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View Full Version : Satellite, Cable, Internet & Phone Service Recommendations



Rich Riddle
06-08-2014, 6:09 PM
We purchase Internet and landline phone from Cincinnati Bell in Covington, Kentucky for about $100 a month. The Internet has slowed yet the speed met the "minimum" requirements; speeds don't even allow to watch a simple movie.

1. The Internet indicates that Cable is much faster Internet. However, those bundle packages with phone, internet and cable seem outrageous in price.

2. Years ago satellite had problems with every little storm. Is it still that way. The ads say satellite offers Internet and even landline service. Are those fast? It seems odd that satellite would offer Internet. Dish or Direct TV?

What are your recommendations for the TV (cable or satellite provider), Internet, and landline phone? It doesn't look like bundling saves much money.

We still have an alarm system so getting rid of the landline wouldn't prove productive since the price of a cellular for monitoring cost the price of the landline itself ($30 a month).

Thanks for your input.

Curt Harms
06-09-2014, 6:34 AM
We purchase Internet and landline phone from Cincinnati Bell in Covington, Kentucky for about $100 a month. The Internet has slowed yet the speed met the "minimum" requirements; speeds don't even allow to watch a simple movie.

1. The Internet indicates that Cable is much faster Internet. However, those bundle packages with phone, internet and cable seem outrageous in price.

I don't know what telecom companies service your area. If you don't have TV programming you should be able to get internet & phone for less than $100/month. We have Verizon FiOS so that's what I'm most familiar with. They're advertising phone & 15/5 internet for $74.99 and 50/25 internet for 84.99. With their 'triple play' they're including TV for the same $ or even less. I expect Comcast (the other major supplier in this area) would be pretty close to that.

2. Years ago satellite had problems with every little storm. Is it still that way. The ads say satellite offers Internet and even landline service. Are those fast? It seems odd that satellite would offer Internet. Dish or Direct TV?

What are your recommendations for the TV (cable or satellite provider), Internet, and landline phone? It doesn't look like bundling saves much money.

We still have an alarm system so getting rid of the landline wouldn't prove productive since the price of a cellular for monitoring cost the price of the landline itself ($30 a month).

Thanks for your input.

There are no significant weather issues with landline services unless there's a bad connection somewhere. When we had DirecTV, they had an agreement with Verizon. Verizon supplied wholesale phone and internet (DSL) service to DirecTV.

Jim Matthews
06-09-2014, 6:52 AM
My television service starts up with the NHL playoffs and ends with the Stanley cup finals.

We tried DirecTV and found it wanting.

Do you have alternate cable services?
I have good results asking for better pricing from my
only provider. That's the catch - if Cincinnati Bell is the
only cable company, they have no incentive to
offer more service for less money.

Matt Meiser
06-09-2014, 7:38 AM
I've been doing a lot of looking since we are planning a move. A lot will depend on who serves your address.

Cable internet will almost certainly be many times faster than even good DSL. Run a test at speedtest.net to see what you are actually getting.

You do not want limited, expensive satellite internet. Due to physics it will never be as good as land-based. Depending on how much you use Verizon Home Fusion is fast but still expensive and limited.

TV--it was rare that our satellite went out. If it was bad enough for rain fade we were usually headed to the basement for a tornado warning. Once or twice a year enough snow or ice would build up to be a problem and I'd have to brush it off. A roof mounted dish could be problematic.

One big thing we liked about Directv was the whole-home DVR (Genie) service. Our current cable company has a nice whole home DVR system but near as I can tell neither Charter or Comcast offer anything. TiVo makes one but equipment and fees are big money compared to either Directv or Buckeye Cable.

One thing we didn't like was that we live 8 miles from Toledo city limits but are considered to be in Detroit for local channels. They sold us an off the air tuner that integrated to the DVR to fix that.

Contracts on satellite are 2 years where cable tends toward nothing or a year.

