everyone, the government did not give you a phone in the past. They MADE IT AVAILABLE to you. You still had to PAY for it and couldn't have one if you could not afford one! Growing up, there were several instances where we did not have a working phone in our house because we could not afford the service. No one (government or otherwise) gave one to us unless we could make payment on the service! I don't expect anything different now! Expecting the government to foot the bill for everything is NOT the answer!

[stuartbp]

Did I ever say the government shoud pay for my internet or phone? No I don't think I did. I hate the fact that people can now get "Obama Phones" for free. I think it is a huge waste of tax money. There may be a few cases where a free government phone is justified, but I would estimate that %75 percent of the people getting the free government phones are not using them for intended purposes. I was comparing the evolution of phone services to the evolution of internet services. Phone service went from being a luxury, to something that the federal government thinks is so crucial to life, that they will give you one at no cost if you can not afford it. (Even though I do not agree wit it.) Comparing internet service to oil isn't apples to apples. Oil is a commoditie and there is a finite supply. Internet service and phone are not tangible like oil. There are alternatives to oil. There are no alternatives to internet access. Unless you consider...newspapers, libraires, arcades....and bank tellers. Comparisons don't even make sense.

No, I am willing to pay for internet service as I think anyone who has it should. My question was when are they going to adjust the ridiculous caps they have in place. Having the caps in place bumps the internet back to the 90's when the only thing it was used for was email, primarily text based web pages, and waiting 10 minutes to download a picture. Internet video, streaming content, home networking are all but eliminated when you have to stay under the ridiculous caps that Verizon has set forth. Strict data caps for mobile devices? Yes I think that is okay to a certain degree. It is not the primary internet for most people. But in home, Primary internet should not have these caps, or at least not caps this low for the price.

[rcschnoor]

stuartbp wrote:

Did I ever say the government shoud pay for my internet or phone? No I don't think I did.

It seemed like you were implying it when you said " Compare it to telephone service before it was available to everyone. If you can't afford a phone, the government will now give you one."

[rcschnoor]

stuartbp wrote:

Comparing internet service to oil isn't apples to apples. Oil is a commoditie and there is a finite supply. Internet service and phone are not tangible like oil. There are alternatives to oil. There are no alternatives to internet access. There ARE alternatives to HOW you receive it, though. There are lower cost alternatives. If you can't or choose not to pay the prices for Home Fusion with its current data caps, get your internet service in other ways. Libraries, for instance.

No, I am willing to pay for internet service as I think anyone who has it should. My question was when are they going to adjust the ridiculous caps they have in place. Having the caps in place bumps the internet back to the 90's when the only thing it was used for was email, primarily text based web pages, and waiting 10 minutes to download a picture. Internet video, streaming content, home networking are all but eliminated when you have to stay under the ridiculous caps that Verizon has set forth. Strict data caps for mobile devices? Yes I think that is okay to a certain degree. It is not the primary internet for most people. But in home, Primary internet should not have these caps, or at least not caps this low for the price. I have no problem with the caps. About the ONLY thing I don't do with my internet service which you list is to stream content, and I come nowhere close to ANY type of cap. I have no sympathy for someone complaining about data caps when the majority of their usage is for an ENTERTAINMENT choice they make. If I choose to watch my preferred form of entertainment, I will do so. When I feel the price is too high, I will curtail my enjoyment of it. Simple as that. I would love to go to more concerts, plays, movies, etc... but when I feel the price is too steep, I DON'T GO. Therefore I do not have to pay it.

Some people complain because they do not live where any other source of broadband is available, that is also a choice. I live where my availability of open space is limited. A choice I have made. Trade offs are made in life all the time. People make a choice, for example, to live in the country/suburbs and then complain they do not have the same conveniences people who live in a more urban area have. Go figure!? You can't have it both ways.

[stuartbp]

"There ARE alternatives to HOW you receive it, though. There are lower cost alternatives. If you can't or choose not to pay the prices for Home Fusion with its current data caps, get your internet service in other ways. Libraries, for instance."

Let me know which librairies are open 24/7 and they let me hangout in my underwear while I work on work projects for 6 hours at a time.

