Legal Node

Fair Access Policy for Hughesnet Gen 5 for Business Customers who subscribed before March 30, 2023 

 
Hughes maintains a Fair Access Policy to ensure fair and equitably balanced Internet access for all subscribers to the Hughesnet® service (“Service”). Hughes assigns to each Hughesnet Business service plan (“Service Plan”) an amount of data (“plan data”) that may be downloaded or uploaded at Service Plan speeds within a monthly period. Subscribers who exceed their plan data amount can continue to use the Service without being charged for additional data usage, but during periods of network congestion, may be prioritized behind other subscribers who have not used their plan data, which may result in slower speeds. 

In addition, each Service Plan comes with a separate allocation of 25 GB or 50 GB (depending on Service Plan) of data on a monthly basis (“Monthly Daytime Data”) for use during the period between 8 am and 6 pm until expended. 

Service Features and Conditions 

All Service Plans feature No Hard Data Limits where the subscriber can continue to use the Service without being charged for additional data usage.  If a subscriber uses more data than is provided in their monthly plan, he or she may be prioritized behind other users during network congestion, resulting in slower speeds, until their data resets. Web sites will respond and load more slowly and certain activities such as video streaming or large downloads/uploads will be significantly impacted. 

All Service Plans include data-saving features to maximize the user’s plan data.  With the Video Data Saver feature, streaming is optimized with video streams at DVD quality (up to 480p). For best performance, the user should leave any video streaming applications at their default automatic resolution setting. Most video services are supported. Not all video sources are identifiable. 

How does the Fair Access Policy work? 
 
The Fair Access Policy is implemented automatically by monitoring your usage, that is, the data sent from or to your Hughesnet satellite modem. Each Service Plan is assigned a plan data amount, which is the amount of data, in bytes, that can be uploaded or downloaded within the monthly period at plan speeds. If your data usage exceeds the plan data amount, you may be prioritized behind other customers during network congestion, resulting in slower speeds until your plan data resets at the start of your next billing period.  
 
When is my Plan Data amount reset? 
 
Each Service Plan is assigned a monthly plan data amount, based on your date of activation. The reset cycles are based upon a 28-day month (1-28), and the cycle day matches your activation day. If your service is activated on the 29th, 30th, or 31st day of a month, your cycle will be set to the first day of the month. As an example, if you activate service on October 3, your cycle day is 3, and your plan data will be reset overnight on the third day of each month. If you activate your service on October 30, your cycle day is 1, and your plan data will be reset overnight on the first day of each month. 
 
How is my usage calculated? 
 
Hughesnet counts each byte of data sent from, or to, your satellite modem. This includes packet headers, re-transmissions, and other standard overhead which is part of any IP communications. However, when Hughesnet is able to apply compression and reduce the size of the data you send or receive, only the compressed (smaller) data is counted against your usage. 
 
What happens if I don’t use all of my Plan Data? 
 
Any unused plan data at the end of your monthly cycle is lost, and your plan data is reset to the normal monthly amount assigned to your Service Plan. 
 
How does Monthly Daytime Data work? 
 
Service Plans are assigned a separate allocation of 25 GB or 50 GB of Monthly Daytime Data for use during the period between 8 am and 6 pm. During this period, your usage is first applied against your Monthly Daytime Data, if available, for full-speed service. If you do not have any Monthly Daytime Data, then your usage is applied against your plan data, if available, for full-speed service. In other words, your Monthly Daytime Data provides a special pool which is used automatically during the Monthly Daytime Data period, giving you access to more usage at full speed. 
 
Who is affected by the Fair Access Policy? 
 
Some users consume much more bandwidth than the average user. By providing a monthly plan data amount, more of the shared bandwidth is made available for everyone to use. Most subscribers will have a better experience as a result of the Fair Access Policy. 
  
Online activities such as viewing web sites, checking email, watching video clips or similar short streaming media, and automatic software updates are unlikely to cause you to use all of your monthly plan data. 
 
If I use all of my Plan Data, what should I do? 
 
You might consider upgrading your service plan or purchasing Data Tokens. 
 
How do I verify how much Plan Data I have used? 
 
You can track your past usage and Fair Access Policy status by going to www.myHughesnet.com, clicking on Customer Care, then clicking on the Check My Usage link in the Resources section. 
 
What do you recommend I do during the Monthly Daytime Data Hours (8 am to 6 pm)? 
 
We recommend that you automatically schedule your system updates during this period. You can also use a download manager software application to automatically schedule large file downloads to occur during these hours. 
 
How do Data Tokens work? 
 
Data Tokens allow you to purchase additional plan data to use during your current cycle. Data Tokens are a great way to restore your service performance until your next monthly cycle. Note that once you apply a Data Token to your account, any speed restrictions are immediately removed, and your Token data balance can be found by logging in to your account at myHughesnet.com or on the Hughesnet mobile app. If you have both Bonus Zone data and Token data available, your Bonus Zone data will be used first during Bonus Zone Hours. Your Token data balance carries forward from month to month, so any leftover Token data will not be lost or forfeited. 

(last updated March 30, 2023)