internet & cable TV service providers

[GibsonMarshallGuy47]

so... I live in the Philadelphia area, and we've had Xfinity Comcast for the past 2 years for our home internet, cable TV, and landline phone service. with our current promotion, we've been paying roughly $238 per month... that is up near the end of this week, and our bill will be going up another $20 or so... I found out that if we dropped the cable TV service, it would only drop our monthly bill down to $170... that won't do.

so, we've been shopping around a bit. we need to make a change ASAP (before July 8th). we're thinking we might switch back to Astound/RCN, since their current deals look pretty good. what does everyone else think? I'm curious to get some input here before we make our final decision.

 

[GibsonMarshallGuy47]

 

[Cal Nevari]

so... I live in the Philadelphia area, and we've had Xfinity Comcast for the past 2 years for our home internet, cable TV, and landline phone service. with our current promotion, we've been paying roughly $238 per month... that is up near the end of this week, and our bill will be going up another $20 or so... I found out that if we dropped the cable TV service, it would only drop our monthly bill down to $170... that won't do.

so, we've been shopping around a bit. we need to make a change ASAP (before July 8th). we're thinking we might switch back to Astound/RCN, since their current deals look pretty good. what does everyone else think? I'm curious to get some input here before we make our final decision.

We cut our cable and landline, retaining just our high speed internet, which lowered our Phoenix Cox bill from $250 to $150. We found streaming to be cheap and efficient but we don’t watch much TV anyway.

 

[GibsonMarshallGuy47]

We cut our cable and landline, retaining just our high speed internet, which lowered our Phoenix Cox bill from $250 to $150. We found streaming to be cheap and efficient but we don’t watch much TV anyway.

that's fine, I get that, but... if you actually read my original post, my question was - what internet company are people liking these days? I'm looking for recommendations for specific companies to switch to.

 

[Dogs of Doom]

the problem is... different regions will have different providers & even then, if we have the same, my provider, in your region may not be the same performance, cost, etc...

For instance, we do not have Astound (whatever that is) We also do not have Charter, although, here, we have Spectrum, which was based off of Charter/Comcast & also, when they swallowed up Time Warner.

We currently have AT&T, which is serving us decently well, but... we are in an area, where it is advantageous to us, getting gigabit internet & it seems to be say 95% of what is promised, whereas, people just a block away are not getting it as good, maybe 80%.

Our plan, we had to get the AT&T fiber (1Gb) & DirecTV package, if we wanted TV.

A decade ago, AT&T was the worst, so, back then I would not have recommended them. When we signed up, going on 2 tears ago, they assured us that all the problems were resolved - & they were.

Good luck. One thing is... it seems that most of these companies think that you should have to renegotiate your deal every-so-often, or their plan has perpetual rate hikes, until you do. I think that keeps you under contract, whereas, otherwise the contract ends & you can quit any time.

 

[AtomicRob]

Sonic! I switched last year from Comcast to Sonic when they installed 10G fiber in my neighborhood. Great service, speed is so fast I can't even really test it - my router maxes out at around 1G which isn't even close to the service speed. But plenty fast for anything I need to do.

Shameless plug: if you use my Sonic referral link we both get some sort of discount or credit: https://sonic.com/referral/35245c2ch

 

[paul-e-mann]

so... I live in the Philadelphia area, and we've had Xfinity Comcast for the past 2 years for our home internet, cable TV, and landline phone service. with our current promotion, we've been paying roughly $238 per month... that is up near the end of this week, and our bill will be going up another $20 or so... I found out that if we dropped the cable TV service, it would only drop our monthly bill down to $170... that won't do.

so, we've been shopping around a bit. we need to make a change ASAP (before July 8th). we're thinking we might switch back to Astound/RCN, since their current deals look pretty good. what does everyone else think? I'm curious to get some input here before we make our final decision.

Get rid of cable and landline, comcast internet will cost you about $80 a month. Get a Roku stick for TV, all the free TV you can handle.

 

[keennay]

I don't think you're gonna find anything better than Comcast tbf

 

[Rokinroller]

Seems to be all the same numbers for even up here in Canada . I've not paid for TV service for many years . Only internet and cell phone , and only that is almost 200 / month ! They all crooks .

