Sorry for the late reaction, i needed a few days off and was hidden in the sugarcane around Guayamate.
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There are a bundle of people (not REAL companies) in the DR, who get (used) materials or activated materials from the USA or Puerto Rico, "installers" try to make a quick-buck and are not hindered by ANY technical knowledge.
This combined with the use of a TV dish (the name say it already) they try to create a connection, mostly with a TV satellite finder.
If that works, you are lucky.
Stay happy as long as it will be, Verizon is doing Direcway as well and they don't like "intruders" in their market, what the result will be, we don't know, we don't care either, because we are legit with INDOTEL and have nothing to fear (maybe a price-war).
Satellites have BEAMS, that is nothing more than a kind of flashlight pointed in a certain direction.
If you are inside the spot, you have a signal, on the edge, a bigger dish will give results, outside -nothing-
Even if the satellite is on top of our head, that is no garantee that you will have a signal.
Satellite Internet Systems are NOT made in the DR
They come from the USA and those systems need to go through customs.
Since you need an "uplink" there is a radio transmitter in the system, and for that you will need a license (or the whole system is licensed to a company by INDOTEL)
Radiosignals that are not properly balanced CAN give problems with other signals like airplane navigation, telemetry and others.
The use of a television dish, is one of the sources for interrupting those "tiny" signals, they are not created/balanced/prepared for transmissions and if they were, they would not called TV-dishes but TX(/rx)-dishes.
What do we have in the DR.
Customs is difficult and expensive.
Taxes are coming in left and right.
The goverment want to have some money too.
Transportation costs are rising sky-high.
A system from the USA will cost triple or more when it finally LEGALLY arrives in the DR.
The costs are reduced commonly by "bypassing" taxes, homemade dishes, illigal imports (smuggling) etc etc.
"Thus, we don't ship the original dish , but use a 1.8m locally made TV dish, and look at the (reception) strength, sooooo coool and hard, ...... exactly where it was made for: TO RECEIVE signals"
Monthly fees less than $90 a month are not normal
There is a $69 package from DW (direcway) but that is on a satellite that is almost behind the horizon (lets put up a BIGGER dush) and has no solid footprint (spot) in the DR
Pirated systems are more and more common from DW, at only a fraction of the cost.
I don't have to explain to the people from the usa, what can happen if Direcway (owned by Hughes and thus DTV) will do when they see grounds to start legal actions.
Ask the people who got "busted", by the thought alone of having illigal DTV or DishNet receivers.
And since this goverment "sleeps" with the USA in this kind of cases, be prepared for the future.
There was/is already a rush in busting (illigal) local cable providers.
What can you expect:
A licensed/trained installer will do an installation job for around $600-$1000 and that is just HIS work, without any materials.
He will have the tools, equipment and experience and he will use, at least, a digital satellite finder (not just a compass),GPS , cable crimp tools (not pliers or a hammer), original plugs (not local copies) , the correct certified cables (not local look-alikes).
The equipment is another thing:
Hotels, Resorts, (bigger) companies will bring materials it into the DR by themselves, they have contracts and can do it cheaper, organisations (like churches etc) will have a tax-free pass.
USA trained installers will speak/write/understand fluently english, else they can't go through a training program.
A licensed installer will have a certificate (what is checkable) or an installer ID or whatever to prove to the client that he is, who he pretends to be, and all this is offcourse for the client able to test his credibility.
A certified installer will have a checkable emaill address and not HOTMAIL,YAHOO,GMAIL etc, but a company email address.
Some additional information:
Direcway (DW) is a public product, has no special things for programming and/or activation, and is sold by many COMPANIES, who normally let a certified installer do the installation job, they have aftersales and a helpdesk. there are some options for a do-it-yourself.
DW is happy with you as long as you pay your monthly fees, there are no garantees for speeds etc, they just use maximum and indication speeds, low monthly fees for low quality packages.
No digital-userlimits, that means you share the satellite-channel with up to 150 others.
Verizon starts at $145 a month and $2000 for DW equipment without (!!) installation materials.
iDirect is highly professional, has a do-it-yourself option but is NOT promoted by the resellers, because you will loose all garantees of the connection.
MANUALLY done by a trained installer you get a garanteed connection.
Speeds depend on the connected satellite and the requested service
64/64 starts at a $150/m and can go up till $10.000 for 10.000/10.000
Users are limited, (max50, max20 etc) but that will increase the price as well, but there is no package that goes over 50 users
Nera (comes from the maritime istallations) is high-tec, they only allow certied installers to do the activation MANUALLY, and that comes with a price (and a stable connection)
512/128 starts at a $350/m and can go up till $10.000 for 10.000/10.000
Users are limited, (max50, max20 etc) but that will increase the price as well, but there is no package that goes over 50 users
DataBahn, SKY, and other smaller companies have limited satellite access, low-budget packages, and high digital-users in 1 satellite connection, most of them (prob all) have no secure signal in the DR, and don't give support outside USA territory.
And we contacted almost all of them to do business with, but always went down on quality and garantees and not from our side !! but from the brand owner !!
Than dish-sizes.
And there are the differences in transport costs !!
DW has (some) connections left on G4 and G11, those satellites can be used with a 0.98m and a 1.2m dish, the newer systems that uses SM5, HZN1 and others, have different signals/spots and requieres bigger dishes, and the lower the satellite position - the more difficult it is to penetrate through clouds etc, to reach the satellite.
(for this, we refuse to connect to HZN1 at 127 degrees).
AND the bigger the dish, the heavier the materials, the higher the cost of transport.
A satellite that has a spot, that can be used with a 1.2 meter dish, is good for use in the DR, and that are only a few.
Bigger dishes catches more wind, are less stable and need heavier installation materials.
A satellite is +/- 36000 kilomters away, a "little" mistake of 1mm, has big consequences on that distance (take a calculator and see)
If you know on what satellite you will be connected, find the info for the "footprint" for this sat, and you will find the minmum dish size as well.
Something personal.
When installing systems, we have good fun if we see those tv dishes , carry-ing a heavy LNB for internet access, tied together with teepie and some wires, and nicely waiving with the wind.
And than some of those ?installers? have the "guts" to come to our office, to ask for one of our digital sat-finders, because they cannot find a signal (with their tv tester), and than they are angry with us because we don't lend them one.
A "good" dealer/installer has:
an internet site
a company email
is backed-up by a USA distributor(s)
original materials
an office/shop
a taxnumber
an INDOTEL number
Licenses/Diploma's
And the FASTED internet systems can only run on
Nera 1000 (6000down-2000up) Nera 1910 (8000down and 4000up) iDirect (10.000 down and 10.000 up)
and that are garanteed speeds, prices depends on the amount of digital users per channel.
All other is "looks-like", "maximum possible" bla bla etc etc.
We don't have problems with others INSTALLERS (like Chris - we never met either), but we have problems with quick-a-buck's, fake-installers and pirates.
And like Chris we are backed up by names as:
Hughes (
http://www.hughes.com)
Telenor (
http://www.telenor-usa.com)
Sky Catcher (
http://www.skycatcher.com)
Ground Control (
http://www.groundcontrol.com)
Nera (
http://www.nera.no)
iDirect (
http://www.idirect.com)
INDOTEL (
http://www.indotel.gov.do)
and others,
we have direct access to those companies and are known by name
Need to know more ??
Do a search on DR1 for Dunhill