# What TV and Internet providers do you use?



## Tod (Jan 22, 2019)

Hi everybody, it's all in the title.

I've been using Charter/Spectrum cable for many, many years and I'm totally fed up with them. So I'm 
just wondering what you all are using and what you think of it?

Right now I've got my eye on Verizon, they claim up to up to 940 mps for internet speed. anybody use
Verizon?

If not, what are you using.


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## dzilizzi (Jan 22, 2019)

I had Verizon FIOS, but it got sold to Frontier. For the most part, I like it. I’d complain about the cost, but really, they are all pricey. The problem is we also have Directv. I think it might be cheaper to have cable providing it all. We weren’t able to get Verizon TV, so maybe if it is bundled it is a better deal.


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## TimCox (Jan 22, 2019)

I'm with xfinity/Comcast and they've been awesome. I don't have the fastest package but my internet is plenty quick. I don't have cable, we use an Apple TV and a couple subscription services. Still cheaper than when we DID have cable though!


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## jneebz (Jan 22, 2019)

Just switching from Xfinity to Frontier FIOS for 200Mb symmetrical speeds over fiber. Mostly sold on the 200Mb upload speeds compared to my current 8Mb...

If you're like me, then ANY Cable/Internet company will eventually drive you nuts....


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## Tod (Jan 22, 2019)

dzilizzi said:


> I had Verizon FIOS, but it got sold to Frontier. For the most part, I like it. I’d complain about the cost, but really, they are all pricey. The problem is we also have Directv. I think it might be cheaper to have cable providing it all. We weren’t able to get Verizon TV, so maybe if it is bundled it is a better deal.



Thanks dzilizzi, so it's Frontier and not Verizon any more? At this point their package is looking not to bad.

Believe me, Spectrum cable is not cheap, like I said, I'm fed up with them. What broke the camels back is that I got a bill from them today for $195, up from $160. That's it, I'm done.


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## Tod (Jan 22, 2019)

TimCox said:


> I'm with xfinity/Comcast and they've been awesome. I don't have the fastest package but my internet is plenty quick. I don't have cable, we use an Apple TV and a couple subscription services. Still cheaper than when we DID have cable though!



Thanks Tim, xfinity is also on the list, but internet speed is very important for me, I'm uploading GB of files, not daily, but very often, and at times it is daily.

Regarding cable, I think Spectrum has outlived it's life.


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## Tod (Jan 22, 2019)

jneebz said:


> Just switching from Xfinity to Frontier FIOS for 200Mb symmetrical speeds over fiber. Mostly sold on the 200Mb upload speeds compared to my current 8Mb...
> 
> If you're like me, then ANY Cable/Internet company will eventually drive you nuts....



Thanks jneebz, I just checked on Frontier and their top speed seems to be 115mps. What I see is $70 per/mon for TV, Internet, and Phone. We don't really need the phone.

Maybe I got the wrong link, do you have a link?

Ha ha, yeah I've definitely had it with Spectrum.


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## Tod (Jan 22, 2019)

Aah, okay jneebz, I found what you're talking about. I'll have to check it out closer.


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## jneebz (Jan 22, 2019)

Tod said:


> Aah, okay jneebz, I found what you're talking about. I'll have to check it out closer.


I think the fiber option is not available in all areas.


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## jbuhler (Jan 22, 2019)

AT&T, but only have fast DSL and cell phones, no cable or TV. Google Fiber is tantalizingly near.


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## dzilizzi (Jan 22, 2019)

Tod said:


> Thanks dzilizzi, so it's Frontier and not Verizon any more? At this point their package is looking not to bad.
> 
> Believe me, Spectrum cable is not cheap, like I said, I'm fed up with them. What broke the camels back is that I got a bill from them today for $195, up from $160. That's it, I'm done.


I think it depends on where you live. I’m in Northern L.A. County, and this is our only phone choice. Unless I can figure out how to get the cell phones to work in the house.


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jan 22, 2019)

What services are available where you live?

We have one choice for Internet where I am: Spectrum (formerly Time Warner Cable).

So we have that and DirecTV, which is now ATT. And it's all too expensive.


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jan 22, 2019)

dzilizzi said:


> I think it depends on where you live. I’m in Northern L.A. County, and this is our only phone choice. Unless I can figure out how to get the cell phones to work in the house.



Use Wi-Fi calling so your cell calls go over the Internet. If you have ATT, it's built into your phone, at least it's built into iPhones. Very useful if a cell tower goes down - as it did when we were traveling once - or if you're in a location with weak cell service, as we both are.

(I'm in Sherman Oaks, which is fairly far north LA County.)


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## whiskers (Jan 22, 2019)

yes, yes, let the ISP hate flow through you.

I have a dream, a dream that one day, we will all the option to have municipal broadband in major cities. =)


I'm not optimistic about that though, lol.


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## dzilizzi (Jan 22, 2019)

Nick Batzdorf said:


> Use Wi-Fi calling so your cell calls go over the Internet. If you have ATT, it's built into your phone, at least it's built into iPhones. Very useful if a cell tower goes down - as it did when we were traveling once - or if you're in a location with weak cell service, as we both are.
> 
> (I'm in Sherman Oaks, which is fairly far north LA County.)


I’m north of Palmdale, so far northeast? My husband has a newer iPhone, so I will test it out. I initially was keeping the house phone because the landline normally continues to work in a power outage. But a few years ago, I found out our line requires power when the battery backup died. And we don’t have the regular power outages we used to have when I first moved here.


