[colug-432] Comcast and connectivity alternatives

[davelist at mac.com]

On Feb 13, 2014, at 11:55 PM, Dan Kaiser <dank2878 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I live in a rural area where TW adopted older Delphi cables (this is what a tech told me) and about 3-4 times a year we lose network but not cable.
> 
> I call in the outage and _every_ time they tell me it is an issue with my modem.  The first few times they insisted on sending a standard tech out who would invariably find that the issue was the signal level at the pole needed to be calibrated, which requires a special tech.
> 
> Now, when the temp changes and we lose connection I call the neighbors to confirm theirs is out too and we ask call to let them know. They still want me to reboot my modem... By now we know to tell them no, just send a tech to check the signals at the poles. When we all call in close succession it seems they get the message.

I was seeing the same thing with TW - on those cold days we had (temperatures around zero) we would lose internet (but cable tv would still work). It would occasionally come back up during the day but only sporadically so we went about a week in early January with spotty internet. I had been thinking about switching anyways due to price going up. Spotty internet, DVR that didn’t always record shows it should, and the $4 monthly fee for the same cable modem I’d had for over 10 years finally caused me to switch. Their answer when I complained about the $4 fee for a 10 year old modem they had already depreciated was they’d swap it out for a newer one.

I’m lucky enough to have the option of TW, WOW and AT&T in my neighborhood so I gave AT&T a try. So far (after one month), it’s much better service. Internet has been reliable (and faster) even in the below zero days, DVR works (interface is better and much snappier than the 2007 TW DVR I had), can record 3 HD shows instead of 2, and got a second box so can watch tv in basement while exercising. Paying less for now for more channels than I had with TW. We’ll see what kind of deal I can get in a year when discounts run out. I hear good things about WOW so if price goes up too much, I may try them. Given I have three options, TW was usually willing to reduce their price (although the last few years not as much) so we’ll see what AT&T does.

I don’t know if TW and Comcast compete in any areas, but if they do, I hope that should be a major red flag for the merger. From what I hear about national costs, I think we pay a lot less in Columbus for internet/cable since most of us here have at least two options and three in some cases. And of course the net neutrality issue is a big concern if we just have a few giant companies controlling the internet.

Dave