For TV , I've done well with HD OTA Antenna ! Its great . Over 30 channels , all local channels , plus great reception of US HD channels : CBS ABC NBC FOX PBS etc . I'm close to the US border and have a nice Antenna tower , came with the house . Fantastic .

 

[GibsonMarshallGuy47]

Get rid of cable and landline, comcast internet will cost you about $80 a month. Get a Roku stick for TV, all the free TV you can handle.

we already plan on getting rid of Cable TV. that's something we planned on doing, regardless. as a matter of fact, we've been using the Amazon Fire Stick for about a year now... and by the way, we currently have Xfinity Comcast right now. we've had them for the past 2 years. the 2 year promotion they offered us ends this weekend. I already got an estimate on how much our service would be with no Cable TV, and they said the lowest they could offer was $145 a month ($125 if we switch our mobile phone service to Xfinity Comcast).

I think the price of a service provider's home internet plan varies depending on where you live. we live in the Philadelphia area. my mom & dad live in New Jersey, and they're paying about $83 per month with Xfinity Comcast for just home internet. so, I really think the price is going to be based on what area you're in.

 

[GibsonMarshallGuy47]

I don't think you're gonna find anything better than Comcast tbf

not true... we did some research, and for just home internet (the highest speed offered), Astound/RCN is actually less than Xfinity Comcast in our area. I think we're going to switch within the next few days. I think they're like 60 to 70 bucks less per month.

as far as I know, the only other option in my area I think is Verizon Fios. I think my wife had a bad experience with Verizon many years ago and refuses to give them any more business.

 

[DreamerDeceiver]

I pay $50 per month with COX for web travel.
Rabbit ears for ota tv .....73 free channels.

Freedom since 2020.

Good luck

 

[Dogs of Doom]

one thing too... is most modern TV's have their own internet (streaming) TV setup, & app's that you can download. I currently have Samsung TV (programming access is free w/ internet connection). I also have a firestick, which has a lot of stuff, but, it also has a lot of stuff, that'll nickel & dime you to death...

I know other TV's also have stuff, like google TV, android TV, Microsoft TV, etc., so look into that, if you are thinking about a new TV, that will help in your situation.

I think most of those built-in programming systems use the same, or similar sources, like Pluto, Tubi, etc... In some regards, it's better to use an in-TV app, rather than the firestick.

The firestick & your TV though, can be wire optimized, for better performance. I have my firestick hooked up to my router, through ethernet, & also have USB ports added. The speed, on the wi-fi might be a little faster, but, chunk-for-chunk of data, the ethernet cable is more consistent & you won't notice the speed, vs, not getting hangups & buffering as much.

On the back of TV's, most TV's use a low speed NIC system, so, you'll be max'd out at around 125Mb/s, which, while theoretically is fast enough to stream 4K, sometimes it falls flat. So, you can hook up an ethernet adapter to the USB in & get a faster connection... if needed.

You can do searches on all of this, so, figure out what you want to do. (or not)

 

[Cal Nevari]

that's fine, I get that, but... if you actually read my original post, my question was - what internet company are people liking these days? I'm looking for recommendations for specific companies to switch to.

Ah, I see. Cox is our internet company but might not be available in Philly. If someone came up with a reasonably priced fast internet, I'd switch in a heartbeat, so lemme know what you find!

 

[Cal Nevari]

Sonic! I switched last year from Comcast to Sonic when they installed 10G fiber in my neighborhood. Great service, speed is so fast I can't even really test it - my router maxes out at around 1G which isn't even close to the service speed. But plenty fast for anything I need to do.

Shameless plug: if you use my Sonic referral link we both get some sort of discount or credit: https://sonic.com/referral/35245c2ch

Just looked up Sonic and, unfortunately, it's not available in our neighborhood. But if it had been, would have definitely used your referral link! Thanks.

 

[saxon68]

I’ve got Frontier now after years of Xfinity
2 gig up and down, 99.99 a month.

 

[GibsonMarshallGuy47]

I think we're probably going to go with Astound/RCN which, unless I'm mistaken, in our area (Philly metro) is somewhere around $70 or $75 per month for internet (highest speed available). we're probably going to go with YouTube TV for the majority of our regular TV watching, along with paying extra for HBO-Max, Disney+, & Netflix.

I think we're going to pull the trigger sometime tomorrow. if anyone knows of any other internet providers in the Philly area that has a better deal, please let me know ASAP.