NEED your take on cable, ATT U-verse, satellite . . .

Hi Gents: Hope all is well with you and your families. I will be changing my Cox Communications service soon. I am hating the high prices of the service. I currently have phone, high speed internet, and cable tv with no premium channels such as HBO, Showtime, and Cinemax. It seems like every 3 months my bill gets higher and higher. We don't even use our home phone so my next change will be just to get high speed internet and tv only.

So . . . if you are a cable guy, ATT U-verse, Dish, or Direct TV, or other; let me hear your thoughts. Are you in the same situation of thinking of changing subscribers? Right now . . . I am loving the new offers of ATT U-verse. Thanks in advance and look forward to your responses.

WARHAWK

One thing to keep in mind with satellite (Dish/Direct) is that when storms are brewing, the service may not be usable because of lack of signal. It's not that the satellites are impacted, it's that the signal isn't clear enough through the weather. If your geography is such that this is an issue, it's something to think about.

The single best service I ever experienced was with Cox in New Orleans (on even after Katrina). Cox was very slow on the internet side. Next best and tons of great tv - Verizon in Texas (Fort Worth area). Verizon was the fastest and they offered premium channel previews at least once a month. Last and worse so far - Time Warner. Not the slowest but, sketchy service in Kansas City. I think = get the fastest internet available (or that one can afford), look at available packages, Netflix is mandatory for movie viewing and pull the trigger! Only catch has been a great sports package which Direct seems to be doing pretty well but, I have no experience with.

I've had DirectTV for almost 2 years and LOVE them. I've had zero issues with my equipment. and their customer service is great.

It does however loose signal when it storms really bad, but that's just until the big storm clouds pass. I think most it's ever been out due to weather was 20 minutes. To me this doesn't really matter considering I'm so happy with them.

I had Comcast in the past and.....well I don't anymore and will never again. Ever.

Downside is no internet. AT&T is buying DirectTV so I'm hoping they will put a package together or give me some type of discount on AT&T internet.

Best thing to do is talk to your neighbors.

I know people who swear by ATT U-Verse, but I wouldn't touch them in my neighborhood because we're far enough away from the switch to affect speed. (I was a ATT DSL user for ten years and things went from "okay" to "bad" over time.) Some cable companies are terrible, especially when you have to call into support. And then satellite does depend on whether or not you can get a reliable signal at all times.

So, in something like 95% of American neighbourhoods you have exactly two choices for internet - one cable and one dsl. It looks like you have a lot of choices, but when you start digging down you're going to have to choose between two out at most three companies, and its going to be very specific to your locale.

Dsl is much slower and subject to congestion when too many other houses get online, but it's also much cheaper. Bundles are the way to go if you want both cable and internet, since ISPs are pricing them very aggressively these days.

We've had Verizon Fios for years and have been pretty happy. Every so often they need a kick in the pants when their router gives out, or one of their boxes goes Kaput, and they get slow on helping get the issue fixed.

My wife takes a day every year or so, and shops Cable, Satellite and Verizon against each other. Verizon always wins.

I believe the Fios / UVerse thing is geographical. My parents have UVerse and hate it. Unless you want to spend hours on the phone arguing about your service / billing, I'd steer clear of anything AT&T has to offer.

I had TimeWarner and grew tired of the price jacking, so I went with ATT Uverse. Service was comparable and the models were the same--12 month "introductory" rate that serves them two-fold--first, it locks you into a 12 month contract and the second is it increases about 30% after 12 months, forcing you to go up a service tier if you want to keep an introductory price.

Google Fiber has been a real game changer. Yes, it's faster, but to a degree that most consumers probably wouldn't appreciate that much. The channels are the same, the quality of product is 1080p rather than 1080i and the interface is a bit glitchy. The real bonus comes down to the price model--NO CONTRACTS, quit any time, no BS haggling every 12 months. The price is about the same as the others, but it's well worth it.

Not applicable in your case, but we finally cut the cord a few years ago and have been very happy. We use OTA TV (45ish channels, 10-12 that aren't crap), Netflix, and Amazon Prime Instant Video. Kinda nice not really having a couple hundred channels that are always enticing you to watch something for the sake of having noise on in the background. We picked up a Mohu Channels and plugged in an external hard drive for our DVR purposes, and we stream a lot from the Internet otherwise. We still use Cox for our Internet, but at $40ish a month it's a lot better than the $140 or so we were paying with cable and phone as well. We're lucky in the fact that neither of us are into sports, cause ESPN is a deal breaker for lots of folks.

Check out Sling TV if you don't need a 1000 channels. That plus amazon instant video and we are very happy.