[colug-432] Comcast and connectivity alternatives

[davelist at mac.com]

AT&T has run fiber to newer neighborhoods so you if you are lucky enough to have fiber to your house, you might be able to get those speeds. I made another post about this but maybe you didn’t see it. I finally got fed up with TW (after about 13 years with them) and switched to AT&T U-Verse. I don’t have fiber to my house. There is an AT&T box near my neighborhood (about 1/4 mile straight line distance from my house) that I suspect has fiber to it and then phone lines to my house. I’m paying for the 18 Mbps (and I think 2 Mbps up) service and speed tests report 16-20 Mbps (and 1.5-2 Mbps up) so I’m reasonably happy. 

I think right now the max they can get is 45 Mbps total over the phone line with their current technology so if I’m recording 3 HD channels (I think those take around 10-12 Mbps each), the internet drops to 7-10Mbps, but as long as no more than 2 HD channels, the internet seems consistent (where I live in Hilliard - obviously YMMV). I hear that max over phone lines may go up to 70 Mbps this year in which case I shouldn’t see any slowdown when recording 3 HD channels. But I don’t think you’ll get 45 Mbps internet if you’re watching/recording tv unless you have fiber to your house.

AT&T will give you 30 days to try out their system before you’re locked into a 1 year contract so I kept TW for 3-4 days while I tested AT&T’s service. I had a 6-7 year old TW HD DVR that I hated. It would occasionally not record shows it should and interface was sluggish and took too many button presses to do some things IMO. And it only held about 30 hours of HD shows whereas the AT&T DVR seems to hold around 150 hours of HD shows (if you get their U300 or U450 service you get that larger capacity - don’t recall what capacity is for U100 or U200 but it’s less). TW signal so it would occasionally cut out for 1/2 a second so watching tv was annoying at times. TW’s internet service was reasonably reliable but the extreme cold caused my internet to go out for half a day multiple times in January. 

After 4 weeks with AT&T’s service, I’m happy as DVR hasn’t missed a show and internet has been reliable even in the cold temperatures. AT&T will waive some, but not all of the installation fees and then give you a gift card so the end result is all the fees are covered. They seem to be making a big push to get new subscribers right now. They do give you a big discount to get you hooked. We’ll see what price they’re willing to give me in a year when the contract is up. I’m hopeful it will be reasonable since I’m lucky enough to have the options of TW, WOW, and UVerse in my neighborhood. At this point, I’ll stick with them if the price is reasonable and if not look into WOW.

Right now I’m paying what I was before with TW (and I had a pretty decent discount from TW’s listed prices) but also have a second box in the basement so I can watch tv while exercising. I’ve got a few more channels I actually want to watch and a larger capacity DVR that works well. I had TW’s 12-15 Mbps (can’t remember exact speed) internet service so internet speed is slightly faster than what I had.

I had checked my usage on my router last year and I was using 100-150 GB a month so the 250 GB (gigabyte not 250 Gb - gigabit) data cap doesn’t bother me too much. I suspect if you watch a lot of streaming video (we don’t have netflix) that could be an issue.

And yes, watch what the installer does so you can go back to TW if you want easily. I wanted the internet router in an upstairs bedroom/office so they ran the internet service (which is what the tv runs over too) up the phone line to that office. Then the box in the office splits out the tv and internet and they ran the tv data back down to the basement using the coax line in the office. Since I only have two tvs they put the actual DVR in the basement there and then are using a wireless box for the first floor tv. I think we could have run the signal back up to the first floor over the coax if we wanted.

I still have Vonage for my home phone (AT&T offered me 200 minutes for the price I’m currently paying Vonage for unlimited so I didn’t switch the phone). I told the installer I still wanted the phone outlets to work and he ran the internet up to the office over two of the four phone wires, put a double jack in the office and the other two wires run the phone back to the phone outlets throughout the house. 

