Home Internet Connection

[Polishrifleman]

Have any of you done the all in one setup with a single provider for phone, cable/dish, and internet?

We are currently with 3 different companies (one for each) and could save some $$$ if we went the single provider route.

We have cable tv right now but don't really like the fact that comcast has a monopoly in the area aside from the dish.  The dish station line up isn't as good unless we upgrade package's.  I think we can figure that part out.  My main concern is with quality of end product, price, and not having the option to keep up with technology.

Any information on good and bad experiences with phone, tv, and internet bundles?  Should there be anything we look at for upcoming technological advances ie: HDTV, Bluray, whatever (I have no clue just throwing out some food)?


Thanks,

Polish

[K Frame]

My local provider, Cox, has been pushing hard to sell me their phone service. I have cable TV through them, and until a few weeks ago I had internet through them.

I finally got rid of the internet connection when, for reasons they were never able to pin down and didn't seem particularly interested in solving, my internet connection would go to hell randomly. From 2.8 meg down to 70k. It would cycle randomly at any time of the day it wanted, but it was a virtual lock during the last 2 weeks that it would go down to "chipping text in stone tablets" speed around 7:30 p.m. every night and stay there. Then there were the frequent, and I mean FREQUENT, complete and total outages. Weekends? It was a crap shoot as to whether I'd have any connectivity or not.

I was paying $40 a month for those "benefits," so I said to hell with it and switched to DSL through Verizon. So far, in a little under 3 months, not a single outage or significant drop in speed.

What was really bizarre was that Cox didn't even attempt to keep me as a customer when I called to cancel.

[Polishrifleman]

Sorry to hear that, I am glad to hear your comment about Verizon though, we currently use them for our phone.  Verizon offers an all in one package with the Dish.  What are the differences in the dish vs. land line cable?  Solar flares, unwanted person on a ladder, trees blowing in the wind, no HD...?

[K Frame]

There don't seem to be enough differences between dish and land line cable to get me to switch right now. A few extra channels, but nothing that rocks my boat.

[InfidelSerf]

we had dish, dsl and phone from SBC  Honestly I think it MIGHT have saved $10-15 a month
We dumped the dish back when everyone was on it's aruba-thon.
Since then we took advantage of a discount with comcast they offered to dish subscribers. That and 24 was coming back

We have added the DVR (WELL worth the $10 a month) and recently dropped the dsl with sbc (right about the time at&t took them over)and opted for comcast's 6MB.   (very fast download speeds, upload is the same as dsl)

Comcast is now trying to get us to go with their phone service.  But after much though we decided our cellphones were all we needed and dumped the homephone too.
(the ONLY thing I would use 911 for is a fire.  And I'd be willing to bet you make that call from a neighbors house)

We will probably get rid of cable during the summer months.  I actually prefer to just download the tv I want to watch.

[Monkeyleg]

We have Time Warner cable for both TV and internet, and will have digital phone installed next week. Combining the services will save us about $40 a month.

Until I see how the digital phone works out, I'll have to reserve comment.

[Phantom Warrior]

My parents switched from three separate providers to a phone, cable, and DSL package with Paul Bunyan Net (northern Minnesota).  This saved them some money and gave us a lot of neat features we didn't have before (i.e. caller ID, extra channels, TV guide, DSL instead of dial-up).  We've been very pleased.

[Polishrifleman]

monkeyleg, keep me posted on your satisfaction rating.  Thanks for all the feedback so far.

[Vodka7]

Most people's savings are coming from two things:

1) Going from a landline to VOIP.
2) Going from regular pricing at a mix of providers to promotional pricing for their first year at the new provider.

Which means you have to consider two things:  if I'm going VOIP anyway, am I getting the lowest pricing from my cable company, or could I save more with getting their internet and someone else's VOIP?  And, am I going to be saving this much after my first year?

If you're a speed demon, you also have to consider the quality of your internet service.  Around here Verizon advertises DSL for 14.95 a month, and in very small print advertises that you get speeds of up to 768kbps.  For me, and I realize I am probably in the minority here, I would rather pay three times that for 10mbps through my cable provider.  (And, before you ask, this is not a theoretical 10mbps--I hit 1meg/s easily off of a fast source.)

Also, consider some of the problems with VOIP before you sign up.  My cable provider's VOIP cannot accept collect calls and cannot make 10-10 calls.  It cannot support medic alert systems or life alert systems.  If the cable goes out, your phone goes out.  If the power goes out and you haven't sprung for the $50 battery backup (which provides 8-10 hours of standby time and ~6 hours of talk time), your phone goes out.

If all three are on one bill and money becomes tight, you cannot let the cable or internet bills go and just pay your phone.  If you go into collections, all three are getting shut off.  If you want to remove the internet, your phone is gone too.  If you remove the TV, your promo pricing is suddenly back to full price.

No tax on the phone bill is very, very nice.

And, when you call the company to get pricing on what happens after the first year, don't talk to the sales department--they know exactly how to bend the truth to get you to sign up, and conveniently forget to include things like tax, equipment rentals, and other things when you sign up.  The customer service department is used to dealing with the lies from other departments all day, and will tell you exactly what is going to happen during and after that first year.