"About the ONLY thing I don't do with my internet service which you list is to stream content, and I come nowhere close to ANY type of cap. I have no sympathy for someone complaining about data caps when the majority of their usage is for an ENTERTAINMENT choice they make. If I choose to watch my preferred form of entertainment, I will do so. When I feel the price is too high, I will curtail my enjoyment of it. Simple as that. I would love to go to more concerts, plays, movies, etc... but when I feel the price is too steep, I DON'T GO. Therefore I do not have to pay it."

Try video conferencing....enough said. I'm sorry you live in the age of the dinosaur.

"Some people complain because they do not live where any other source of broadband is available, that is also a choice. I live where my availability of open space is limited. A choice I have made. Trade offs are made in life all the time. People make a choice, for example, to live in the country/suburbs and then complain they do not have the same conveniences people who live in a more urban area have. Go figure!? You can't have it both ways."

I live where no other source is currently available. I moved 3 miles. No I don't live out in a rural area. I live on a street where the cable companies decided not to run 1/2 mile of cable because it wasn't cost effective for that section. One house to the east of me has cable internet, and about 4 to the west also does. I can see cable lines on the utility poles from my driveway. To have cable hooked to my  house it will cost me between $4000-$6000 dollars per the cable company...and you know what? I will be paying to have it done because I have to, to live and work in a modern society. HomeFusion is just bridging the gap until it's done. I will never recommend it to anyone, or Verizon service as a whole.

So you're saying that people who do live out in rural areas don't deserve broadband internet because they have more open space? People can't have both? Modern technology allows internet to be anywhere and everywhere. It's on the space station, and the nearest starbucks for them is about 20,000 miles away. I'm sorry that you live in a box just so you can have broadband internet that you don't really even need. You've gotten way off topic. I have a problem with the data caps. You ramble about things that don't compare.

[rcschnoor]

stuartbp wrote:

"There ARE alternatives to HOW you receive it, though. There are lower cost alternatives. If you can't or choose not to pay the prices for Home Fusion with its current data caps, get your internet service in other ways. Libraries, for instance."

Let me know which librairies are open 24/7 and they let me hangout in my underwear while I work on work projects for 6 hours at a time.
Like I have previously said, there is a cost for doing something your way. Nothing has changed.

"About the ONLY thing I don't do with my internet service which you list is to stream content, and I come nowhere close to ANY type of cap. I have no sympathy for someone complaining about data caps when the majority of their usage is for an ENTERTAINMENT choice they make. If I choose to watch my preferred form of entertainment, I will do so. When I feel the price is too high, I will curtail my enjoyment of it. Simple as that. I would love to go to more concerts, plays, movies, etc... but when I feel the price is too steep, I DON'T GO. Therefore I do not have to pay it."

Try video conferencing....enough said. I'm sorry you live in the age of the dinosaur.
You video conference from home? Maybe you should speak to your employer about covering the data cost for the video conferencing if it is important to THEM! I video/teleconference with China and India on an almost weekly basis. More often than not a phone feed is more than enough with just access to the slides in advance. The age of the dinosaur is to not find a more cost effective way to have the meetings if the cost is what is bothering you. I assume you don't attend these video conferences in your underwear!

"Some people complain because they do not live where any other source of broadband is available, that is also a choice. I live where my availability of open space is limited. A choice I have made. Trade offs are made in life all the time. People make a choice, for example, to live in the country/suburbs and then complain they do not have the same conveniences people who live in a more urban area have. Go figure!? You can't have it both ways."

I live where no other source is currently available. I moved 3 miles. No I don't live out in a rural area. I live on a street where the cable companies decided not to run 1/2 mile of cable because it wasn't cost effective for that section. One house to the east of me has cable internet, and about 4 to the west also does. I can see cable lines on the utility poles from my driveway. To have cable hooked to my  house it will cost me between $4000-$6000 dollars per the cable company...and you know what? I will be paying to have it done because I have to, to live and work in a modern society. HomeFusion is just bridging the gap until it's done. I will never recommend it to anyone, or Verizon service as a whole.
The point being THAT YOU MOVED! YOUR DECISION. Did you not notice that there was no cable to the house? Did you not research how much it would cost for said service. There is a cost to home ownership. I assume YOU chose to move 3 miles to your current location because you liked the place. It seems you don't like EVERYTHING about it. Good for you to putting the cable in. I was in the same situation when I built a house, since it was 300ft from the road, I would have to pay for the utilities to be brought to the house. This is not unusual. To expect them to do so seems to smell of a sense of entitlement.

