Best TV, Internet, Phone Provider?

[Jeffrey]

Hi,

We just moved into a new house and the local cable company does not provide service to the neighborhood yet. We're looking for the best solution to our television, internet, and phone provider needs. Does DirecTV, Dish, or any of the other satellite companies provide all three services? If so, which do you recommend. If not, what do you recommend we do?

Thanks,
Jeffrey

[hughgs]

Hi,

We just moved into a new house and the local cable company does not provide service to the neighborhood yet. We're looking for the best solution to our television, internet, and phone provider needs. Does DirecTV, Dish, or any of the other satellite companies provide all three services? If so, which do you recommend. If not, what do you recommend we do?

Thanks,
Jeffrey

We're old and like a land line so we use the phone line and DSL. You're big problem is likely going to be getting DSL if you can't get cable.

We're also cheap and use satellite. When researching which satellite provider to use, figure out what channels you like best then find the cheapest package and sign up for that satellite provider. I like History, Versus, ESPN, USA, and SciFi. DirecTV offered the cheapest package for me.

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

We're old and like a land line so we use the phone line and DSL. You're big problem is likely going to be getting DSL if you can't get cable.

We're also cheap and use satellite. When researching which satellite provider to use, figure out what channels you like best then find the cheapest package and sign up for that satellite provider. I like History, Versus, ESPN, USA, and SciFi. DirecTV offered the cheapest package for me.

Jeffrey,
Regarding the local telephone company, you may be able to bundle telephone, TV and Internet service through them. Who's your local carrier?

[Highlander]

Hi,

We just moved into a new house and the local cable company does not provide service to the neighborhood yet. We're looking for the best solution to our television, internet, and phone provider needs. Does DirecTV, Dish, or any of the other satellite companies provide all three services? If so, which do you recommend. If not, what do you recommend we do?

Thanks,
Jeffrey

1) TV - Satellite - DirecTV has the most HD channels and is typically cheaper than Cable for similar service. Plus the picture and service far outperforms cable based on my experience. Dish Networks is not nearly as easy to navigate as DirecTV, nor as cheap.

2) Internet - Would go with whoever is closest. DirecTV will bundle some places, but in general your local carrier (time warner, comcast, windstream, etc) is cheaper and faster. I like DSL better than cable b/c I like having a dedicated connection.

3) We use Vonage for our primary home line now, and it works fairly well. You'll need to do some creative wiring if you want to have all your phone jacks in the house set up for a VOIP phone. These services are all about $25-30/month for unlimited calling. Customer service has been pretty good, but we had a few problems with call quality when we first put it in that were kind of frustrating. Plus CallerID always shows our # as something weird like International Gateway. Minor inconvenience in my book, but my wife disagrees.

If you go with DSL, you can bundle your phone and CableModem with your phone company. Cable will do all 3, but their VOIP deal isn't that much of a deal IMO. You can get other providers for $5-10/month cheaper, even with the 'bundled' rate. So if paying one less bill is worth that to you, go cable for everything.

Oh, and if you want a referral credit for Vonage or DirecTV, PM me and let me know. I think you get like $50 off your first year for both if you are referred (and I think I get a credit too).

[dukemomLA]

TV -- DirecTV all the way. Although I am still annoyed (...is P.O.'d acceptable on DBR) for them cancelling their contract with Tivo. We LOVE our Tivo -- enough to forego Hi-Def in order to keep our Tivo instead of switching to their so-so DVR.

Our telephone landline & cells are with Verizon/AT&T. No problems there.

I add that the customer service for DirecTV has been awesome. Most (minor) problems can be fixed by a phone call -- answered by a PERSON quickly -- and with that person on the phone telling me 'what to do' -- voila, problem fixed. And when (once) a visit was needed (water in the outside thingy parts) -- they were here within a few hours.

I have friends who have not been happy with DISH or with Vonage (sic), but that's just us in L.A. Perhaps that's a West Coast thing.

My sister in the D.C. area has Comcast and has no complaints, unless the weather is really wacky.

[Dr. Rosenrosen]

I had DirecTV in Chicago for about 2 years and it was terrible. Granted, I liked all the channels and they gave me free NFL package for a year. But every time there was a storm, the service went down. Bad weather = bad reception. And I found their service to be horrible. They always told me they would come out to fix it but it would be a minimum $75 charge. Also, when they installed the dish, they didn't get it right and the dish kept coming loose and killing the signal. They even wanted to charge me to fix that. IIRC, DirecTV uses local installation/service companies. So the experience may vary drastically from market to market. But I would never go back to DTV unless I had no other choice. Also, I have a friend north of San Diego whose only internet option is DirecTV and it goes down all the time. I don't like being at the mercy of the weather for my tv/internet service. Much less likely to go out if you're using cable. Lesser of two evils.

