Cheaper internet/cable?

[bobobb.livejournal.com]

Comcast just raised my rates to $71 for internet and basic cable. I feel like this is really high and wanted to see if other people in the community were getting better rates with a different company.

Comments

[findingthegirl.livejournal.com]

Comcast was charging us $61/month for internet alone, so we switched to RCN which now charges only $30. It would be more if you wanted cable too, but probably not as much as Comcast. We've had no problems with RCN's service and our speeds have not gone down like Comcast said they would if we switched.

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

If you're in Cambridge, Comcast is the only cable provider. The alternative would be Dish + DSL. Or, if you have amenable neighbors, set up some shared wifi. Of course then you're on call as neighborhood sysadmin.

[cold-type.livejournal.com]

And if you're in Somerville, please note that RCN does not serve the entire city.

friendly moderator note

[ron_newman]

This is a frequent topic of discussion here, so please check the tags I've placed on this post.

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

when i lived in brighton we had rcn (i had always had comcast prior) and i hated it. it was marginally cheaper but we lost signal alllll the time, the dvr never worked, the menu was frequently void of info.

BUUUUUUUUT i know lots of people that have it, including my bff & neighbor in arlington and they like it just fine. i have a set of keys to her place and am over there a fair amount and never had any problems. go figure!

[afty.livejournal.com]

We have RCN, and while it's definitely cheaper you get the feeling you are on a second-tier carrier. Their tech support is horrendous, billing is unreliable (they tend to screw up when you make changes to your service), and they keep hiking prices.

A while back they had underprovisioned Internet service in Somerville, which caused a lot of us to have ridiculously slow download speeds (http://community.livejournal.com/davis_square/1471320.html). Their tech support tried to tell me that near-dialup speeds were acceptable when I was paying for 10 Mbit service.

We had Comcast in our previous apartment, and while they're expensive at least they seemed to know what they were doing. Plus they kept increasing our Internet speeds without increasing prices. If the cost was the same between RCN and Comcast, I would go back to Comcast in a heartbeat.

[tom-champion.livejournal.com]

While RCN did at one time have Internet performance issues in Somerville (as described by afty above), overall their performance and speeds have, in general and over time, been FAR superior to Comcast's in terms of speed and reliability. Cable is another matter: RCN sometimes has problems with signal loss and variance that can degrade HD and premium performance.

I am an RCN subscriber and have been since I moved to Somerville 11 years ago. Given the relative costs and benefits of each provider for bundled cable, phone and Internet service, I have seen no reason to switch.

If RCN is available to you, I would call them and ask them for their best deal. Press them hard. If it's better than what you're paying now, call Comcast and ask them to match it for the next twelve months. If they will, stay with Comcast. If they won't, switch to RCN. Repeat the process in eleven months.

It's annoying and time-consuming, but you will get the best deal this way -- and the non-cost pluses and minuses of each company come out about even.

Of course, no matter which vendor you use, pray that the two companies remain in competition: RCN was acquired in March by private-equity firm Abry Partners LLC for about $531 million plus debt.

[wonkywheels.livejournal.com]

Call and ask for the Retention Department. Chances are they will lower your rates.

[gothic-hamlet.livejournal.com]

I used to be an RCN subscriber for two and a half years, and now I'll gladly pay the $60-$70 for fast, reliable service. It's already been mentioned here, but when my area of Somerville began having terrible speeds, flat-out disconnects every 15 minutes that required router reboots, and spotty service for months at a time for well over a year, I vowed to never go back. I believe RCN's rate is about $10 a month cheaper, but for reliable service I think it's worth it.