So you're saying that people who do live out in rural areas don't deserve broadband internet because they have more open space? People can't have both? Modern technology allows internet to be anywhere and everywhere. It's on the space station, and the nearest starbucks for them is about 20,000 miles away. I'm sorry that you live in a box just so you can have broadband internet that you don't really even need. You've gotten way off topic. I have a problem with the data caps. You ramble about things that don't compare. Did I say that, I don't think I said that. I said if you choose to live in a more rural/suburban area because you like the open space, it is hard to feel sympathy when you complain about having the same conveniences as those who live in a more densely populated area. There are choices you need to make which better suit your needs. It seems you have made yours, YOU MOVED to a spot where you would need to pay $4000-$6000 to have cable/broadband in your house. That is ONE of the choices YOU made. You are correct, there is broadband on the space station. It also costs a lot more than the HOME FUSION rates to have it there. You would rather pay THOSE rates?

[cw21787]

You fail to see the point... Government regulated who could provide service in a given area in the past. Whichever company had the PRIVILEGE to provide service in that area had to provide EQUAL service to everyone for that privilege. Kind of a trade off for having a monopoly. Then came the not so brilliant idea of deregulation. Those rules were lifted, the large bell companies were broken up by force and the once great infrastructure has deteriorated. I still have the same service that was installed back in the 1960's. The old copper line cables that won't even support 24k from a 56k installed dial up modem. Verizon said back in 2002 that DSL was coming! Ten years later and nothing. I argued with them that they could install a repeater and catch everyone on our street as new customers, they refused. Their excuse now (2011) is they are going straight to FIOS in 2012! Well here we are at the end of 2012 and what have they done? Nothing. I dropped my land line this past summer and they practically begged me to keep it, offering to drop from $24 to $10 a month (core charge before taxes) just to keep the line going. I said, "no high speed internet, then 'no' to keeping the land line". So now Verizon maintains the right of way to a non customer. I am costing them money now. Sadly, I am sandwiched between Baltimore, MD and Washington DC. It's not like I'm in the middle of nowhere. They just don't want to spend the extra money it would cost to get several hundred more customers on their system when they could just stick to the cores of the cities for the easy money thanks to the government lifting their requirement of equal service to all in your service area. You will probably say that is an antiquated way of doing things. That's the way today's society thinks. So why doesn't the federal government drop the post office? The cost for delivering a letter to someone in the sticks has always been cost prohibitive, but everybody in the system shares the cost so everyone gets equal service. In the end, would I trade moving to the city just for High Speed Internet and give up living in the "Suburbs"? No way! That's my choice I have to live with.

[#9]

stuartbp wrote:

I have had Verizon Homefusion for about 2 weeks now. It seems to work well most of the time. I had one outage overnight and called customer service. They created some sort of repair report and it was working again by the time I got up the next morning.

My question is, What does Verizon have planned for the raising or elimination of the data caps? For a primary home service, these data caps are terrible. $60 for 10gig? Really? If anyone does have this service, don't plan on streaming netflix, or having many long Skype conversations. It's funny that the further into the future we go, the more internet we use. Now lots of electronic devices in your house can be connected to the internet, yet data caps are no where near keeping up with actual demand.

I'm not totally against data caps. It's just that the current data caps for this service at the price points they are at are terrible. $60 for 20 gigs seems reasonable to me for the time being. That would at least satisfy the average household. $90 for 30 gigs, and $120 for 60 gigs would be the common sense caps. But Verizon is more interested in profit than customer satisfaction.

Over the next year or so Data Caps should be raised even more for the price points mentioned. Internet access is no longer just a luxury, its a necessary part of today's world. Compare it to telephone service before it was available to everyone. If you can't afford a phone, the government will now give you one.

