Direct, Dish or AT&T

[B wood]

AT&T U-Verse has the best internet speed, great TV, and if you get a home phone line and bundle it all it is cheaper than the other guys.

WRONG on so many levels. Verizon FiOS is the best internet. AT&T U-Verse is a complete ripoff. It is advertised as fiber optic, but it still uses a copper coaxial line. It is dial-up on steroids.

Go with Charter Communcations or DirecTv. Satellite will have the best picture quality but it is a trade-off because a storm will knock it out everytime. Charter has competitive rates & bundles for internet/tv or internet/tv/phone. It is the way to go for coaxial cable. If not, go with DirecTv.

I worked at CommScope making telecommunications cable & now I'm a cable contractor & install/service tv, internet, phone, & anything else associated with coaxial cable. I install for Time Warner, Charter, AT&T, etc. Charter is the best service for your money if you go coaxial. It's all personal preference between satellite/cable. For me the very minimal picture quality satellite has isn't worth losing service everytime a pair of clouds bump into each other.

Now I will wait for a huddle expert to correct someone who does this for a living.

[L-TownCat]

I own a Ups Store and I deal with the returns for all 3 companies. You could not pay me enough money to have AT&T service in my home. In my small town I return 4-5 units a day! Dish is a close second with about 2-3 a day. I may only see 2 directv boxes a week. Take it for what it's worth but both dish and AT&T were on the top 10 worst businesses for 2011.

[Davidson Deac II]

Regarding internet speed, it will vary based on a number of factors. Usually, the speed of your home network is one of the biggest limiting factors. If your home network is slow, its largely irrelevant which broadband provider you use. Also many internet providers put a cap on bandwidth. Most users won't get close to it though, unless they are streaming a lot of bandwidth hogging material.

Fwiw, I use ATT DSL 6x. Uverse is not available in this area yet, but the speed is more than sufficient for what I do (work from home and remote in to the office).

Directv is ok, but personally I preferred Time Warner, just because it was cheaper and didn't go out in a storm. I will admit the HD is better. But directv has some channels available that my wife wants, so I get it to make her happy.

[KendrickPanther]

At&t can be really inconsistent. I have had a great experience with them but my sister loses her internet all the time. I think the person doing the install and the area can affect how good your service is. I had a bad experience with Time Warner while I was living in Boone. I play online games and even with 12mb U-Verse I sit at about 80ms in game. When I got to my friends house I can get 40ms on Time Warner. So it may be "fast" but not real fast. I can't really speak to television because I've never been willing to pay for it. I would only watch espn,espn2,tnt, and NFLN if I had tv. NFLN is always on a more expensive plan at that so forget it. I can't wait for pay per channel plans to come out over the internet.

I've also heard FIOS is by far the best internet provider but it's not in my area yet.

[Gat]

WRONG on so many levels. Verizon FiOS is the best internet. AT&T U-Verse is a complete ripoff. It is advertised as fiber optic, but it still uses a copper coaxial line. It is dial-up on steroids.

Now I will wait for a huddle expert to correct someone who does this for a living.

Im no huddle expert but ill correct you. For someone who does this for a living you should know a bit more about what you do. ATT uverse is FIBER to the vrad (big white box in most neighborhoods) from the CO then a copper pair to the house or two copper pairs depending on how far you are from the vrad. It also is a direct feed to the CO unlike cable companies that have whole neighborohoods sharing the same circuit. So if you have cable for interenet and notice it gets incredibly slow at 6pm-8 when everyone gets off work and gets online in your area you know why. ;)

[BlanksKarma]

I have both Direct TV and TW Cable(RR) at my home and business. You cannot touch DTV's sports package(NFL Sunday Ticket FTW) and Road Runner Business Class is a beast. The only time my DTV service was interrupted during the Sunday Ticket was week 3 in 2008, Cincinnati got nailed by the remnants of Hurricane Ike. Considering my roof received enough damage to warrant a replacement, losing my satellite signal wasn't a big deal.

[Floppin]

At&t can be really inconsistent. I have had a great experience with them but my sister loses her internet all the time. I think the person doing the install and the area can affect how good your service is. I had a bad experience with Time Warner while I was living in Boone. I play online games and even with 12mb U-Verse I sit at about 80ms in game. When I got to my friends house I can get 40ms on Time Warner. So it may be "fast" but not real fast. I can't really speak to television because I've never been willing to pay for it. I would only watch espn,espn2,tnt, and NFLN if I had tv. NFLN is always on a more expensive plan at that so forget it. I can't wait for pay per channel plans to come out over the internet.

I've also heard FIOS is by far the best internet provider but it's not in my area yet.

