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Broadband Internet dilemma
#272443 - 01/08/12 08:41 AM
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So after a great deal of agonizing, I think I'm going to NOT get cable television in my house at all. It's just way too freaking expensive and I don't watch enough to justify paying 80+ dollars a month for it. So now I'm leaning toward getting a Netflix account.
However I still need broadband Internet. The only real options in my area are Time Warner Cable Broadband, AT&T DSL, or AT&T U-Verse. Here's the pricing, at least what I've found posted online. Not sure if it's 100% correct.
AT&T U-verse internet
3Mbps - $38/month
6Mbps - $43/month
12Mbps - $48/month
There are higher speeds, but I don't think they're worth it.
I'm not sure about the upload speeds.
There is reportedly a $4/month "High Speed Internet Equipment Fee" as well.
These plans have a 250GB per month cap.
As far as I know, you can't purchase your own hardware. You have to rent a gateway from them.
AT&T FastAccess DSL Direct
3Mbps down, 384Kbps up - $43/month
6Mbps down, 512Kbps up - $48/month
They don't offer any higher DSL speeds.
These plans have a 150GB per month cap.
I think you can purchase your own DSL modem, but I'm not 100% sure on this point. They sell a DSL modem for $75 or a DSL gateway for $100.
Time Warner Internet
10Mbps down, 1 Mbps up - $58/mo
20Mbps down, 2 Mbps up - $68/mo
I can't determine if there is a cap or not.
You can buy your own cable modem and router.
At the moment, these are the three competing options:
- AT&T DSL 6Mbps - $48/month
- TWC Broadband 10Mbps - $58/month
- AT&T U-Verse 12Mbps - $52/month (if you include the $4 equipment fee)
The DSL is cheap and simple, but has a low cap.
TWC is also simple, faster, and I think there's no caps.
U-Verse is the fastest, but still has a cap, and the funky hardware scares me.
The other thought is that DSL (and U-Verse) are not shared the way that cable broadband is, so in theory, the speeds should be more consistent.
What the hell should I do? I have no idea if I'd ever hit a 150GB or 250GB cap. I guess with Netflix, it would be possible.
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| DMala |
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Sleep is overrated
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Re: Broadband Internet dilemma
[Re: krick]
#272449 - 01/08/12 09:45 AM
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> The other thought is that DSL (and U-Verse) are not shared the way that cable
> broadband is, so in theory, the speeds should be more consistent.
>
> What the hell should I do? I have no idea if I'd ever hit a 150GB or 250GB cap. I
> guess with Netflix, it would be possible.
I don't have a real answer for you, but a few observations:
- Unless you're a heavy downloader, I wouldn't be too worried about bandwidth caps. We stream a ton of video and I do a fair amount of BitTorrenting, and I've never come within spitting distance of the 250GB cap. I've probably topped 150GB in a heavy month or two, but even that's rare. If you're not running BitTorrent or doing a *lot* of downloading, it's not likely to be an issue.
- I wouldn't be overly concerned about shared bandwidth. I live in a fairly crowded neighborhood, so I'm presumably sharing with quite a few people, and I've never noticed a slowdown that would be consistent with times of peak usage or anything like that.
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Re: Broadband Internet dilemma
[Re: DMala]
#272450 - 01/08/12 10:03 AM
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I've read that 3 hours of HD Netflix per day will put you over 250GB. I'm not sure if I'll average 3 hours a day, but I'm probably going to have two Netflix streaming accounts, and then add in whatever other downloading and internet usage I have.
On a related note, I just got off a chat session with a Time Warner Cable support person. I was asking about "Analog Broadcast TV $16.99-$20.99/mo" as described in their price list...
http://www.timewarnercable.com/East/shop/pricing.html
I asked him for more specific pricing and he went away for 10+ minutes and came back with "we don't offer that". When I questioned why it's on the price list, he said I needed to go to my local office and ask them about getting analog service.
/facepalm
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Re: Broadband Internet dilemma
[Re: krick]
#272461 - 01/08/12 05:14 PM
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> I've read that 3 hours of HD Netflix per day will put you over 250GB. I'm not sure if
> I'll average 3 hours a day, but I'm probably going to have two Netflix streaming
> accounts, and then add in whatever other downloading and internet usage I have.
