About cable and other TV services

[tfarrell.livejournal.com]

So, we all know RCN has turned off their analog signal. (They got my neighborhood today.) I phoned up RCN and asked them to disconnect my service. I thought I might share some information on our alternatives.


I was paying about $65/month for standard cable from RCN. I don't remember what their "basic" cable price was.

Comcast doesn't seem to want to divulge their pricing on their web site. They offer a promotional price for roughly equivalent service to what I had (except with box) for about $40/month, but it says that's only for 6 months and then you get charged their regular price, whatever that is. Their lowest package starts at a promotional price of about $30/month, and again, they don't divulge what you'll be paying after 6 months. A comcast guy just stopped by my house to offer me a special of about $90/month for cable, phone, and internet, with no contract. I'm guessing that's also only for 6 months, I forgot to ask.

Dish Network offers roughly equivalent service for about $33/month. Their cheapest package starts at about $20/month. If I understand correctly, with them you don't have to buy the equipment (dish and box) and if you get the basic equipment they don't charge extra for it. They usually have some kind of promotional deal about installation charges.

DirecTV has packages from about $30/month up, but like Comcast, those are promotional prices - after 12 months you'll be paying more. (But hey, 12 months beats 6 months, and I'm sure most providers will raise their prices in a year anyway.) DirecTV requires you to own your own equipment, but they'll apparently give you some equipment for free, depending on what you want.

I'm not going to get any of these right now. I'm going to take the money I was spending on cable and use it for legal downloads of TV shows. You can purchase downloads of popular shows from iTunes and Amazon Unbox, as well as getting free shows for streaming viewing on Hulu, Joost, and I understand a few shows are now being put on Youtube too. If you, like me, only watched a few shows anyway, these alternatives may actually get you what you want for less money. I'm going to give it a try, anyway.

Comments

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

From what I understand, due to local regulations, taxes and different network capabilities (a lot of cable companies buy existing networks that have..limitations and need to be upgraded) prices can't be quoted flat out. I know this was the case when I worked for RCN, they'd put their general price with fine print (available in these states, etc etc etc) but in many places, pricing was different.

On the comcast website they require that you put in your address to find out pricing and availability, which makes sense with the above theory.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

that suggests that the original statement they don't divulge what you'll be paying after 6 months is incorrect, then.

I think they are required to tell you what the rate would be after intro pricing expires, don't they?

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

Yes, and from my experience in being their customer, they do (Comcast). I was told what my starting rate was, and then what it would be after that promotion expired, right when I signed up. I will also say that if you call them when the promotion expires and say you are thinking about canceling or lowering your level of service, promotions have a way of being extended.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

I kind of figured that they had to tell you.

[agnosticoracle.livejournal.com]

What the fine print on comcast's page says is this:

Offer ends 09/30/08, is only available in wired and serviceable areas in participating Comcast systems (and may not be transferred) and is limited to residential customers satisfying applicable eligibility criteria. Offer not available to customers with unpaid account balances. Offer limited to Digital Cable, High-Speed Internet and Comcast Digital Voice service. Requires subscription to all 3 services. AFTER THE 12 MONTH PROMOTIONAL PERIOD OR IF ANY SERVICE IS DOWNGRADED, COMCAST’S REGULAR CHARGES APPLY UNLESS SERVICE IS CANCELED. SERVICE MAY BE CANCELED BY CALLING 1-800-COMCAST.Comcast’s current monthly service charges for the advertised services may vary depending on your area. Digital Cable and High-Speed Internet service limited to a single outlet . . .

This is after entering in an address and zipcode. I'm not a lawyer so I can't verify the legality. However, I would assume that Comcast is big enough of a company that if this was clearly illegal someone would have sued them by now.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

considering they've illegally packet spoofed for a while, I don't really think Comcast cares much about the law, so much as what they think they can get away with.

[agnosticoracle.livejournal.com]

Not disclosing prices is a simple thing that any DA or jury can understand, packet spoofing not so much. But if you think you have a case . . .

[tfarrell.livejournal.com]

They don't divulge the non-intro price up front on their list of services page, which they showed me after I input my address. I'm sure they're willing to disclose their regular price if you try hard enough, which I didn't care to bother doing, since I'm pretty certain I'm not going with comcast. (If my experiement with downloads doesn't work out, I will go with satellite.)

[violet-helix.livejournal.com]

Just keep in mind that you have to be able to get line of site from the dish to the satellite for this. In a densely populated city like Somerville, this can be difficult. I has Dish TV come to my house and spend over an hour trying to find an acceptable spot for the dish before they had to conceded defeat.

I ended up with Comcast for my service.

[ron_newman]

The company knows what each service costs in each municipality, so I don't see what's so hard about putting that information on their website.

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

Having worked in the telcom industry, in a call center, the rule is typically to not post the pricing other customers get where customers from other regions can see it. It raises obvious questions that are sometimes hard to answer on a basic level without going into network capabilities and blackout area agreements. Customers can enter their address and zip code and get availability and pricing for their area. Really curious customers can enter that information for other areas and see it as well, so it is, in fact, on the web site.