I live in a unique area where I have access to three different cable companies. I currently have Broadstripe, they hooked me for a year with all three bundled services at $50 a month. Basically internet and phone free for signing up with digital cable. My 12 months are up and they are bumping it up to $129 a month with no perks. Comcast is offering me $89 a month including a free DVR for 12 months (12 month contract). Verizon Fios is offering me $99 a month, with a $35 discount the first three months, no DVR.
I download a lot of tv shows off of torrent sites and am concerned about stuff I have seen about Comcast charging extra for heavy downloaders.
Internet speed itself is not much of a concern, I normally just let it all download while I am at work anyways.
I may also just drop it all and go back to DSL, regular landline service, and $10 a month limited basic cable (broadcast channels only). I hardly ever watch anything on cable channels anymore anyways between Netflix and bittorrent.
Also, does anyone know anything about improved reception with the digital signal swtitch? I live 30 minutes from DC AND Baltimore, yet rabbit ears get me squat.
Posted by Jhai (Member # 5633) on :
We've been very pleased with our Verizon FIOS service here in Fairfax, VA. While we have had interrupted service a time or two, every time we called into customer service the problem was fixed quickly and politely. The speed of the internet is excellent as well, and I much prefer the cable interface compared to Comcast's.
Posted by EmpSquared (Member # 10890) on :
I have comcast, and I don't think I've been charged extra for heavy downloads. I have intensely fast speed too, but then again I'm not in a heavily populated area either (I'm not sure if that matters though, I'm not up to speed on the tech of the new fiber cables.)
Posted by Christine (Member # 8594) on :
Well, comcast is my only choice around here and we found them overpriced (after their initial dangly offers) and the customer service wasn't great. Actually, we finally decided to quit the cable/satellite game altogether and our monthly budget is quiet happy about it.
Of course, when a year is up, you can always jump ship again. I did that for a while.
Posted by scholarette (Member # 11540) on :
I have comcast and have not been pleased. Customer service is awful. They put me on hold for an hour, don't do followups when they say they will, have no record of prior calls, etc. Also, everyone says something different- most recent interaction- cable still blurry after hurricane. We called and asked if the line was damaged by the hurricane or if maybe something on our end got fried. The woman on the phone assured us that the lines were all up and running and the damage was on our end. Repair guy comes out, listens to our description of the problem, says, "that's problems in the line. We're working on fixing them asap, but it'll take about 3 weeks. If after 3 weeks, the picture is still pixalating, call us back." Though to be fair, the problem, while still there, has improved.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)