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

TV -- DirecTV all the way. Although I am still annoyed (...is P.O.'d acceptable on DBR) for them cancelling their contract with Tivo. We LOVE our Tivo -- enough to forego Hi-Def in order to keep our Tivo instead of switching to their so-so DVR.

Our telephone landline & cells are with Verizon/AT&T. No problems there.

I add that the customer service for DirecTV has been awesome. Most (minor) problems can be fixed by a phone call -- answered by a PERSON quickly -- and with that person on the phone telling me 'what to do' -- voila, problem fixed. And when (once) a visit was needed (water in the outside thingy parts) -- they were here within a few hours.

I have friends who have not been happy with DISH or with Vonage (sic), but that's just us in L.A. Perhaps that's a West Coast thing.

My sister in the D.C. area has Comcast and has no complaints, unless the weather is really wacky.

I had Vonage for a business line for a while... never again. Getting through to a person when there's a problem, and there were many, was very difficult. When I canceled after the length of time required without a penalty, I had to talk to a supervisor to terminate service. The customer service department makes a really big deal out of cancellations and makes it very difficult to cease doing business with them.

[ForeverBlowingBubbles]

I like time warners tv guide better, and I really enjoy on demand. Their DVR is pretty quality (all though you can get a bad box occasionally which you just have to take in to the store and change out). I only pay 120 a month for high speed roadrunner, and digi cable with showtime/hbo on demand and the HD package - all though it took me some maneuvering to get them to drop the price on some things. I don't use land line - only a sprint treo.

[HaveFunExpectToWin]

J.D. Power just released their 2008 Telecom ratings. http://www.jdpower.com/telecom

The best provider really depends on where you're living, but know that you should be able to get a triple play of phone, internet, and tv for ~$100/mo. Extra channels, higher speed Internet, etc will all bump that price up, but that's a good starting point.

If you live in a Verizon FiOS area, which it doesn't sound like you do, let me know if you have any questions.

[bluebear]

I had DirecTV in Chicago for about 2 years and it was terrible. Granted, I liked all the channels and they gave me free NFL package for a year. But every time there was a storm, the service went down. Bad weather = bad reception. And I found their service to be horrible. They always told me they would come out to fix it but it would be a minimum $75 charge. Also, when they installed the dish, they didn't get it right and the dish kept coming loose and killing the signal. They even wanted to charge me to fix that. IIRC, DirecTV uses local installation/service companies. So the experience may vary drastically from market to market. But I would never go back to DTV unless I had no other choice. Also, I have a friend north of San Diego whose only internet option is DirecTV and it goes down all the time. I don't like being at the mercy of the weather for my tv/internet service. Much less likely to go out if you're using cable. Lesser of two evils.

I think your market to market comment might account for this but we've had Directv for a year now in Boston with very few problems. I think we lost service 2x in 12 months during bad storms..each time for under 30 minutes...i've been very happy with the service.

[rasputin]

Over the years, we have had cable (Charter--yeech, the worst company I have ever done business with), Dish Network, and DirecTV. DirecTV has been by far the best. They aren't perfect, but when there is a problem, they really do try to do the right thing.

[blazindw]

I was a loyal DirecTV customer for over 4 years. In Miami, they were awesome. We had 15 tropical storms/hurricanes hit Miami while I lived there, and still had great service. In fact, DirecTV service came back on before the phones did.

In DC, the local company that they subcontract was terrible. Didn't know what they were doing, came late for appointments. Even despite this, I still wanted to stick with them when I moved, but wasn't able to.

I now have Comcast. It is the worst company I've ever seen. I still don't have 2 of my HD channels functioning. They have sent 11 technicians out to tell me the same thing ("Dang, your channels aren't working. I'm gonna need to send another technician out to fix the frequency". That frequency has not been fixed). The minute that FIOS comes into my building or that I can get DirecTV again, I'm switching with the uber quickness.

[LoviVega]

If you’re still looking or maybe you found yourself a provider but still wondering about others then check out BestTvForMe.com. It’s loaded with tons of comparisons between providers and saved me a lot of research. I’ve been pleasantly provided with great service by DISH Network and I started working for them not long after, but this breakdown is good for anyone who wants to know what’s out there.