Best cable, internet, phone providers

[kosmo vinyl]

getting DSL depends on closest to the telco office... in order for DSL to work you have to be in certain range.  outside that range and cable is the choice.  
 
 the knock on cable verses DSL is that performance goes down on a cable modem if your neighbors are downloading porn all the time. DSL is better because no one is sharing the same cable as you.

[vansmack]

Originally posted by Bags:
 
 And, no Cox in the District.

Not since I left, anyway.

[ratioci nation]

You can do what I do and get taken to the woodshed by Verizon for phone and Speakeasy for dsl while watching fuzzy tv with rabbit ears and pay way too much!

[kosmo vinyl]

Originally posted by vansmack:
  I use DirecT(i)V(o) ($50 a month for 160 channels and a TiVo) and 3 MB DSL ($29.99).  No local phone - we only use mobile phones.

can you get DSL without a local phone line already established?
 
 and if you already have a well established mobile phone number is a local phone even really needed, given the expense to have some guy come out a "install" it for you.

[ratioci nation]

Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
  can you get DSL without a local phone line already established?
 
 

http://www.speakeasy.net/home/onelink/

[vansmack]

Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
  can you get DSL without a local phone line already established?
 
 and if you already have a well established mobile phone number is a local phone even really needed, given the expense to have some guy come out a "install" it for you.

The phones lines are already in the building, what they do with them is up to you.  SBC hooked up DSL despite the fact that we do not have a local phone line.  Verizon may be different.
 
 And your point about mobile phones is right on.  With the do not call list, free nights (7 PM) and weekends, I don't use more minutes because if you want to reach me during peak hours, I won't be at home anyway.  You're better off trying me at the office (or this message board).

[xcanuck]

Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
 
 besides i refuse to ever get cable internet because i don't want to pay the bastards anymore money then i have to.. real competition needs to be put in place for cable services.  in the detroit area when competition came about the prices suddenly got lower.
 
 oh yeah i use Earthlink DSL... and use the lowest usage local verizon service

We have hated Comcast (and all cable providers) because of their defacto monopoly and the customer  service implications thereof.
 
 But....we haven't found a better alternative to Comcast Cable as our ISP. We would love to go DSL but the DSL reports for our neighbourhood (Forest Glen) show that it's slower than cable modem. We'd love to use our DirecTV satellite but that's prone to outages due to weather. And, to be honest, our Comcast has only gone down a couple of times in the past three years. I have to admit that it's incredibly reliable. It's $50/month (and thankfully our empolyer covers that!).

[sonickteam2]

Originally posted by xcanuck:
   It's $50/month (and thankfully our empolyer covers that!).

meaning its free, so stop complaining.

[HoyaSaxa03]

Originally posted by xcanuck:
 We'd love to use our DirecTV satellite but that's prone to outages due to weather.

in the 4 years i've had directv i'm able to count the amount of times it went down due to weather on one hand ... it's really not that bad ...
 
 and directv is fan-fucking-tastic, great channels, NO local ads (no more of those screaming local car dealers), and the option to get all the sports packages (i don't know if i could live without NFL sunday ticket)

[godsshoeshine]

Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
   

Originally posted by god's shoeshine:
  i just move from (sucks) cox hell to comcastland and i got:
 
 -cable internet
 -digital cable
 -hbo
 -showtime
 -dvr
 
 for $99 per month for the first year. not a bad deal. plus, cox doesn't have on demand

whats it go up to after that... in PG county thats about what I way without cable internet.  Comcast really soaks their PG County customers, while briefly living in Howard County all that was provided a much lower cost point.
 
 besides i refuse to ever get cable internet because i don't want to pay the bastards anymore money then i have to.. real competition needs to be put in place for cable services.  in the detroit area when competition came about the prices suddenly got lower.
 
 oh yeah i use Earthlink DSL... and use the lowest usage local verizon service [/b]

i think its something insane like $140. we'll get rid of showtime for $15 and maybe the dvr. my girlfriend is really in love with the dvr though (not that i don't think its great). at the old place, it was $135 for cox without showtime, dvr, or ondemand, so either way i'm stoked

[kosmo vinyl]

so mine would be about the same if I added in a cable modem $140 a month...
 
 comcast is such a great company to deal with... after complaining about a lousy picture on the local channels for months... i finally had a "supervisor" come out and tell me that the lousy picture was system wide and they couldn't do anything about it because thats how they got it... and their hands were tied by regulation... talk about pasing the buck.  why more people aren't up in arms about their bs is beyond me...

[godsshoeshine]

well, they came and installed it the first saturday after i called and came out the day after i called about the on demand not working. maybe its just that maryland sucks and virginia is superior IN EVERY SINGLE WAY
 
 kidding about that last part, but i will say they are far better than cox, especially because i now have sundance and ifc

[joz]

Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
  so mine would be about the same if I added in a cable modem $140 a month...
 
 comcast is such a great company to deal with... after complaining about a lousy picture on the local channels for months... i finally had a "supervisor" come out and tell me that the lousy picture was system wide and they couldn't do anything about it because thats how they got it... and their hands were tied by regulation... talk about pasing the buck.  why more people aren't up in arms about their bs is beyond me...

same exact problem i had...i had the shittiest reception on my "digital" receiver. when the tech came out to check it, he said all the wires in the building would need to be replaced (we lived on the 9th floor at the time which meant getting access to every apartment below us to replace the wires!!) and even then he wasn't sure if it would work.
 
 comcast gobbled up so many little cable companies to become this behemoth but doesn't seem to care about updating the lines they bought so that the reception is decent. furthermore, the three times i had to go to their office in dc (located in the ghetto, btw, in case you haven't had the pleasure of a visit), i received some of the worst customer service in my life. i will never, ever buy cable or anything else from those assholes, even if it's the only option. i'd rather live without tv. sadly, i moved from connecticut over to glover park partly because starpower is an option here.

[novadancer]

you got a good deal from comcast if it's $99 for the first year. I have pretty much the same as you, except no dvr (have tivo instead), but have digital in 2 rooms and pay $140. I had reduced internet for 6 months at $19.99. And I, too, live in VA...

[Bombay Chutney]

Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
  comcast is such a great company to deal with... after complaining about a lousy picture on the local channels for months... i finally had a "supervisor" come out and tell me that the lousy picture was system wide and they couldn't do anything about it because thats how they got it...

Yep.  We did the same thing.  Got the same answers.    Last time they came out they did something that enables us to watch the digital channels.  For some reason, we weren't getting them originally.  They were just scrambled. I'm not sure if that was originally a mistake or if this guy was doing us a favor.  Anyway, even though we don't have a digital tv, we can now watch the local digital channels.  They're usually letterboxed, but MUCH better picture quality.