Where to look for good cable internet deals? Need help

So here in PA I've had comcast cable internet for about 2 years. When I originally signed up I got a deal that was about $45 a month for cable internet and tv for 12 months. When that deal expired in a year and they tried to up the bill to their 'normal' price, my husband called in and convinced them to find another deal. We ended up getting about $50/month for another 12 months. Well, that just expired and our bill jumped up due to the cable internet portion. They're trying to get us to pay a ridiculously high bill. So my dh has called several times now and spoken to several different people, but no go on another deal. And yes, half the time he's tried the "We're just calling to cancel our cable because we've switched to DSL" right in the beginning. ARGH! Of course we don't want to buy DSL because then we'd actually have to get a phone line installed (we only have cells).

We've looked around a bit and can't find any other good cable deals on the net. Any suggestions?

http//www.optimumonline.com/index.jhtml;jsessionid=MB1MW134SKH2ACQFSALCF3Q?pageType=pricing

The first 6 months are $30 if you self-install, which isn't hard. You also get a free wireless router or MP3 player. You may have to be a Cablevision customer though, I'm not too sure. Just try calling them and asking them about pricing to get the BS promos out of the way.

I love Comcast, we have had it for 3 or 4 years.

i have been researching this a lot for my new house and I can tell you that satalitte and DSL(w/ phone) is considerably cheaper than cable packages.

I was looking at $130 p/month for dig cable w/hbo HD, and a DVR.

I can get that same package for only $56 per month and $300 cash back and also a free dvd player at DISH network.

I found an SBC DSL deal for $6 p/month. Even with the cost of a phone line at $20 that is an outrageous deal.

Look into DSL and satalitte TV more I say

EDIT Also we called Time Warner, the only cable provider in our area and informed them of this deal. The didn't offer a single match, or try to counter it. They just said yes we are aware of the deals.

They know they can't compete with satalitte, and as long as people are still uninformed on signal strength, and dropouts, a good majority will keep using cable and overpaying.

Meanwhile Dish Network and DirectTV are having a price war. My parents have had Direct TV at their house for 4 years now and it works great. Dish network is just offering better deals right now, and is a lot cheaper. However if you want NFL sunday ticket go with Directtv because its the only place you can get it.

im looking for any information about fios or next gen broadband in the ohio area, I can't find much of anything though.

[quote7f8163c1cb="Gooogler"]I love Comcast, we have had it for 3 or 4 years.[/quote7f8163c1cb]

Same here, we've probably had it longer, but their reliability has been awsome. The internet in my house has probably only 2-3 times that I've noticed and that was when they just came to my area and working out bugs in the system. I do agree their prices are a little high.

My ISP (Suscom) is complete shit. It was out for 3 days last week so they could do some maintenance and they didn't bother to tell anyone or give any warning. The fact that we use Vonage and it goes through our internet connection made it even worse. They consistantly have dropouts where the internet just stops working. Comes back 5 minutes later, and repeats that process for a few hours, a couple of times a week. Technicians have been out and fixed things on the line etc but it's still happening, so now we're also looking for a new ISP.

What's DSL like in terms of reliability and speed and also who are some good providers?

I have Earthlink, love it.

http//forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=0&t=289006&highlight=sbc+dsl

like to the at&t dsl deal I mentioned


ill dig up some info on dish and directtv if anyone is interested later

DirecTV sucks, we have it.

Personally I love DirecTV. Had it for over 5 years until February this year and only switched to Charter Cable to get HD and some free programming for a year with no upfront costs -- DirecTV as well as Dish want about $300 for each HD-DVR up front, and that's just for a lease, while Charter charged me nothing up front for 3 HD DVR's.

However, [bddc34c9f5c]I hate cable TV compared to satellite[/bddc34c9f5c]. DirecTV was so much better. When this year promotion with Charter is over, I'm switching back to sat, either DirecTV again or Dish. Dish has better HD programming right now but I prefer DirecTV's equipment and customer service.

As for broadband, I prefer DSL to cable. Cable is shared bandwidth per node and bandwidth can fluctuate based on traffic (despite their "guarantees"), and more importantly to me, most cable ISP's strictly forbid you running servers on the account. My DSL provider doesn't care.

I'm supposed to be in the next phase or so of my local utility company's fiber rollout, which has some really serious bandwidth for less money than both cable and DSL. They offer phone, digital TV, and internet on the one fiber line, and the folks I know that have it say it's awesome.

Sorry to hijack your thread Godrock. oops

Is Verizon DSL any good? They're offering 3.0mbps down and 768kbps up for $34.99/month. I really know nothing about DSL but what would those speeds be like compared to my Cable line? According to dslreports.com

Your download speed 2270 kbps or 283.8 KB/sec.
Your upload speed 282 kbps or 35.3 KB/sec.

When I download, my max is about 500kBps on Usenet, 350 from websites and about 250 on Torrents. My upload is 30kBps max. shrug

I had Verizon, I really didn't care for it, but at those speeds and a nice price it might be worth it.

[quote2ad2e84b1d="theysayjump"]Sorry to hijack your thread Godrock. oops

Is Verizon DSL any good? They're offering 3.0mbps down and 768kbps up for $34.99/month. I really know nothing about DSL but what would those speeds be like compared to my Cable line? According to dslreports.com

Your download speed 2270 kbps or 283.8 KB/sec.
Your upload speed 282 kbps or 35.3 KB/sec.

When I download, my max is about 500kBps on Usenet, 350 from websites and about 250 on Torrents. My upload is 30kBps max. shrug[/quote2ad2e84b1d]
Looks like your cable is 3mbp/384kbps, so you'll double your upstream bandwidth by going to DSL. Downstream will remain about the same, maybe a hair faster with the DSL (looks like a lot of overhead on your cable test, but then again those can fluctuate). Latency is usually a little better with DSL too, however you likely wouldn't notice a difference, especially if you don't game online.

Can't speak to Verizon as a service provider, since I've never been a customer. They only do cellular in my neck o' the woods.