USNRET Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 I have been a DirecTv customer (and great fan) since 1992 and they have treated me very well. For several recent years I was a member of the CuttingEdge group that beta tested new software on the 'down low". Ever rising cost of phone, internet, TV has had me thinking of perhaps changing providers IF I could get same service for a better price. AT&T Uverse had been on my radar for some time but not available. Tonight a door to door rep came by selling Uverse as it just went live in my neighborhood. I kept him here for near 2 hours with many questions and was assured that their offering of 18 mb(B)ps down was equal to my current internet speed of 100 mpbs down. I took the bait and scheduled an install as the total TV, internet and phone saved about $50-60 per month. Note that I was still leery about bandwidth on TV and internet but with 30 day to cancel at no cost (except $49 install) I figured what the hey, I'll try it but not disconnect my current service. I go on line to try to find out it AT&T offers mBps or mbps rates and ended up with the following on line chat with AT&T. Thank you for choosing AT&T. A representative will be with you shortly. You are now chatting with 'Abid' Abid: Thank you for contacting AT&T, my name is Abid. Please allow me a moment to review your account details. Abid: Hi, am I chatting with Mr. Michael Welch and is this (my number edited) the phone number to access the account? Michael Welch: I just signed an install order but have a question; is your internet speed rated at mBps or mbps, note the upper case difference of bits or bytes. Abid: I can help you with that Mr. Welch. Abid: It's mbps with every provider. Michael Welch: Then what I was told is not factual, I currently have 100 mbps service and was told that Uverse uses mBps so 18 equals 96 (8 bits per byte) Abid: I am sorry if you were told that it's MBps. Abid: Can I know the name of the provider who offeres 100 Mbps speed? Michael Welch: I questioned that no less than 10 times and was quoted that by the door to door third party salesman. Michael Welch: I currently have 100mpbs thru Grandecom Abid: When you run the test does it show 100 Mbps? Michael Welch: Speed check 10 minutes ago shows 109 mbps Michael Welch: down and 14 up Abid: I am sorry U-verse offers maximum of 45Mbps speed. That is the highest package we have. Michael Welch: Well I guess that we can spend ATT money for the install and then cancel when I get something that was promised but not delivered. Abid: I apologize for the miscommunication. Abid: I wish I could work with you today; I am from technical department and we do not have access to cancel your account. We do have a dedicated department to work with you I will provide you the phone number to that department. Please contact them, they will help you. Michael Welch: Not my money, copy of this exchange saved for reference. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtimer Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 I stopped doing business with Ma Bell as soon as the monopoly was ended in the early 80's. They will never be forgiven for past sins in my book. Same goes for Charter Cable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 (edited) We can get gigabit to our house, although most routers only will handle around 750 Mbit throughput. We didn't switch to the gigabit fiber to the house when we moved because Comcast offered us 50 Mbit internet plus basic digital cable for $39 a month for a year. I can cancel at any time. I figured that doubling my internet, basic cable for almost half my old internet speed was a good deal. Bruce Edited March 1, 2014 by Marvel 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dude Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 I don't even know what I have, I know I pay a crap load. For me it seems the price keeps going up and the tier package goes down. We only have cox for cable, but a couple other satellite companies offer some other internet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NBPK402 Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 We dropped DTV a few years ago and went with Astound cable. Our internet is now 52Mbps down and 10.76Mbps up... We dropped everything but the internet last year and we reduced our bill by 50%. Now we watch uncompressed HDTV for free.. I just wish that our location was a little better for reception so it would be more consistent. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZAKO Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 just cancle,d every thing and went to slow mail....now the post office raised the rates,,go figure... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
USNRET Posted March 1, 2014 Author Share Posted March 1, 2014 My current test Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minermark Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 We dropped DTV a few years ago and went with Astound cable. Our internet is now 52Mbps down and 10.76Mbps up... We dropped everything but the internet last year and we reduced our bill by 50%. Now we watch uncompressed HDTV for free.. I just wish that our location was a little better for reception so it would be more consistent. That is exactly what my family is doing Ron, good call! three years now, cable for the net and that is it. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtimer Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 just cancle,d every thing and went to slow mail....now the post office raised the rates,,go figure... Snails are slow. But at least they are slimy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaddeus Smith Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 My brother in law runs a wireless ISP out here in the rural area. My 100ft tower is the first hop between his 100mbit back haul and the rest of the network. I get 50 up and 50 down in exchange for real estate rental Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
USNRET Posted March 1, 2014 Author Share Posted March 1, 2014 (edited) I have the house wired for OTA perhaps I should just go terrestrial, internet and cell phone. Heck, I have Roku and AppleTv already. Problem is that except for work provided Blackberry I would have to get kiddos them "smart phone" thingies Edited March 1, 2014 by USNRET 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dude Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 Ok I just found out I can go to coxes website and test my connection speed. From what you guys are putting down, I am slow at 25 mbps. Gosh I wonder how much faster my internet could be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NBPK402 Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 We dropped DTV a few years ago and went with Astound cable. Our internet is now 52Mbps down and 10.76Mbps up... We dropped everything but the internet last year and we reduced our bill by 50%. Now we watch uncompressed HDTV for free.. I just wish that our location was a little better for reception so it would be more consistent. That is exactly what my family is doing Ron, good call! three years now, cable for the net and that is it. But you will have much more consistent reception than I do... I watch the Sacramento stations as the SF stations are not receivable from my area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coytee Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 Gotta love AT&T... I'm in the boonies..... only thing available to me is dialup and even at that, the ISDN (128K smoking over 2 digital lines) is only about 95K speed by the time it gets to my house. I don't know how many bps or Bps that is ....not very many of each I finally went satellite so I now have two dishes on my house. One for DTV (major fan of) and the other one is www.exede.net Of which I'm another fan of (thus far) Don't care for how they bill.... they won't take payments via check. I had a check returned from them, undeposited that would have pushed my bill to about 3 months prepayment. They ONLY take payment via automatic credit card payments. Still....given my choices, it's been good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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