The caps may suck but compared to satellite they are a bit better. Wild Blue's Excede 12/5 service has a top cap of 25 GB and it's $130 a month PLUS a $10 per month equipment fee charge so really $140. They don't charge overages, but they'll slow you down to 128 kbps. Though you can buy extra GB for $10 per GB. They did however just start a cap free time zone from 12 AM- 5AM local time.

In the end you're better off paying the $6000 to get cable internet extended to your area. I don't see Verizon raising the caps significantly anytime soon.

[jcharriso51]

In terms of caps Verizon home fusion has the lowest cost of any 4G LTE service I have seen so far.  I am in a situation similar to yours in that my local cable company will not make the investments necessary to even provide digital cable let alone Internet.

With respect to the future I would not expect caps to be eliminated.  These days Verizon is more or less a dumb pipe serving smartphone customers and now Homefusion. They push the customer to use more bandwidth and expect them to pay for it.  I would not be surprised that one day bandwidth is billed solely upon usage just like electric and gas service.   There is no other way for Verizon to make money if all they do is transport data.  That said I would expect that, just like other commodities, that the more you use the less it costs per unit.   Verizons overage charges are the opposite of that.  The more you use the higher the rate.

I think the technical term for this is cash cow.     

[cjrhea]

I hope Verizon rethinks their caps at some point. Otherwise, I hope state and federal folks get involved.  We, as a country, have the technology to provide Internet services to almost everyone at reasonable costs. Home Fusion is a great technology, as it provides a cost-effective way to provide broadband without having to run cable/copper/fiber for that "last mile".  I disagree with the earlier posting where the author scolds  less urban folks complaining about the

choices we've made. The issue I have with that statement is that companies are given  tax breaks or outright funding to provide Internet services in these areas. I have no idea if Verizon has taken advantage of any of these state/federal financial incentives, but in my area, they basically have a monopoly in providing 4G broadband service. Yes, there are satellite services, but they can't be used effectively for things like VPN access to work (something that is starting to be

required by state law, in order to reduce urban congestion and fuel use).  If I could get the same offerings from cable, DSL, Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon, then the competition will equalize the pricing. For now (at least in my area), Verizon is the only game.

Also, for the comment about using Internet access for entertainment-- we used the majority of a 20GB plan downloading patches and security updates for a single Mac in our first month.  I'd be happy if Verizon would adopt the same ideas as the satellite providers-- have a "no limit" period in the middle of the night.

[#12]

cjrhea wrote:

I hope Verizon rethinks their caps at some point. Otherwise, I hope state and federal folks get involved.  We, as a country, have the technology to provide Internet services to almost everyone at reasonable costs.

First of all satellite has similar caps and I have yet to see the government get involved with them yet. Secondly at the end of the day HomeFusion is still mobile broadband and at this point they can not offer unlimited data or even the 250 GB caps cable and DSL provide. Maybe instead of asking for Verizon to raise the caps you should ask your local government why they aren't forcing cable or DSL to extend broadband to your area.

Also only 1 of the 2 major satellite providers has a "no limit" period. That would be Wildblue and it's between 12 am - 5 am. And if you think that is such a great thing you could always get Wildblue's service. Though I do agree Verizon should offer it.

Unless satellite starts offering much higher caps don't expect HomeFusion's cap to go up very much anytime soon. Though I do think that within 8-10 years they will be over 100 GBs.

[cjrhea]

Yea, I thought I saw a posting where someone said Hughes also followed WB and did the "no limit" period. Couldn't find it on their web site when I just looked.  I seriously considered WB. Almost pulled the trigger, but the biggest disadvantage is that I need/use services that are latency sensitive (SSH or VPN connections for work).  The sat providers are fine, if you're surfing the web or sending email.

I don't see cable or DSL extending as it makes no financial sense for them. We need technology where it's wireless for the "last mile". That makes more sense in less dense areas, IMHO.  I was one of the ClearWave customers that Verizon inherited when it purchased Alltel, Decent technology, but horrid back-end congestion.

I don't expect Verizon to do much any time soon. They have a virtual monopoly on the area (from tower density/coverage). 

