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What tv, internet, and telephone providers should I get?

ultramodern

Newbie
Jul 29, 2010
25
2
I currently have cox communications as my provider for internet, tv, and landline. I've been pretty disappointed with Cox lately and I want to switch to another provider.
TV service: I pay around $75 for dvr service, hd channels, and a basic channel lineup (FX, TBS, CNN, MTV..., no NBA tv, BBC, HBO...). My cox DVR cannot hold many shows and doesn't have a lot of features.
Internet: I pay about $30 a month for internet service, but it is very unreliable. I constantly have to call up Cox to tell them to restore my connection. Even when I do have it, it's very slow. I only get around 1mb/s download.
Landline telephone: I barely ever use it but other members of my family still want to keep it because they want to keep the number. I pay around $20 a month but I get $10 off because I bundle it with other cox services.

I'm currently located in south orange county and I'm having trouble finding other service providers. I wouldn't even mind switching to things like magicjack or something like that. One solution for internet and phone would be getting an additional sprint line ($19.99 each additional line for the family plan; unlimited data, mobile to mobile, texting) and porting my landline number to that mobile line. My family could also use it for internet if I got an android device and downloaded pdanet. The only problem with that is sprint's service at my house is shaky and I often don't have service (airrave would solve phone problem but not internet). I wouldn't mind switching to a satellite provider for tv either. Do you guys have any recommendations?
 
Go out, buy a cheap tv antenna, and see what kind of reception you have. Then if its decent buy a nicer outdoor one, mount it, and run the cable to your tv. It depends how close you are and the line of site to towers though.

I do this currently and get 30 channels. I get every local HD channel, ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, ect... For cable tv shows (and HBO, SHO, ect) I either download them or stream them from their respective network websites. I picked up netflix for $9/mo and now have more shows and movies then I could ever watch for... $9/mo.

With a decent internet connection, cable is a thing of the past.
 
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I live in South Orange County (California) too. The problem I have with Cox is that they keep raising their damn rates. I have HBO, Showtime, and HD DVR along with a pretty good cable lineup (but not the best), I use their Premier internet tier because the step down is a huge step down in speed and I bundled it with their phone service, my bill last month was $188! I was like WTF? It was $11 less last month. I finally cancelled the phone service just to knock a few bucks off since I don't use it anyway, but I've been looking into the same thing. I was very curious about both Verizon FIOS and AT&T Uverse but unfortunately neither have service in my apartment so I'm stuck. I thought about going the dish route and then grabbing DSL just to make it cheaper but I don't really have room for the dish plus the apartment complex is crappy about allowing you to attach it to the building.
 
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I currently have cox communications as my provider for internet, tv, and landline. I've been pretty disappointed with Cox lately and I want to switch to another provider.
TV service: I pay around $75 for dvr service, hd channels, and a basic channel lineup (FX, TBS, CNN, MTV..., no NBA tv, BBC, HBO...). My cox DVR cannot hold many shows and doesn't have a lot of features.
Internet: I pay about $30 a month for internet service, but it is very unreliable. I constantly have to call up Cox to tell them to restore my connection. Even when I do have it, it's very slow. I only get around 1mb/s download.
Landline telephone: I barely ever use it but other members of my family still want to keep it because they want to keep the number. I pay around $20 a month but I get $10 off because I bundle it with other cox services.

I'm currently located in south orange county and I'm having trouble finding other service providers. I wouldn't even mind switching to things like magicjack or something like that. One solution for internet and phone would be getting an additional sprint line ($19.99 each additional line for the family plan; unlimited data, mobile to mobile, texting) and porting my landline number to that mobile line. My family could also use it for internet if I got an android device and downloaded pdanet. The only problem with that is sprint's service at my house is shaky and I often don't have service (airrave would solve phone problem but not internet). I wouldn't mind switching to a satellite provider for tv either. Do you guys have any recommendations?

Hoping till now you got recovered from this issue. If not then may also think to buy a cheap tv antenna, and check what kind of output you have.
Cheap Home Phone Service
 
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I'm not going to recommend anything, per se, but just tell you what I have and how I like it.

TV service -- DirecTV, almost since its inception. Wouldn't trade it for anything. I have multiple DVRs, some HD, some not [yet]; their HD DVRs have all sorts of cool features, including On Demand and YouTube; my service NEVER goes out [it used to...when I lived in Tornado Alley!], I've never had a single problem since moving back home in 2006. I no longer get the premium channels (Showtime, HBO, etc.), because I wasn't watching them any more after my favorite shows ended. I pay ~$114/month but keep in mind that's for multiple receivers and DVRs, and tons of channels.

Internet -- I have Earthlink, which I've had for eons (since they bought out Netcom), but after dumping their DSL service for cable, I'm now billed and serviced through Time Warner. After an early glitch (a loose connection on a pole, resulting in hit-or-miss service), everything's been fine; it's been about a year and a half. Its cost, after the initial reduced rate period, is now $41.95/month.

Landline -- AT&T. Yes, I STILL have a landline, and will until they're obsolete. They work when the power's out. They work when it's storming. They work regardless of whether an Internet connection is up. They work regardless of wireless signal strength. The package I have includes every conceivable feature along with unlimited long distance. Its monthly fee is ~$70.

Wireless/cell phone -- AT&T. I get NO BARS in or near my house; otherwise, it's very good. :rolleyes:

I'm VERY pleased with this configuration and don't plan on changing anything any time soon. :) Redundancy is really important to me, i.e., I don't want to have a setup where if one component, such as electricity, goes down, EVERYTHING goes down. The way I have things, that's just impossible. The power may go out, but I still have phone service. My Internet connection may go out, but I still have TV and phone service. My landline may go out but I still have Internet, TV, and cell phone service (if I go way, way out into my backyard :D). Etc.
 
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