Comcast Cable or ATT

[Zaluss]

I've been faithfully paying $40/mo for 6mb down from ATT for the past four years. Absolutely lovely service every single time I had an issue (which was like three) and overall decent performance meaning pretty close to advertised speeds.

I was browsing comcasts website last night and noticed they had 15mb (don't care about upload) for $42.95/mo plus $19.99 for the first 6 months. I already have a spare motorola cable modem sitting here I figure I could use and since I don't need tv or phone I thought this would be a much better buy for a bit more than what I paying now.

I decided to call up ATT since I've been a longtime member with them to see what I can do to match the service. I talked to a very nice guy on the phone who was trying to work with me on. First he said that the internet only for ATT U Verse would require a $125 installation fee which includes the modem and would be $48/mo for 12mb. I said forget that. He then said that well if you get the basic tv which is 200 channels, on demand, etc etc the installation fee would be $29.99 including the modem @ $125 for 2 tvs for HD with whole house DVR recording. This sounded tempting but I had to remind myself I don't watch tv. In the end I got the guys information since he was really nice and told him I would call comcast to see what they say.

Now before I go rape myself with comcast I would just like to know if theres anything special I should know about going cable. Never done it before. Price is right. No installation fees. Special intro price with no contract.

I only use the internet for:
Forums
News
Research
Netflix
Xbox Live Gaming

 

[Nemo128]

Do your research. Find out your area's saturation of users. dslreports.com is good for that. See what the real-world performance is like. See what the service record is like. Take it from there. More money for equal or less performance is not what you're looking for, so you need to know more about Comcast in your area.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Comcast is notorious in network management, so if you are heavy p2p user - I wouldn't go to Comcast. Who know what next protocol/service they will go after next ? Streaming Video??
I have Cablevision 15/2 cable and I live in major city. I can't complain about my service - I do get real advertised speeds, most of the time.
My main usage for high bandwidth is usenet and my download speed almost always capped by my plan speeds.
I still can't get FIOS in my building - most of their installs in my area are 20/20 for about same price as I'm paying now.

 

[Nugu]

Nemo hit the target perfectly. All ISPs over sell their service - my ISP puts about 20-50 people on a single 3 mbps line, I'm rural sadly.

Cable is a shared circuit from you and any others in your area to the cable company, this can get over saturated. Consider if you live near any high concentration of people aka a college, if so you likely don't want cable.

DSL on the other hand is a direct line you alone get to use. (though this doesn't mean they don't oversell - it just happens further down the line)


Another smart idea now-days would be to ask what kind of LIMITS they will hold you to, and if possible tape it too. To this day I still get pissed off about that. When our rural ISP did our install I made it a point to ask if we were going to be held to a monthly bandwidth limit or not - THEY SAID NO, UNLIMITED! Guess what, first week of service and they cut it off. I had to call in and they whined about me downloading 10gb in a week. Long story short, get it in paper if you're a large consumer. Cable in particular is starting to push for metering bandwidth.

 

[Zaluss]

So I decided to go with ATT U Verse. Great deal really.

$125/mo + 29.99 install. First month is $125 + 29.99 + $60 (partial month) - $100 first month credit + $250 prepaid visa card rebate for the service no contract. After I receive the rebate, use the rebate on the bill, I cancel the tv service and keep my 12mb down for $48/mo which is just a few dollars more than what I'm paying now.

 

[10010011]

I was browsing comcasts website last night and noticed they had 15mb

That up to 15mb is called "power boost" and you only get 15 megabit (sometimes higher) for about five seconds.

Then you you will drop down to the real service level that I think is 8 or 10 megabit.

Powerboost is a scam to fool online speed tests.



Now I get nowhere near these speeds when downloading a large file and average around 8-10 megabit

 

[mtrycrafts]

That up to 15mb is called "power boost" and you only get 15 megabit (sometimes higher) for about five seconds.

Then you you will drop down to the real service level that I think is 8 or 10 megabit.

Powerboost is a scam to fool online speed tests.



Now I get nowhere near these speeds when downloading a large file and average around 8-10 megabit

Yes, but what do you get cross country? 50 miles is next door

By the way, your upload speed is great. Just checked mine using that web site, 800mi, 21Mb down 1.5Mb up

 

[10010011]

Yes, but what do you get cross country? 50 miles is next door

By the way, your upload speed is great. Just checked mine using that web site, 800mi, 21Mb down 1.5Mb up

Sometime closer does not mean better.
This one is about 5 miles away about half the speed of a server 10 times further away.