To put things in perspective for those who question "rural"....  I live about 12 miles from the center of a city of 100,000 (third largest city in Minnesota). Cable stops about a mile +/- from my road. My phone company has such ancient equipment, I have copper all the way to the phone office (~7 miles).

[wwaldo7956]

I had HughesNet for 9 years (Direcway before HughesNet).. They had an open time period between 2am and 7am EST. This was to allow downloading whatever but mostly for updates and such. Worked great for windows updates. I think Verizon Wireless could swing that. their usage at those hours is minimal. Also, Hughesnet had a Token that they gave you 1 free every month (didn't carry over if you did not use it). VW could also use something like that for say 1-5GB if you go over your package. This would be available once a month.

These are nice things they should have just to show they do care about the customers.

As far as Caps, I understand they are needed because of the 5% idiots out there that download non-stop making the 95% of us pay.. They could be just a little better on Cap size. I said they should have 20/35/50 for the three prices. These would allow at least limited streaming of say Netflix occassionally or online conferencing which I do once a week.

Anywas, all of that is not a problem for me.. my HF hasn't worked for 13 days..I've been on the phone with VW ay least 20 times and so far nothing. They were supposed to overnight a new router last wednesday and i'm still waiting on that. A technician is finally supposed to come this wednesday so we'll see....

[#15]

wwaldo7956 wrote:

I had HughesNet for 9 years (Direcway before HughesNet).. They had an open time period between 2am and 7am EST. This was to allow downloading whatever but mostly for updates and such. Worked great for windows updates. I think Verizon Wireless could swing that. their usage at those hours is minimal. Also, Hughesnet had a Token that they gave you 1 free every month (didn't carry over if you did not use it).

Hughesnet no longer has that package. Their new packages do not include the cap free period. You get between 10 - 20 "bonus" GB to use between 2 am and 8 am. They also no longer give you free tokens. You can still buy them, they are $8-$10 per GB depending on which package you have.

[#16]

cjrhea wrote:

Yea, I thought I saw a posting where someone said Hughes also followed WB and did the "no limit" period. Couldn't find it on their web site when I just looked.  I seriously considered WB. Almost pulled the trigger, but the biggest disadvantage is that I need/use services that are latency sensitive (SSH or VPN connections for work).  The sat providers are fine, if you're surfing the web or sending email.

I don't see cable or DSL extending as it makes no financial sense for them. We need technology where it's wireless for the "last mile". That makes more sense in less dense areas, IMHO.  I was one of the ClearWave customers that Verizon inherited when it purchased Alltel, Decent technology, but horrid back-end congestion.

I don't expect Verizon to do much any time soon. They have a virtual monopoly on the area (from tower density/coverage). 

To put things in perspective for those who question "rural"....  I live about 12 miles from the center of a city of 100,000 (third largest city in Minnesota). Cable stops about a mile +/- from my road. My phone company has such ancient equipment, I have copper all the way to the phone office (~7 miles).

Look I feel for you. I live in a rural area but I live in the county seat which has a population of about 4000( entire county has 16,000 ) surrounded by counties of similar population, but do we have cable and DSL. My friends that live just a couple miles outside city limits, no cable or DSL available.

The fact is at this time higher caps are not possible. Verizon uses the same 700 MHz frequencies for HomeFusion they use for LTE on smartphones. As long as Verizon has to cater to people that still have unlimited data I don't see caps going any time soon. When Verizon finally kills unlimited for good and uses the spectrum they bought from the cable companies, re-farms 1X and 3G frequencies and possibly gets some more spectrum from the TV spectrum auctions and also has the devices that can use those frequencies I'm sure the caps will be much higher. No way the FCC is going to let Verizon kill off POTS lines and not have viable alternative, and $60 for 10 GB and $120 for 30 GB with $10 per GB overage is not viable at this point.

[rancher]

I don't know what Verizon has planned.  I have Millenicom for my home internet.  20GB of 4G or 3G data for $70 per month, no contract or taxes, using Verizon's network.  I don't have any other land options, I'm in a 3G area about 8 miles from the tower.  I had satellite for 7 years, 3G blows that away in responsiveness, even their new generation service (which I have worked with).