>
> On a related note, I just got off a chat session with a Time Warner Cable support
> person. I was asking about "Analog Broadcast TV $16.99-$20.99/mo" as described in
> their price list...
> http://www.timewarnercable.com/East/shop/pricing.html
>
> I asked him for more specific pricing and he went away for 10+ minutes and came back
> with "we don't offer that". When I questioned why it's on the price list, he said I
> needed to go to my local office and ask them about getting analog service.
>
> /facepalm
TW does not have a cap, at&t does. They have similar plans around here. However, TW is the more expensive of the two. Also have you considered earthlink? Many times they are slightly cheaper and are just reselling TW. Dont go thru TW for it though they will just mark you as earthlink and charge the normal rate (. Also I have never paid for my modem. It comes with the service. Just ask if they charge a fee for the modem. The plan I have does not have this fee.
Also for netflix you should only need one account. You can stream up to 2 devices at the same time from one account currently. Dont think they enforce it (they were a few months ago until they started hemorrhaging customers). So I would start with one then if you need more add one. I have about 5 devices connected. But usually only use one or *maybe* two.
Also *most* netflix I have seen is not HD. Most of it is SD or if your lucky 720p.
Recently I was moved up to the 20meg plan (was about 8-9 before). Other than a torrent once and awhile I can not tell the difference in normal surfing or watching a movie...
If you can get it just do OTA TV. It looks *much* better. They have the BW for it and its not compressed as badly as AT&T and TW.
I think to get u-verse you need to get the TV bundle?
Here is what earthlink looks like
Up to 6.0-10.0 Mbps service: $29.95/month for first 6 months; $41.95/month thereafter
Up to 10.0-15.0 Mbps service: $39.90/month for first 6 months; $51.90/month thereafter
Looks like they also still have usenet with a lowish cap.
Anyone have any good/bad words about earthlink?
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italie |
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MAME owes italie many thank yous, hah
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Re: Broadband Internet dilemma
[Re: krick]
#272462 - 01/08/12 06:13 PM
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> U-Verse is the fastest, but still has a cap, and the funky hardware scares me.
There are two gateways floating around, and both are pretty awesome. Both come equipped with a 450mW wireless router, which is "higher-end" power when you are considering home use wireless routers. Most of the off the shelf brands aren't even 100mW.
They both have 4 ports coming out of the back. The black router is a bit newer and handles traffic a bit better than the silver one. Sorry I don't have model numbers.
The link coming in should be VDSL or DSL2, both of which are surprisingly usable and comparable to cable.
> The other thought is that DSL (and U-Verse) are not shared the way that cable
> broadband is, so in theory, the speeds should be more consistent.
In theory, but unless you live in an apartment building or a really congested condo/townhouse plot that theory is a little outdated.
> What the hell should I do? I have no idea if I'd ever hit a 150GB or 250GB cap. I
> guess with Netflix, it would be possible.
Comcast has the same cap, all-be-it unspoken. Not sure on Time Warner. Even when I've heavily abused my internet I haven't come that close to the cap, and I used to transfer a TON of data. Not Andrew levels, but enough to say even with Netflix you'll be OK. (~8.3GB a day doesn't seem like a lot, but you really have to work at things to pull that every day.)
The only advice I can give if you go uverse is to immediately download a program called "UVRealtime" It's a great analysis too, and will tell you right away if there are things like bridge taps affecting your line. If there is trouble on your line your service will drop out, and you may have to help the technician out a bit if he's new. I had a few line issues the first week, but once they were resolved I haven't noticed a difference from my ~20/6 Comcast service I had before this. In fact I'd say some bigger downloads are faster consistently through the download. Leads me to believe that the Comcast "SpeedBoost" was more of a "Speed throttle" after 20 seconds....
Also, this is a decent way to bypass tier 1 customer support :
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/uverse
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Re: Broadband Internet dilemma
[Re: lharms]
#272464 - 01/08/12 06:44 PM
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> Also have you considered earthlink? Many times they
> are slightly cheaper and are just reselling TW.
Hmmm... Earthlink is available in my area and is $6 cheaper per month so they're definitely something to consider.
I'm currently trying to figure out if I can get "Analog Broadcast TV" from Time Warner Cable. They have it on the price sheet for my zip code (27511)...
http://www.timewarnercable.com/East/shop/pricing.html
...but the support person I talked to via chat last night insisted that it wasn't available.
