Home

Television, Cable
The comments below are unedited opinions of the colleagues who submitted them. A date (month and year) indicates that the comments following that date are from the given month and year. The most recent comments appear at the bottom.

9/98 We have decided to get cable ourselves because a) it's cheaper, especially with the fierce competition in Somerville between RCN and Time Warner b)we get local channels clearly and c) the biggest reason, we're getting cable for free right now just from plugging the cable into the TV.

I've already had a couple of satellite systems. I've had both the RCA system and now I've got the Sony system. The picture quality for both systems is identical but I think the Sony system has much better menu screens and options.

As to price here's the deal:

There are two service providers for Nonprimestar systems. DirectTV and USSB.

DirectTV has all the basic cable channels, regional sports networks, all professional and college sports packages, STARZ and Encore movie channels, audio music channels and 100 pay per view movie channels. Prices start at $19.99/month and go up to about $50/month depending on what you want.

USSB has up to 21 movie channels which include HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, etc. Prices range all the way up to $32/month.

One thing you can't get with ANY satellite dish is the local stations. You have to use an antenna or get the local stations through cable if your reception is bad but you just press one button on the remote to switch back and forth between the two.

The picture quality from the satellite vs. cable is much better.

If you have any questions about it I'd be glad to talk to you. I think both companies have a website. Maybe www.directv.com and www.ussb.com.

jeff

I've had little experience with the recent small dish satellite systems, except to note that the price of signing up for them has dropped sharply several of the services are virtually giving the dishes (and accompanying hardware) free to get your monthly subscription charge.

What I'm going to suggest is that you find out whether cable in your area is on fiber optic, and if not, whether they plan to go that route soon. If they are on fiber optic or will soon convert, inquire whether they plan to offer internet access. In our area (Western suburbs) MediaOne is the cable provider, and offers a fiber optic connection with the internet. It is 50 times faster than a 56K modem on ordinary phone lines. Couple that with a fast PC and you've got virtually instantaneous response when surfing the net.

In addition, it is constantly "on". There is no start up time, and you don't tie up a phone line or need an extra phone line for internet access.

The price for the service is $39 per month if you subscribe to TV cable as well. At various times per year MediaOne has promotionals to provide free installation, or free hardware that you need.

Something that you should consider when making the choice.......

sider when making the choice.......

11/98 I expect there are many people who are pretty much satisfied, but I gather from conversations and email that RCN is generally amateurish but only occasionally harmful.

People say the TV guide that comes with RCN is awful, whereas TimeWarner is listed in the local papers (using a channel table). Technically, there are no complaints about equipment or signal quality. If you survive the switchover, you will achieve cost savings, but remember that the advertised cable rates do not include surcharges, fees and taxes, which are substantial. No one commented on RCN's internet service. If you get RCN's telephone service, you can get a cool 718 phone number, but word is that you won't get Bell Atlantic telephone books. (By the way, Bell rejects phone number exchanges like 718 because they are too easily confused with the new 781 area code.)

Attached is a WordPerfect table that compares the channels offered by RCN of New England and TimeWarner of Somerville. RCN seems to offer more sports, while TW has more diversity and premium movies. Only RCN offers Sundance, and only TW carries broadcast channel 11 (New Hampshire Public Television, WENH). Disney and the Independent Film Channel are part of RCN's basic service but are premium channels on TW. NESN is free on TW but extra on RCN.

Emailed comments from Abt:

When RCN came out, I switched my phone to them and my long distance. There regular fees for local services (all options or any options) are strictly Bell Atlantic Rates with a 5% discount. As they lease their lines from Bell Atlantic, any services to the lines would still be done by Bell Atlantic. Thus, you can't lose. In addition, their long distance rate is a flat 9.9 cents a minute 24hours/day, which is unbeatable.

Their cable, however, is somewhat lacking. Some things you need to be sure of: Do they a: have your street wired already, and b: can they install cable quickly?

I signed up for their cable in April, with a guarantee that the lines on my street would be done and my cable installed in 3 weeks time. After 5 months of waiting, and repeated promises and delays, I finally just subscribed to Time Warner.

If RCN cable has its act together now, I know it is much cheaper then TW if you also use their phone service. Their channels provided are slightly different, so you might want to compare the two channel lists and see whether your favorite channels are left off one or the other.

Their internet, which I don't use, should be fairly good. They are the largest ISP on the east coast (due largely to the purchases of big ISP's like ERROL'S, so they should be fairly competitive and reasonable) *** Stay away from RCN!! I recently moved from Quincy to Somerville. The former tenant of my current apartment had a RCN service. It took RCN over two weeks to disconnect the service before Bell Atlantic to initiate my service. I was calling RCN everyday and they said they would get to it, but they never did anything about it. I finally had to speak to one of the supervisors. Through all my headache to get a new phone service, I spoke to a few individuals. One person at a restaurant said that they had to go through the attorney generals office to get a problem fixed that they were having with an RCN service. I would recommend staying away from RCN. Call me if you want to discuss my problems with RCN any further. *** I switched to RCN for telephone and found them to be highly unorganized. They would bill for the current month, and the next month, before charges were even incurred. And, they would not include charges from other long distance carriers like MCI, Sprint etc. SO that makes more bills to pay. I cancelled and am still disputing a bill with them. *** I have recently switched my telephone service from Bell Atlanta to RCN. I love it. My phone bill is usually $250 a month, and it has gone down tremendously since I switched.

The guarantee they will remain 5% below their competitors prices (both on local service and long distance). They also throw in a $25 calling card.

The only "weird" thing I have found is when I called in for questions on my bill, they do not have somebody to answer the question on site. They have to page somebody and they will back to you.

About current month/next month billing:

They bill their local service one month ahead. On your first bill will be a bill for first month and second month. After that, their will just be a bill for the next month. It isn't like they are billing you twice for the same month. Also, its prorated, so if you quit, they will refund you the difference owed due to proration. We just got a refund for when we switched names on the accounts.