Dave



On Feb 15, 2014, at 11:56 PM, Jeff Stebelton <jeff.stebelton at gmail.com> wrote:

> Yeah,  whoops,  Mbs. The data cap is 250 Gb a month, 10 bucks for another 50 Gb if you go over. I tried a couple years ago to go AT&T "pro" DSL when thats all they offered,  couldn't get anywhere near the speed they advertised. I know its up to that rate but I was seeing under 2 Mbs consistently. Finally they connected me to a tech who asked me why I would ever need 6 Mbs anyway. What? I canceled and they didnt fight me over it or charge me for anything. Fortunately I hadn't canceled with Insight yet (that was before TW bought Insight), for the very reasons you mentioned. Think you talked me out of it. Actually don't know why I was considering giving them another chance anyway. Guess its because I'm so frustrated with TW over subscribing this line and not being able to use my connection on weekend evenings.
> 
> On Feb 15, 2014 11:36 PM, "Rick Hornsby" <richardjhornsby at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> On Feb 15, 2014, at 21:40, Jeff Stebelton <jeff.stebelton at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> I can get UVerse 45 Gbs for less than I'm paying now for RoadRuner Turbo. Anyone have experience with it? I'm loathe to deal with AT&T again but I’m looking to get off RoadRunner and its my only option besides DSL. And it sounds like a good deal if they deliver whats promised.
>> 
> Last I knew, UVerse is DSL and unless you have a DSLAM on your front lawn I find it highly unlikely that you’re going to get 45Mbps (what I think you meant).  It appears from the UVerse website they are in fact advertising that speed for $65/month.  Before you commit to a contract that they’re going to give you all kinds of hell to get out of and keep billing you for even after you cancel or try to charge you an ETF for, make them show you the actual speed at your house, and/or make them show you where you have X days (30?) to cancel the contract if it doesn’t live up to the promise.
> 
> What tends to happen with DSL is that you pay for 45Mbps, and they say “up to 45Mpbs” but it turns out you’re hilariously far away from a CO or DSLAM and you can only get 10 or 15, or 3 Mbps.  Hey, they promised “up to” and that’s what they meant.
> 
> Check the other fine print as well.  The prices offered are specials, and could get jacked way up in 12 months.  I’m seeing things here on the ATT site about monthly transfer caps, $99 installation fee, activation fees, $180 ETF, etc.
> 
> On a side note, the marketing terms these guys come up with are more and more ridiculous.  In order of slowest to fastest speed, they’re calling it basic, express, pro, elite, max, max plus, max turbo, and power.  Also the little graphic that says how fast you can download something is shown on an evenly spaced scale with markers at 2s, 25s, 5m, 1h, and 12h.  In other words, 2, 5, 300, 3600, 43200.  Because they can, I guess.
> 
> Uverse is an alternative to Comcast, etc yes.  Just be careful.  ATT can be really shady about the fees they charge, the actual speed, and their contract terms.  One advantage to the DSL is that you’re not sharing an aggregate link with a bunch of cable subscribers.  Your speed should be very consistent, whatever it is.
> 
> The 3/1 internet service I had a few years back was sufficient.  The TV product I finally gave up on after 3 tuner boxes.  In the winter it was fine, but in the warmer months when the room’s ambient temperature went up, a component in the device would squeal loudly and annoyingly.  They replaced the box twice, and all behaved the same.  Putting a PC case can on top of the device stopped the squeal by keeping it cool, but then it was the noise of the case fan.
> 
> Just my advice - I wouldn’t cancel TimeWarner until you’re sure you’re going to switch and you’re satisfied with ATT.  Keep track of what the installer does to your house’s RG-6 lines, so that you can put them back the way they were if you decide to cancel ATT.  The lines coming into your house are completely different for each service (TimeWarner comes in on RG-6, ATT comes in on a copper pair usually through your telephone box and terminates in the ATT DSL modem, where it breaks out into ethernet for your internet and RG-6 for your IPTV), but IIRC ATT will re-use the existing RG-6 wiring in your house and disconnect TimeWarner in the process.