Yes, I know what it is so no need to explain it to me - just confirming if NRTC is finally catching up with the rest of Viasat or maybe just gearing up for new "unlimited data" plans.

For those thinking their data usage meter is bad... read it and weep but at least they've repeated (in triplicate on another page) the info and performed that tricky percentage calculation ;)
P.S. It appears to be a work in progress and still under construction.
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Posted 2 years ago
VeteranSatUser, Champion
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That same email also showed me a "preview" of the current plans Viasat is offering (minus the Viasat-2) plans. It basically said the current plans will be a downgrade from before (They are), so if you want to switch to Freedom or "unlimited" do it now and be grandfathered.
Thankfully I had Freedom available to me and I hopped on it immediately. Outstanding plan for the money. Yet no longer sold. Go figure.
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for this:
Apparently, this feature was turned on recently, with default being YES.
VeteranSatUser, Champion
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Whether it is actually enabled or not is debatable - Fast.com does indeed yield a slower test than it had previously for me. Much slower that what's obtained on testmy.net.
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It was yesterday enabled...100%...youtube download, vimeo....Testmy was OK...and I had to watch a Vimeo vid via VPN @ 720p during LNFZ, which is when I do vid watching or downloading.
Enabled during LNFZ...
NRTC (my COOP) has mentioned nothing...
Yes, it can not be changed to NO...NRTC SNAFU.
VeteranSatUser, Champion
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If they want to get me mad, deny me my 1080p!
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I get NRTC's: YOU HAVE REACHED 70% OF YOUR DATA ALLOWANCE
Since 2005, I only recall one time my local COOP sent an email. Maybe in regards to when fiber cable got cut (Laredo, TX Gateway).
VeteranSatUser, Champion
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Okay. The video downgrader was loaded and turned on for my account. I successfully turned it off!
Old Labs, you might want to check again. I selected "no" and it took me to another screen to make SURE I wanted to turn it off. Ummm.... Yes please!
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Each NRTC member's (COOP/REA) page may have to be done manually. This does not work here.
VeteranSatUser, Champion
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My testmy.net right now is 9.9Mbps. Very, very good for me.
My fast.com test shows 4.7Mbps. Yes, slower, but still fast enough for HD video and showing my video is not being throttled (thankfully).
Our portals look the same. I am sure Old Labs will weigh in here with his findings soon.
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Within 1 minute of each other: Fast.com running at 2.5 Mbps. TestMy running at 16.6 Mbps.
But for me it's not a big deal - was more looking to give you specifically a heads up knowing you can tell the difference ;)
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VeteranSatUser, Champion
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Selected "no" and then it brought up another screen to confirm. Sure you don't have some setting on your browser blocking that second screen?
Anyhow, thanks for the heads up on this. Not happy my provider didn't give notice when it went into effect, but all is good. And yes, I can tell a difference. I stream content on a 70" screen, so high def is important to me.
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http://novecnet.com/plans/
I'm bookmarking that since it'll probably be the only way I know of future plan changes short of the USPS.
Just a quick followup, does your rural portal allow you to "buy more" online?
The script error I get when changing the selection is on a null reference to a variable named buyMoreId - like most of what my member organization does, I would have to call in to buy more (not that I ever would). Looking closer at the JavaScript behind the page, it does indeed check for a "buymore" element before displaying the confirmation you mention. If it does not exist it simply ignores the selection (someone apparently need some remedial script and/ot logic training).
I don't have a buy more option just a "If you would like to purchase additional bandwidth through the Buy More program at $9.99 per GB , please contact us directly." Maybe I'm suppose to contact the directly to turn the feature off also ;)
Regardless at a flat $49.99 per month, with no taxes and no monthly lease - I'm staying put.
VeteranSatUser, Champion
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I am what's on a Freedom 2 plan. I questioned how it ever became available to me, being that I am on one of if not the most congested beams on Viasat-2. I only average maybe 50 - 60GB per month, and that is using 1080p, so it fits my needs perfectly.
With taxes and fees I pay $86/month for 150GB and no unrestricted video resolution. And that is after a price hike at the beginning of the year. That is what I would call a very , very good deal which I am very thankful to have now.
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The getElementById("buyMore") statement yields a null reference in my case (since there is no online ability to buy more for my member organization and there is no Buy More button). The null reference causes an immediate drop out of the function above without any further processing - the net effect is that nothing happens when chnagin the drop down selection.
Someone got lazy trying to double up on sharing the Cancel/Continue message for two total different features (one of which is not applicable to all NRTC subscribers).
End of discussion...
If I were ambitious I could fire it up in debug mode and force it to occur but could really care less about this feature. The information is provided so that others are aware of it.
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Either that or I just bought 6 more GB at $9.99 each testing it... but they haven't hit my account yet. If they do maybe I'll watch some videos.
We are the red headed step children of Viasat - all the pain with none of the perks. At least for me, no real compelling case can currently be made to switch to becoming a direct subscriber and a "new" customer (yet).
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NRTC's NeoNova does manage Usenet (NNTP) via Giganews
...giganews.com!nntp.neonova.net!news.neonova.net.
"NeoNova currently provides end-customer technical support, NOC monitoring, network engineering, and revenue-generating services for over 260 Affiliates serving more than 1,000,000 subscribers across 46 states."
There is a contact page there...do let them know.
==================
Around Saturday noon-hour, this was reported at DSLReports
Video speed was clamped down to 1.1Mbps, and next day, it bounced up to 2.5Mbps to 3.2Mbps range via Fast.com. Monday morning, a Viasat employee was made aware, and he consulted with NRTC.
VeteranSatUser, Champion
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If I had the choice between my old 10GB 5 hour free zone or Liberty, I wouldn't give up the free zone. But now with Freedom and the fact I don't use close to 150GB, it works for me with the video downgrader turned OFF.
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But seriously after some additional testing with Fast.com, it appears that it takes effect almost immediately with a significant difference in test results when toggled - so I might leverage it during the free zone if the need ever arises or even if there are some downloads falsely detected as video streaming and throttled as previously discussed elsewhere.
In my case giving up the 5 hour free zone for a 3 hour free zone has had little impact, I got an extra 2 GB for less money, and on the rare occasion when I do go over the priority data there's less of a throttling impact during non-peak hours (actually very usable and as advertised).
VeteranSatUser, Champion
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Yea.