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 Review by hdman 
UPDATED: 167 days ago
member for 5.9 years, 2071 visits, last login: 1 days ago
 New London,Waupaca,WI
 Contract price not specified.
 "The electrical co-op, the installer, WB and NRTC support on site"
 "1st installation for local coop, used wrong cable, delayed 2 weeks"
 "Strong, fast signal, great local support from coop, tad expensive compared to DSL"
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Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:
(ratings well above consensus)
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I volunteered to be the first person to have WildBlue from my local co-op out of Iola, Wisconsin. They kept me in the loop with release, and equipment delays during the months that followed my agreement. Once the install began, we could not provision the modem. The co-op is Mid-Wisconsin DBS and the installer was from Alcom out of Manawa. The installer and I both figured the modem was bad. This was a Monday. On Saturday, he returned with 2 modems and spare "tria" or feedhorn. We had no luck, and a terrible experience with the people manning the phones at WildBlue, so he left VOWING to return with answers. Boy, he was not kidding. A week later on a Monday, 2 weeks after he started, he returned with an Engineer from WildBlue and one from the NRTC. In less than an hour, they learned that the installer had used the wrong cable, and that the dish was on too weak of a pole. They had the new cable installed, the modem provisioned, and were on their way within that hour. The brain power at my home was staggering when you consider I was a single joe schmoe customer with a $299 install and a $49.99 package. There will be people who will say "WildBlue will die if they have that big of an expense on too many houses...", but these are learning pains. I agreed to it when I signed up for it and the installer NEVER gave up. The experience with WB, NRTC, the co-op, and the installer were excellent. I dinged this review a little on tech support only because of the problem we had with WB on the phone on a Saturday. Other than that MINOR issue, it was AWESOME.
I also dinged the "value" part of this review because it is still $49 per month for 512/128, or about 3 times more than DSL....but this is all I can get, so the value is higher for me. For others, it would be lower.
UPDATE: Well, here we are one year later (almost). Being one of the first users of WB was a huge risk, but looking back it was the best risk I ever took with regards to isp's. I have been blessed with great service, great speed, few small issues, but nothing major and certainly less headaches than any other isp I ever had including dial up. I would suggest WildBlue to ANYBODY who asked, but I would always add the caveat that good performance is directly related to a good installation from a good installer. The service rocks, and the NRTC service line rocks as well. Great job WildBlue!!!! - HDMan
UPDATE: About 18 months ago, EVDO became available through Alltel. Now that Verizon bought them, I sure wish I had kept WildBlue. I truly had NO issues with WB, but I would be nervous to go back to them based on the reviews lately. The ONLY way I would do it is through my local NRTC Co-op.
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