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jan 22, 2019)

dzilizzi said:


> I’m north of Palmdale, so far northeast? My husband has a newer iPhone, so I will test it out. I initially was keeping the house phone because the landline normally continues to work in a power outage. But a few years ago, I found out our line requires power when the battery backup died. And we don’t have the regular power outages we used to have when I first moved here.



I have one VOIP "landline" with a battery back-up, and it's quite a bit cheaper than the regular phone lines.

But we were getting about ten junk calls a day on our regular land lines. So now we have them on a call number parking service; when people call, they get a message of me telling them to call our cell #s if they need talk to us, or email us at [email protected], because we don't answer the line anymore due to all the calls being junk.

If that changes at some point, we still own the numbers we've had for 2-1/2 decades. That's worth $2.50 a month. But otherwise it's just too disruptive.


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## dzilizzi (Jan 23, 2019)

Nick Batzdorf said:


> I have one VOIP "landline" with a battery back-up, and it's quite a bit cheaper than the regular phone lines.
> 
> But we were getting about ten junk calls a day on our regular land lines. So now we have them on a call number parking service; when people call, they get a message of me telling them to call our cell #s if they need talk to us, or email us at [email protected], because we don't answer the line anymore due to all the calls being junk.
> 
> If that changes at some point, we still own the numbers we've had for 2-1/2 decades. That's worth $2.50 a month. But otherwise it's just too disruptive.


This is one of the things I have been looking at. Currently, I only answer numbers I know or if someone starts talking on the machine. My message states if they don't leave a message, I will assume they are spammers and will block the numbers. I usually only block the ones that keep calling because I ran out of blocks - my phone will hold 250 numbers. I had to delete them all and start again at one point. I find most of the time, they use the number once or twice then change it. 

My dad has a VOIP phone through Comcast or Xfinity. My sister set it up with Nomorobo and it works great. He doesn't get any spam calls any more. I am thinking of switching to a VOIP just for that.


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jan 23, 2019)

dzilizzi said:


> I am thinking of switching to a VOIP just for that.



Avoid Lingo if you do. They are hopeless.

Also, they don't support Nomorobo.


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## AllanH (Jan 23, 2019)

I have Spectrum for internet; no TV. It's always been excellent in my area. I'm getting about 110 mb/s down pretty much all day long. No caps so far, but that may change the Time Warner conditions expire in a few years.


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## ironbut (Jan 23, 2019)

Xfinity for internet and local stations (I'd be using over the air for local if I could get CBS).
I've been using Directv Now for most of the other stations and I'm pretty happy with it. I have their basic line up but it's easy to modify month by month (only $5 a month for HBO so I binge seasons of shows like GOT).


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jan 23, 2019)

AllanH said:


> I have Spectrum for internet; no TV. It's always been excellent in my area. I'm getting about 110 mb/s down pretty much all day long. No caps so far, but that may change the Time Warner conditions expire in a few years.



Spectrum is usually about 300 download here, 20 upload.


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## Tod (Jan 23, 2019)

Thanks all for your replies and added comments. After a lot of research I've found out that I don't have a lot of options where I live, which is in the north west part of Montana.

Internet speed is important to me for many reasons and the way it looks now, Spectrum is about as good as it gets in my area. There are other internet providers but they are very slow. We've had the cable for nearly 20 years and it's changed hands many times. What gets my wife and I upset, is that they keep raising the price while the programming gets worse. On top of that the only programs I watch are sports and news, although my wife has a few others she likes. Actually I do like PBS.

We've also got Netflix and hulu along with a few others, and that's where we go in the evenings.

I think what we're going to do is hang onto the Spectrum internet and find an alternative means for the news and sports. Ha ha, well right after the Superbowl.


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## Tod (Jan 23, 2019)

Nick Batzdorf said:


> Spectrum is usually about 300 download here, 20 upload.



Wow, Nick, 300mps, that's better then I get which is around 100mps give or take. I understand they are coming up with a system to give us 940mps, but I bet it'll be an arm and a leg. Verizon is already purporting 940mps, but we can't get that here.


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## ironbut (Jan 23, 2019)

You should give Spectrum a call and see if there are any new packages for local programming.
I was downgrading my Xfinity account for internet only and they had a package aimed at cord cutters which was internet plus local stations. For non-HD it was a free add on and I'm paying $10 for HD. 
That package isn't listed online or anywhere else I've seen.
I know it will go up but I'll cross that bridge,..


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jan 23, 2019)

Tod said:


> Nick, 300mps



Actually, it's one of their tiers. We pay a little more for it.


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## Tod (Jan 24, 2019)

ironbut said:


> You should give Spectrum a call and see if there are any new packages for local programming.



Thanks ironbut, yeah we've done that and the cheapest we could get is $95. The internet is $65 so that would be $160 total. For what we want and need, we've got a few much cheaper alternatives we're looking at. I will be hanging on the the internet for $65 though.


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## Tod (Jan 24, 2019)

Nick Batzdorf said:


> Actually, it's one of their tiers. We pay a little more for it.



Aah, I don't think we have anything beyond 100mps available to us here.


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## robgb (Jan 26, 2019)

Spectrum for Internet.
DirecTV for TV — BUT, I'd drop them in a second because they suck. Unfortunately, my wife is a tennis fiend and we haven't found a viable alternative that will allow her to record her tournaments, which are year round.


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## Tod (Jan 26, 2019)

Thanks robgb, we've decided to keep spectrum internet and I paid up the cable till the end of next month, didn't want to miss the Superbowl. 

But come the end of February, we're switching to "Live TV" for $18/mo, it's got everything we need, in fact we're going to end up with more then what we are getting with the cable. Of course we need the internet for that so we'll hang on to spectrum internet for that. For NOW.


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