[colug-432] Comcast and connectivity alternatives

Mon Feb 17 08:04:07 EST 2014

Ah, once again I learn to never trust what an AT&T rep tells me. Thanks..

On Mon, Feb 17, 2014 at 7:55 AM, <davelist at mac.com> wrote:

> This says 150GB if you don’t also have tv.
>
>
> http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB409045&cv=812#fbid=wpWmyP0XTGj
>
> Dave
> On Feb 17, 2014, at 7:54 AM, David Reed <dave256 at mac.com> wrote:
>
> > This says 150GB if you don’t also have tv.
> >
> >
> http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB409045&cv=812#fbid=wpWmyP0XTGj
> >
> > Dave
> >
> > On Feb 17, 2014, at 7:35 AM, Jeff Stebelton <jeff.stebelton at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> >> I chatted with a service rep who told me it was 250 Gb per month. I'll
> find that on their site before proceeding. If ordered online they're
> offering a $50 gift card right now, including Internet only.
> >> The setup process is telling me:
> >>
> >> A $100 one-time Internet equipment fee automatically applies for orders
> without U-verse TV or orders with select lower Internet speeds.
> >>
> >> It's put in the cart as $99.00. Go figure. =-)
> >> So in my cart I have the following:
> >>
> >> AT&T Rewards
> >> Additional online only $50 reward card when you order today!     $50.00
> >>
> >> Monthly Charges TOTAL    $71.95
> >> One-Time Charges TOTAL    $99.00
> >> Your Estimated First Bill*  This total is only an estimate of your
> first bill. The monthly charges on your first bill will be slightly higher
> than normal. The charges may vary based on the following:
> >>
> >>    Monthly charges are billed one month in advance
> >>    Prorated monthly charges from date of installation to start of bill
> period
> >>    Taxes, fees, and surcharges
> >>    Applicable installation charges
> >>
> >>    $170.95
> >>
> >> My next option is to order, so it looks like the $99.00 install fee is
> the only one. But I've dealt with AT&T before.. heh.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On Mon, Feb 17, 2014 at 7:09 AM, <davelist at mac.com> wrote:
> >> AT&T only sends the channel(s) you are watching to your house so in
> effect everything you are watching is streamed to you. Note this means you
> need one of their boxes on every tv you want to use with their service. So
> the phone lines can (at least with their current technology) carry a max of
> 45 Mbps total so 3 HD channels takes over 30 Mbps leaving less than 18 Mbps
> for internet.
> >>
> >> Rick answered Jeff’s other question, but Jeff, check the 30 day
> guarantee if you’re just getting internet (and then I think the cap is
> 150GB instead of 250GB). And I suspect they won’t waive the fees (and no
> gift card) since they’re not getting as much money from you per month as if
> you were getting UVerse.
> >>
> >> Dave
> >>
> >>
> >> On Feb 16, 2014, at 1:27 PM, FiL Farris <philipfarris at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> When you say your recording HD channels @ 10 - 12 Mbps are you
> referring to some type of streamed media  or HD shows coming into the
> digital tuner(s) of your cable box?
> >>>
> >>> On Feb 16, 2014 12:30 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
> >>
> >>
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> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Jeff Stebelton GCIA GCIH GPPA GWAPT CEH SFCP
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >
>
>
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-- 
Jeff Stebelton GCIA GCIH GPPA GWAPT CEH SFCP
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