Phone/Internet/Cable TV decisions: advice and opinions please

In My Humble Opinion
1

The specific area we’re talking about here is San Diego, but any general advice about plans, types of service, provders, etc. is welcome.

We’re about to move into a place in San Diego (North Park area). The place is a townhouse, is only a few years old, and is fully hooked up with cable in almost every room. We need a phone and broadband internet, and would like (but could maybe live without) cable TV.

For the phone, we’d probably want a regular landline, not a cellphone. For the internet, we could probably live with 1.5Mbps download speed, but would like 3.0 to ensure that i can watch MLB TV without interfering with my partner’s browsing. Anything faster than that would just be a bonus. For the cable, we just want a standard cable package (ESPN, TNT, TCM, Bravo, etc., etc.); no need for HBO, Showtime, etc.

Our choices in the San Diego area seem to be:

AT&T for phone, internet, and Dish Network
Cox for phone, internet, and cable
Time Warner for phone, internet and cable

AT&T’s Dish Network isn’t an option at our place. We are renting, and the landlord prefers not to deal with satellite dishes on his building. Fair enough. So if we go with AT&T for phone and/or internet, we’ll still need to shop for cable at Cox or T-W.

A present, Time Warner seems to have the best start-up deal. This package gives phone with unlimited nationwide calling, 10Mbps internet, and a pretty decent cable package for a total of $90 a month for the first year, plus $7.50 a month for the digital converter, plus taxes.

Cox has a similar package.

One thing i wanted to ask about was people’s experiences with this sort of cable-based digital phone system. I used Skype for international calls at our previous place, and i’m generally a pretty tech-happy person, but for some reason the idea of not having a “regular” phone is a bit unsettling. Is this as reliable as a regular line for things like 911 now? Does your computer have to be on all the time? What are your experiences?

Also, if the house is cable-ready, that cable will not be exclusive to any particular cable company, will it? That is, it won’t be specifically Cox cable or Time Warner cable, restricting me to one or the other of those services?

Does anyone in the San Diego or SoCal area have experience with these providers? Are you happy with them? Any problems? Anything to watch out for? Any other advice on getting the best deal?

All input most appreciated.

2

We recently dropped Cox to pick up a package from Verizon that is their FiOS service, which is broadband services delivered over a fiber optic infrastructure. They are still building it out and it sounds like that is not an option for you.

You won’t notice the difference in the phone line. I have friends with cable phones. Unlike the way you use Skype, it has nothing to do with your computer. However, it does require power. So if you lose power, you have a finite amount of battery backup time.

All the systems I have seen end up being distributed through the house via co-ax. In general, co-ax cable in your house should be compatible with any system, but when we had FiOS installed, Verizon had to upgrade our splitters. Signal will probably be delivered to your TV and router via co-ax cable, and phone service will be wired to your existing phone lines. (There are VOIP phones that are special phones that hook up to your computer or maybe a router [not sure exactly how they work], and you can plug it in anywhere that there is Internet access and still use the same phone number, but that’s not what these providers are offering. Digital phone service does not automatically mean it’s VOIP.)

3

I had basic cable TV with Cox a few years ago, separate phone service and dial-up USP. I finally decided I had to get high-speed Internet and digital HDTV, so called Cox and a few others for a package deal. The prices and services varied widely, so difficult to make a choice, but finally got Cox down to about what I wanted for the two at a price I could live with.

They then started touting digital phone service which I had no need for, but they had a pretty good clincher. They said they would throw that in for the same price as the TV and internet as a package.

Couldn’t beat that, as I then had two phone lines because of the dial-up Internet being on one line when my wife wanted to call, so I canceled the second line, and ended up paying less for all three than I did separately.

The phone service works perfectly, no different than Qwest was, plus they throw in 60 minutes of free long-distance every month.

Everything I have read states you should contact all the services in your area for a package deal. If one sounds good but the price is too high, dicker. Play one against the other.

I’ve been very happy with the service for more than a year now.

4

You are lucky to have so many choices. In my neighborhood, 90% of the area geographically has no cable or DSL or wireless of any kind.

But I live in the other 10%, and presently have phone, TV and Internet thru Charter (cable) Communications. It saved me a bundle when I dropped 4 AT&T POTS lines, but in the last year, there have been two 4-hour total outages when all Charter phones went dead statewide. Made me nostalgic for the days when an AT&T outage was rare and short, and you didn’t have to have your own battery backup.

10Mb/sec dl, 1Mb ul for Internet, 3 standard phone numbers (2 lines), unlimited domestic long distance, basic cable, about $150/month.