Making the Switch

I'm finally getting rid of Comcrap, er...Comcast. Years of poor cable quality and recent stories of their net neutrality-killing practices of throttling traffic to certain sites, not to mention the cost, has done them in for me.

While watching the Olympics I saw a commercial for Dish Network's new TurboHD package. I checked it out. Their lowest package (Bronze) is $29.99 and lacks 3 HD channels I have now, but adds about 12 that Comcast doesn't even have at all. I did extensive research on the weather/signal loss issue and asked plenty of people. My plan is to buy a digital "rabbit ear" device if the signal is lost for any significant amount of time due to storms. That way I'll at least always have locals, after the digital conversion Feb. 19.

I was paying somewhere around $60 for a digital package that only just allows me to also get HD service with Comcast. But that's another $15 (with DVR). So that's $75 per month for about 15 channels (because I don't watch any of the others). Their internet is about $40. All told...$135 per month.

I'm also getting AT&T's DSL service. I wanted to get the 3 meg download package (DSL Pro) but unbelievably it is not available in this area. Further bummed because they were giving the modem for free with that package. So I got on chat with a guy and said that I should get the modem for free anyway since I fully intended to get the Pro level but can't. He said he couldn't do that, so I told him I wasn't going to sign up. He went to get his manager who quickly approved the rebate for me. After an agonizing hour of trying to sign up for service--their website was having major issues--I finally got signed up. I tripled checked with him that he was sending my rebate and he assured me he would email me with all the details. Haven't gotten it yet. Gonna be pissed if I don't get that rebate. But for this service, the phone line--which I won't use a phone at all--is $11.95 and the DSL is $25. So that's about $37.

All told, with satellite and internet for about $40 each, I'm saving over $50 per month now. Sweet!