[colug-432] Comcast and connectivity alternatives

[Jeff Stebelton]

I did miss that,  apologies. Thanks for reposting. Thats very helpful. I'm
only doing Internet if I go with AT&T.  We've decided to drop our landline
and go cellular only and TV is with DirecTV because of their monopoly on
NFL. I'm paying 64 a month for Internet plus 20 for Turbo so even when the
price goes up after a year I'll be slightly under what TW is charging me.
They put in a new development right up the street from me a few years ago
and when the kids are doing YouTube and online games on the weekend my
bandwidth drops considerably. Think I might give them a try if they put the
30 day back out clause in writing. Whats this 180 fee mentioned? Did you
have to pay that too?
On Feb 16, 2014 12:28 PM, <davelist at mac.com> wrote:

>
> 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.
>
>
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