Broadband dilemma

Monday, 9:02 am

By Kate

While going through my bills yesterday, I sat looking at my Comcast bills for telephone, cable TV, and cable internet with a not too pleased expression. Somehow or other, the amounts have crept lurched upward and I’m not happy about it. My telephone fees have doubled in the last year. They’re more now than the basic rates for regular analog service through one of the local providers. And that’s with a fairly generous bundle discount. The cable and internet fees have also risen without, as far as I can see, the corresponding benefit of better service. The fact is, the cable internet service is still kind of dodgy. It’s great when it works, but every few days Comcast goes through a period of dropping the connection every twenty minutes or so.

For the longest time, DSL service wasn’t available in my neck of the woods. I discovered yesterday that it now is.

Having investigated a number of companies and options, it looks as if I can cobble together a collection of services that would save me in the neighborhood of $750 a year. That’s not small potatoes.

With the Dish Network (satellite) I can get the same level of cable coverage plus DVR service for two rooms for a whole lot less than Comcast cable TV plus TiVo subscription. Through AT&T I can get a bundle discount for DSL and CallVantage (Voice over IP) local phone service with 3.5 cents per minutes long distance ($29.95 +$19.99). That gives me a broadband connection with a 3.0 mbps download speed.

Or I can get the AT&T or Verizon DSL with a 1.3 mbps download speed, for the same price (no bundle discount), with Voice over IP telephone service through Vonage ($15) that also includes long distance.

Several of my neighbors have DirecTV service, so I know satellite service works here. And my next door neighbor just got DSL and loves it. No one I know, around here, has the Voice over IP telephone service, though. I’ve heard good things about Vonage and know a couple of people who use it in other parts of the country.

I’m wondering how big an issue the differences in broadband speeds is. Would it be an issue for the lad playing his online games or for streaming media and music downloads? Does the speed decrease perceptibly when two computers are networked and being used simultaneously? I’ve never noticed a networking slowdown with cable broadband, for what it’s worth.

Also, is there any reason why DSL networking has to be done via a wireless router? That seems to be AT&T’s only offered option. I don’t have a good track record with wireless in this house. We’re networked with old fashioned cords and that works very well.

Any ideas, comments, voices of experience out there? Any opinions concerning DirecTV vs. Dish Network? Things I might be overlooking?