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A rural physicist stays connected to work with Viasat.

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Viasat keeps suburban Washington family connected

When Jameyson Miller’s grandfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease a few years ago, family members joined forces to care for him. Their internet service made that long and daunting task easier.

“Viasat really did help us when my grandpa was sick,” said Miller, who lives in Rochester, Washington.

Miller’s aunt drove an hour a couple times each week to care for the older man and give the rest of the family a break. She parked her RV in the family’s driveway and stayed there during her visits.

“I brought in a Wi-Fi extender so she was able to get internet to her RV; she was using the internet constantly for communications to doctors, and just general medical questions and issues. Not only did she take care of him physically, she did all the stuff behind the scenes: his paperwork, financials, life wishes.

“She was very appreciative we had good internet for that.”

Miller’s grandfather has since passed, but the family continues to use Viasat. It’s become part of their lifestyle in a suburban-style western Washington neighborhood. Many homes with Viasat are located in rural areas far from cable, but not the Millers. Houses are built on either side of their home, but more traditional options don’t extend to each street.

“Ironically, cable is all around us,” Miller said. “There are these pockets of neighborhoods throughout Thurston County that they seem to have missed. When we first got satellite internet, some of our neighbors were jealous.

“I’m just really grateful the option is out there available to people like us that are so close to everything but don’t have internet.”

The family first subscribed to Viasat several years ago and has had “absolutely no complaints,” Miller said.

“The first time it stormed here we were expecting to lose connection,” he said. “It held strong. We watched Netflix during the storm, actually.”

Miller was doing graphic design at the time, and working with large files.

The family uses their service for everything “from soup to nuts,” Miller said. “YouTube has helped save my car by showing me how to fix problems. We all watch quite a few shows. I have our Netflix settings turned down to standard definition (to save data) so Mom and Dad can watch their movies.”

Living the good life with Viasat

Lorraine Harris’ life changed with one breathtaking view of Oregon’s southern coast. Harris had just been laid off from a travel-heavy, whirlwind job at Yahoo in the San Francisco Bay area. She was at a turning point.

“Did I want to hop back on the corporate wagon, or do something completely different?” she thought. “My husband brought me up here, and I said, ‘We’re going to do something completely different’.”

The couple relocated to the Coos Bay area, and Harris retired. Her husband is a military veteran on disability due to injuries suffered while serving in Vietnam.

“We just decided I’d stay at home and we’d have a quieter life.”

The only hitch in their new lifestyle was internet. The couple first bundled a cable connection with their phone, which Harris described as not only slow but expensive.

“They just kept upping the bill and my service kept getting slower and worse. Their customer service was just abysmal. They didn’t seem to care about existing customers; they just wanted to sign up new ones.”

They then tried another satellite internet company and again were met with unexpected costs and slow service. That all changed with Viasat.

“You guys are cheaper and much quicker; to me, there’s no comparison,” Harris said. “And the customer service is just excellent. I can always reach someone, and they aren’t speaking in techno-language or an accent I can’t get. I’m hard of hearing, so that’s important.”

“Every time I call, they review my plan. They don’t try to upsell me. If I don’t need what I’ve got, I’ve even gone down. It’s nice to have honest customer service.”

Despite the distance that’s now between them, Viasat allows Harris to continue caring for her aging mother still living in the Bay area.

“Even though I’m 600 miles away, I handle the medical issues for her. She calls and asks me to make appointments online. She’s a huge reader, but you can only request library books through the computer, so I help her with that.”

Harris and her husband Jan have goats and chickens on their rural property. Almost any question she has about her new animals can be answered online. The frequent trips they also now enjoy to visit friends around the country are all arranged online.

“This is the next chapter of our lives. It is a very good life.”