Time Warner isn't in Boone. The cable provider for that whole area is Charter Communications

[B wood]

Im no huddle expert but ill correct you. For someone who does this for a living you should know a bit more about what you do. ATT uverse is FIBER to the vrad (big white box in most neighborhoods) from the CO then a copper pair to the house or two copper pairs depending on how far you are from the vrad. It also is a direct feed to the CO unlike cable companies that have whole neighborohoods sharing the same circuit. So if you have cable for interenet and notice it gets incredibly slow at 6pm-8 when everyone gets off work and gets online in your area you know why. ;)

That's exactly what I said. Can you not read? U-Verse uses a copper line from the street to your house. It is NOT fiber optic. Fiber optic means your signal is transmitted directly to your tv box utilizing a laser beam. U-Verse connects to your tv the same way other cable companies do; coaxial cable. It is a fancy way of advertising dial-up internet & cable television.

By the way, U-Verse is capped & they will clock your internet speed after 250GB. You still share off a basic network with your neighbors. Keep drinking the kool-aid.

[TANTRIC-NINJA]

That's exactly what I said. Can you not read? U-Verse uses a copper line from the street to your house. It is NOT fiber optic. Fiber optic means your signal is transmitted directly to your tv box utilizing a laser beam. U-Verse connects to your tv the same way other cable companies do; coaxial cable. It is a fancy way of advertising dial-up internet & cable television.

By the way, U-Verse is capped & they will clock your internet speed after 250GB. You still share off a basic network with your neighbors. Keep drinking the kool-aid.

For price

Dish- I had the best service with them and little to no price increases

for quality

and selection Direct TV: prepare to be screwed and there is little customer service with them. I had a nightmare with them when I moved but it was a great service when I had them. Pricing is all over the place and gets jacked up quickly with battles to correct anything.

For the better internet: TWC is the best esp if you get wideband(35x5) or (50x5)

TV is good but after the promos you will get screwed on pricing. i hate their customer servcie and I may or May not work for them.

u verse- I agree with the At&t hate. As I deal with businesses they are horrible with service and pricing. U-verse may be ok in some areas but terrible in the SC area.

[B wood]

For price

Dish- I had the best service with them and little to no price increases

for quality

and selection Direct TV: prepare to be screwed and there is little customer service with them. I had a nightmare with them when I moved but it was a great service when I had them. Pricing is all over the place and gets jacked up quickly with battles to correct anything.

For the better internet: TWC is the best esp if you get wideband(35x5) or (50x5)

TV is good but after the promos you will get screwed on pricing. i hate their customer servcie and I may or May not work for them.

u verse- I agree with the At&t hate. As I deal with businesses they are horrible with service and pricing. U-verse may be ok in some areas but terrible in the SC area.

Verizon FiOS internet is superior to everything mentioned. But it is extremely expensive & not available in many places.

You are correct, though. The companies that have the best service also have the worst customer service & shady pricing.

satellite: DirecTv is the best quality, but they will increase rates/remove channels without warning.

cable: Charter, in my experience, has the best television/internet/phone combo service. There prices are also competitive. The #1 complaint is customer service. It is horrible & they need a new CS system.

wireless provider: Verizon has the best coverage, but they are extremely shady & will nickel & dime you to death with hidden fees/taxes.

[Varking]

For bang for your buck on phone service, Sprint's Everything Referral Program is King.

http://delivery.sprint.com/m/p/nxt/epc/epclanding.asp

And the employee email and 3 digit code? You can use these:

[email protected] and 383)

[Gat]

Fiber optic means your signal is transmitted directly to your tv box utilizing a laser beam.

Show me a set top box that has a fiber input/output thats not for audio. Pics would be fine. You sir are a dumbass and is probably the reason you are still just in contract work. Even verizon fios uses fiber to the prem (NID) then coax or twisted to the set top boxes.

[TANTRIC-NINJA]

Sprint everything?! Not a clue on that one.

I heard great things about FIOS but very limited footprints so far.

I find TWC can go in and out like a dish can...at least i know why my signal was going to be out for a few minutes with adish..no clue with twc.

[Wither]

At&t can be really inconsistent. I have had a great experience with them but my sister loses her internet all the time. I think the person doing the install and the area can affect how good your service is. I had a bad experience with Time Warner while I was living in Boone. I play online games and even with 12mb U-Verse I sit at about 80ms in game. When I got to my friends house I can get 40ms on Time Warner. So it may be "fast" but not real fast. I can't really speak to television because I've never been willing to pay for it. I would only watch espn,espn2,tnt, and NFLN if I had tv. NFLN is always on a more expensive plan at that so forget it. I can't wait for pay per channel plans to come out over the internet.

I've also heard FIOS is by far the best internet provider but it's not in my area yet.

Bandwidth has little to do with ping.