I remember that before Comcast went full digital, if you purchased broadband internet only, you could pick up "free" analog TV off the cable. I'm wondering if Time Warner is the same. As far as I know, they haven't switched to full digital yet.
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GatKong |
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Tetris Mason
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Re: Broadband Internet dilemma
[Re: krick]
#272471 - 01/08/12 07:41 PM
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>I'm going to NOT get cable television in my house at all.
Go for it... we did and never missed having 300 channels of crap. Anything we want to see can be found online.
As far as ATT, don't forget they have the attitude "We don't care, because we don't have to." Terrible customer service, going all the way back to my college years when they cut off my phone service because the check I wrote for the bill was 25 cents short, and billed me a huge reactivation fee (this was before they made it illegal to deactivate for a single late payment), and including last year when I decided to give them another try and signed up for dsl with a free modem. When the installer came out while I wasn't home, he said we didn't need a modem, and didn't give us one, but then the service didn't work. Since I didn't get the modem "at installation" they would happily sell me one for $50, even though their technician made the decision to not leave the free modem. They, in their terrible customer service attitude, wouldn't budge on that $50 charge for the free modem, so I cancelled the service and regretted giving ATT a second chance. They truly just don't give a shit about the customer.
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Re: Broadband Internet dilemma
[Re: krick]
#272489 - 01/09/12 12:46 AM
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Re: Broadband Internet dilemma
[Re: ]
#272490 - 01/09/12 01:00 AM
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> How much is dial up?
LOL. $21.95/month from Earthlink.
Not gonna happen. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.
A long time ago, I had a SMC Barricade router that had a serial port on it and an integrated 4-port switch. I had it connected to a US Robotics external serial modem. The router would dial the modem when needed and disconnect after a pre-defined period of inactivity. This allowed me to have multiple computers sharing one dialup connection, which was pretty hard-core at the time.
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Re: Broadband Internet dilemma
[Re: krick]
#272530 - 01/09/12 06:18 AM
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Looks like you are in the same state as me. So if they are doing it anything like the Greensboro area there is a 'basic' tier. They do not advertise it. It is like 7-10 bucks a month. It has I think 1-14. Which includes most of the local broadcast stations. You can use any cable ready TV to do it.
Now keep in mind they are going to eliminate the 'analog' channels soon. They have already done it in Main. So you will be stuck with some sort of decoder box and rent for the box and remote control.
Where your at with a decent antenna you would get probably somewhere between 5-10 stations. Prob about 80-150 bucks.
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Re: Broadband Internet dilemma
[Re: lharms]
#272535 - 01/09/12 06:55 AM
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I'm in Cary NC. I bought a house here about 6 months ago, but just moved here on Dec 31 when my job in NJ finished up.
I made the call earlier today and spoke to a TCW sales person.
I got analog "Broadcast TV" for $16.99 a month. No equipment needed. Bundled with 10 megabit Roadrunner broadband, no caps (for now, anyway). $34.99/month for 12 months, then $55.95/month after. So my total bill will be around $75 bucks when all the promo pricing runs out. I can live with that.
They tried to talk me into analog "Basic Cable TV" for $64.99/month, but I told them no.
I really only watch a few shows on NBC, FOX, etc... so it will be sufficient.
I plan on getting a Roku box and watching some Netflix. I'm also going to look into this PlayOn thing and see if it's worth buying.
I know that eventually, Time Warner will phase out analog just like Comcast did. However, because of the economy, I think they won't be able to do it as quickly. If I get another few years out of my Series 1 lifetime TiVo boxes, I'll be happy. When the day of digital reckoning comes, I'll deal with it. Maybe then I'll be able to talk them into giving me some sort of massively discounted digital package. Or I'll just drop TV. Their choice. 
> Looks like you are in the same state as me. So if they are doing it anything like the
> Greensboro area there is a 'basic' tier. They do not advertise it. It is like 7-10
> bucks a month. It has I think 1-14. Which includes most of the local broadcast
> stations. You can use any cable ready TV to do it.
>
> Now keep in mind they are going to eliminate the 'analog' channels soon. They have
> already done it in Main. So you will be stuck with some sort of decoder box and rent
> for the box and remote control.
>
> Where your at with a decent antenna you would get probably somewhere between 5-10
> stations. Prob about 80-150 bucks.
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