Should I get rid of Time Warner cable?

[Napoleon]

As an initial matter I should note I am the exact opposite of an early adapter. I still have a flip phone (the replacement of which will be the subject of a future post) and have never streamed movies and the like. I currently have Time Warner cable for TV and internet and for various reasons now may be the time to get rid of it. I really have no idea of my options, but AT&T U-verse is available at an introductory price of $60 a month for TV and internet. Does anyone have any advice?

[B3RACER1a]

As an initial matter I should note I am the exact opposite of an early adapter. I still have a flip phone (the replacement of which will be the subject of a future post) and have never streamed movies and the like. I currently have Time Warner cable for TV and internet and for various reasons now may be the time to get rid of it. I really have no idea of my options, but AT&T U-verse is available at an introductory price of $60 a month for TV and internet. Does anyone have any advice?

How computer savy are you? I was in the same boat as you with Comcast, but did the whole network tuner setup with a htpc and an Xbox....and I couldn't be happier. Saves something like $40 in extra fees without changing any programming.

[WickerBill]

If you aren't a technology zealot, you'll probably be fine with either one. Moving from an evil cable company to an incompetent behemoth telecom company isn't going to give you much in the way of new and fancy upgrades, but you will have to learn your channel numbers all over again. :)

Cable has faster, more reliable internet speeds from a very macro view. Uverse can be extremely fast and can be quite slow, too, depending on a lot of factors. TV is TV. Uverse will be able to show NFL Sunday Ticket next season now that they've bought DirecTV, but spending $300 on the NFL doesn't exactly seem to be the purpose of your post.

[Napoleon]

How computer savy are you? I was in the same boat as you with Comcast, but did the whole network tuner setup with a htpc and an Xbox....and I couldn't be happier. Saves something like $40 in extra fees without changing any programming.

Huh! I assume you mean I would otherwise have a internet hook up and would set it up so that I would be able to stream TV shows from websites or sources other then the cable/tv feed of the provider. I wouldn't mind doing that.



If you aren't a technology zealot, you'll probably be fine with either one. Moving from an evil cable company to an incompetent behemoth telecom company isn't going to give you much in the way of new and fancy upgrades, but you will have to learn your channel numbers all over again. :)

Cable has faster, more reliable internet speeds from a very macro view. U-verse can be extremely fast and can be quite slow, too, depending on a lot of factors.

Allegedly AT&T did a major upgrade on my street and significantly increased its capacity (very plausible, I live on a major road). After my original post I took a closer look at AT&T's offering and to get what is comparable to what I have at their regular price would be slightly more expensive then what I have, but they have huge discount and such in the first year that would take quite some time to make up.

[dando]

Huh! I assume you mean I would otherwise have a internet hook up and would set it up so that I would be able to stream TV shows from websites or sources other then the cable/tv feed of the provider. I wouldn't mind doing that.


Yes, but you have the sunk cost of a PC to build into an HTPC and an Xbox if you don't have one already. Google HTPC to get an idea of what's involved.


Allegedly AT&T did a major upgrade on my street and significantly increased its capacity (very plausible, I live on a major road). After my original post I took a closer look at AT&T's offering and to get what is comparable to what I have at their regular price would be slightly more expensive then what I have, but they have huge discount and such in the first year that would take quite some time to make up.

Keep in mind that TWC is making upgrades continuously as well. There's a 'space race' underway b/w cable cos. and dbs providers, and then factor in cord cutters growing rapidly as well. They now have an extended DVR that will do 6 shows at once (no idea who has the time to watch all of that unless you have a full house w/kids). They also offer whole house viewing now with the same enhanced DVR. Since it's just me right now, I don't need either feature, but it would be nice to be able to record more than two shows/events at once on the very odd occasion I have a conflict, which is quite rare (maybe once/mo.). Also, a quick call to them can result in a bill reduction if you tell them you are considering defecting. I called to have the home phone dropped from my service, a few mos. ago and it resulted in a ~$25 reduction in my monthly bill. U-verse in our area (one of the most affluent in the Cbus vicinity) is poor at best, and we're in a relatively new area for them to provide service (5-7 years ago). U-verse advertised their service in the Cbus Dispatch years ago during the Pats 16-0 season, and their build out in Cbus was FAR from complete in the 'burbs, and it took them ~4 years to provide service in Dublin (again one of the most affluent and rapidly growing areas in the Cbus vicinity.

[Insomniac]

At the end of all this, for most of us, we'll still be paying ~$150-200/mo and the only question is how the pie is divided between the cable/satellite/content owners, internet and phone. My Internet bill goes up $4-$5 a year, same plan. It's up to $68/mo. They'll get you paying if you cut the cord or don't bundle.

[dando]

At the end of all this, for most of us, we'll still be paying ~$150-200/mo and the only question is how the pie is divided between the cable/satellite/content owners, internet and phone. My Internet bill goes up $4-$5 a year, same plan. It's up to $68/mo. They'll get you paying if you cut the cord or don't bundle.

Yup. No bundle == full 'retail' price. My bundle dropped from the $150s to the $130s when I called to drop the phone. Bills will continue to go up as programming is added and carriage deals expire. The last game of chicken I saw b/w a content provider and TV provider Sinclair vs. Dish, which went past the deadline, but was extended and (I assume) eventually resolved. Other battles b/w providers have gone on much longer like TWC vs. BTN and NFLN. Plus, On Demand programming isn't free...there is a 'hidden' cost for that as well.

[dando]

Another note...just learned that AT&T has an e-mail file size limit of <26MB, which GMail sent fine. Sent 10 JPGs to a consignment shop and the e-mail was bounced back. In any case, I always advise folks to use a separate e-mail service than the ISP for changes like this.