Hi lml,
I usually lurk here but I wanted to comment on DirecPC. At one point, I was really interested in DPC. That was before I read the messages at Usenet group alt.satellite.direcpc.
From what I gather Hughes, owners of DPC, oversold their bandwidth and now rations it out to their subscribers. In terms of a business standpoint, Hughes claims that 5% of their subscribers use half of the available bandwidth.
Due to this, Hughes created a plan called the Fair Access Policy (FAP). With this subscribers who exceed "Normal Usage" patterns, described by Hughes, have their bandwidth reduced to bring them back within the average range. Subscribers who post on the newsgroup regarding FAP are, to be charitable, really mad.
Some subscribers are actually taking Hughes to court via class action claiming they where never told of FAP. Even outside the top 5%, it seems that most subscribers rarely get anywhere near 400kbps due to the above. Granted there are a few bad apples everywhere, IMO, it seems these people have legitimate issues against Hughes.
Even individuals not interested in DPC, the newsgroup and discussions regarding the DPC service are interesting.
Before you buy, look it up. I'm glad I did.
Back into lurking mode,
Pat |