I live in an agricultural area, population density less than 1 per square mile.  Living in the country may be a personal choice, but myself and everyone I know has lived here their entire lives.  And people like us grow food for this country, and yes, we need to be connected for many reasons.  So although it may be a choice, if "we" didn't live here, "you" would be paying a lot more for a lot of "your" food, to have it all shipped in from somewhere.  Sure I could move to town to get better internet, can I take my many acres of land with me?  Something reliable and -cheap- would be nice.  When a person's only choice at all for internet is a minimum of $60 per month (dialup was discontinued), and has very low caps for a family, it is annoying.  Government probably shouldn't step into this, but it took their intervention to get much of my state wired for electricity in the late '60s.  Town areas are covered over and over with many choices for internet, some of those choices could be siphoned off and the resources channeled to coming up with something better for "us".  At least it would be nice.  My neighbors were driving 30 miles one way to get enough data at a free hotspot (a 756Kbps shared hotspot) to complete school projects and online courses, they had the highest satellite package they could, and every day they did that, and far from the only ones.  In this day and age, it is crazy.

Hughesnet discontinued their free zone only because their competition was not offering it, not because they didn't have the capacity.  Then their competition offered it.  In my area, the newest generation of satellite service is closed to new subscribers, their new satellite does not cover half the country, and it did not cover here.  New and upgrading subscribers were only accepted on augmented beams on the old satellites for a short time here.

[evdotech]

I have read the entire post and a lot points are well made and taken. 

However because we live in the USA and not a socialist state, US Companies have a right to make money and unfortunately we are at the mercy of the corporations.

The Government is under no obligation to force companies to lower the price of your high speed internet access.  Do a Google search on how much money is spent to put up a cell tower?  It can be in the 6 figure range. How do you expect verizon or any other carrier to recoup that cost?

You can still get cheap internet access without going to libraries, its call a Land Line (internet), unlimited the last I heard.  

The Only way to cheaper rates is to have more competition. Clear, Comcast, Verizon, Sprint, Tmobile, US Cellular, Excede Satellite, Point 2 Point, Google fiber, and soon Dish Network

Cost can go both ways, Wants and Needs:  What do you need what do want? 

Can you watch the same tv show on your 19 inch tv as you can on your 50 inch tv. yes but then again consumers want more more more.

I myself fall into that trap of high internet,  I pay over $200 a month for internet?  Why so many internet connections you ask well I want to to be able to have Failover backup.  The last thing I want is hearing my kids scream that they got kicked off their PS3 Modern Warfare game.

Here is what I use and yes Comcast and AT&T do have caps:

Comcast, AT&T DSL, Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Pantech UML290, and TMobile HSPA+ Hotspot

Welcome to the age of Internet.

[VigilantZ71]

A little different take on why I would like to evaluate the VzW Homefusion service.

We left the burbs 12 years ago in exchange for 30 acres of space in the sticks.  A conscious decision to forego many of the conveniences living in town provides… including decent internet service.

Once here we started with dial-up, then dual-channel ISDN, (128kbs whoa!), then finally proprietary wireless broadband was made available and we returned to the 20th century.  Life was good again until…. our wireless broadband provider was gobbled up, and then the next one was gobbled up, and again the next one was gobbled up…  (Dfwair.net -> Partnership Broadband -> Skybeam -> Rhino Communications).  With each ISP turnover our service suffered to the extent that I now have a provider that is charging me for 5mb down service I never see.  Over the last 6 months our service has suffered degradation to less than 1mb down on the average but my cost remains the same.  ($70/month) No amount of complaining or service calls changes it… clearly we are now on a tower that is way over subscribed and the provider has no intention of doing anything about it.  (Thanks Rhino).  There are (where) no other options (satellite is not an option in my mind due to latency).   Until now!

So here I sat reading your very interesting reviews, comments, and positions on the Verizon Home Fusion service.  I use a Verizon LTE 4260L mifi for work and it serves as a backup to my home internet when it goes down if it becomes so degraded to be unusable (too frequently unfortunately).  So I know I can catch an LTE cell from our home without the assistance of an antenna booster so connectivity to the Home Fusion service might be ideal for our needs were it not for the data caps.

I need to evaluate our actual monthly usage habits more closely and decide if it is viable or not.