You need a new security company. Ours went up $4 for cell-based monitoring. The equipment was $150 to have installed on a long-term lease. We use a small local company--they outsource monitoring to a wholesale monitoring company.

Pat Barry
06-09-2014, 8:06 AM
We have Directv. Have had it for 10+ years. My complaints are - the price is high but I stilll pay it. Here in MN we had two storms last winter that caused disruption in service. One of these was due to snowfall in the sky, the other because the dish got loaded up with wet sticky snow. The first event only caused about 1/2 hour of downtime, the second about 2 days until the sun melted the snow off the dish (I wasn't going up on the roof to clean it). In the summer this year we have had one or two outages due to thunderstorms. If there are big thunderheads to our south they do disrupt the service but its only for a brief time. Overall I am a satisfied customer for their TV service.

Jim Becker
06-09-2014, 10:03 AM
Sat Internet should be a "last resort" choice...it's expensive, horribly capped, affected by weather, not effectively usable for real-time communication like VoIP and video chat due to high latency (delay) and did I happen to mention expensive for what you get speed-wise?

It's hard to get away from bundling these days; the industry tends to make it more expensive per service if you unbundle. If Cincinnati Bell's service isn't meeting your needs, you likely should consider cable.

Matt's words come from a lot of experience with a wide variety of services in his multi-year battle to get "real" Internet access!

Rich Riddle
06-09-2014, 5:10 PM
To clear up confusion, I live less than a mile from downtown Cincinnati, Ohio but on the Kentucky side. The satellite companies here offer Internet service through another "vendor" so it's not satellite per say but likely cable Internet. All of you are correct, satellite Internet would prove cumbersome and expensive.

I walked into the local office for Time Warner Cable and the representatives acted very polite. They said that if I go through them they can also waive all the fees that one inherits when placing the order online. It's likely a sales pitch but worth the discussion. It looks as though I can get cable, Internet, and phone service for about ten dollars more than we currently pay. The cable would include the premium channel Starz which SWMBO wants. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Kev Williams
06-09-2014, 5:34 PM
I'm a little peeved at my internet and phone options as of late. I'm currently paying around $190 a month for 1 phone line, 1 fax line, and 1.5 meg internet. Centurylink had a bundle thing going with cheaper phone service and 40meg internet for $19.95 for 5 years. Problem is, my house and shop is located in a small 1 mile square area that's never had fiber installed. So I'm stuck with 1.5 meg DSL, and an ISP that goes down for 2 days every other month or so. I tried Digis, a wireless antenna based service with 15 meg service, but too many trees and buildings in the way for their line-of-sight service. I want nothing to do with cable if I can help it, simply because of barefaced lying reps and equally wonderful customer service. Of course, I've gotten the same from the sat companies too, but the cable co. is in a class by themselves...

Jim Matthews
06-09-2014, 5:38 PM
I had TWCable in the Albany, NY area.

RoadRunner, they called it.
It was excellent.

The $45/month "triple play" package they're offering is HALF what I pay Charter, so I can watch Hockey.

I would agree that you should retain the option to terminate at no cost, anytime you choose.

Myk Rian
06-09-2014, 6:18 PM
The cable would include the premium channel Starz which SWMBO wants. Any thoughts? Thanks.
LOL. Same here. She keeps calling Comcast threatening to disconnect if they don't include it in our package. She also gets a better rate a couple times a year.
She's pretty good at it.

Ole Anderson
06-09-2014, 9:06 PM
We have Comcast's triple play (phone, tv and internet bundled) and we have their home security. It pains me, but it is $194/month. Includes a DVR, hundreds of digital cable channels, phone (we kept our old number), security tied to the internet with cell backup included, 3 doors, 2 motion sensors, thermostat and a camera, and they recently swapped out our modem so it is now an all-in-one with cable modem, phone connection and wireless in one box. And they upped our speed at no charge so I am now getting 10 up and 50 mbps down. Hasn't been without its problems, but for the time being, all is well. It is just plain hard to beat cable. They run fiber to the neighborhood and distribute with copper. They even ran a fat RG11 underground to the house 2 years ago. Been with Comcast about 20 years now, no better alternate for us. Most cable companies offer similar service.

Cable, you love to hate it, but can't do without it. They have you over a barrel.

Rich Riddle
06-09-2014, 10:22 PM
Well it looks like cable offers the answer. I contacted both satellite companies and their Internet service is provided by Cincinnati Bell. It's the same service we hate and the reason for the swap in the first place. You might be right about them having folks over a barrel.....

Dave Lehnert
06-09-2014, 11:58 PM
Did you check with Cincinnati Bell to see if Fioptics is in your area yet?
They also have alarm monitoring service.

Mike Cozad
06-10-2014, 5:14 AM
I would also check into at&t uverse tv and internet. They also just stood up home alarm with add ons of remote home control, lock-unlock doors, shut the garage door, etc. I pay less now for many more channels of tv and internet that doesn't lose speed in the evening when every other family on the block is online like cable does. I switched from Directv and have been satisfied. My only "complaint" would be that HD recording on a dvr can fill the thing up quick, oof. I need to figure out a way to rip stuff off of it to an external drive.

Matt Meiser
06-10-2014, 8:14 AM
Wow, the u-Verse DVR is small, and from what I can find you can't use an DVR expander drive either. I'm pretty sure we are going back to DirecTV with Genie at the new house.

For internet we can get u-Verse, Comcast, or Charter--leaning toward Comcast as coworkers with Comcast have few complaints and they offer the highest speed options. Apparently houses toward the front of the development can get 45mbps u-Verse but it shows 18mpbs for the house we are buying near the back.

This morning's news is that AT&T is buying DirecTV so there may soon be uVerse Internet/Phone/DirecTV bundless.

Curt Harms
06-10-2014, 9:04 AM
................
It's likely a sales pitch but worth the discussion. It looks as though I can get cable, Internet, and phone service for about ten dollars more than we currently pay. The cable would include the premium channel Starz which SWMBO wants. Any thoughts? Thanks.

When it comes to pricing, if you're looking at contract, pay attention to how they figure it. Verizon has done a "pretty high base price minus this promotion minus that promotion minus the other promotion". The problem is that the promotions expire before the contract so the check you write each month goes up over time. Of course this doesn't apply to no-contract service.

Rich Riddle
06-17-2014, 2:07 PM
The technician is here installing the cable. The Internet's already up and working. Cable Internet works quite bit faster than DSL. The differences are obvious.

David Weaver
06-17-2014, 2:48 PM
When it comes to pricing, if you're looking at contract, pay attention to how they figure it. Verizon has done a "pretty high base price minus this promotion minus that promotion minus the other promotion". The problem is that the promotions expire before the contract so the check you write each month goes up over time. Of course this doesn't apply to no-contract service.

I think they've found that business model helps them get new business. Same with cable companies. It discourages me from switching because they are never forthright enough in advertisements about what that final rate actually is. I wish they'd just provide a flat rate.

Val Kosmider
06-17-2014, 3:58 PM
Just a heads up, Time Warner and Comcast are getting ready to merge. SOME locales will be spun off to "New Company", but the majority will survive under the Comcast name.

I moved form Time Warner country. The service was good, and the customer service was outstanding.

I dreaded having to switch to Comcast, and right away the dolts in customer service didn't disappoint--even to the point of telling me I could not have their service at my new location (both my neighbors have it...hmmmmm....)

After getting that sorted out i have to say that the service has been excellent. In two years only one brief two hour period when it was down. I bundle TV, Internet and phones...some personal; some business.

It isn't cheap, but it is a lot less than I was paying at Time Warner where I couldn't bundle everything.

Bottom line: either is fine, but watch out for the implications of the merger in your area.