Service Providers (Internet, TV, Etc)

Tarrant

<Prior Amod>
15,546
8,994
IDK, can you? I'm sure someone with a business or economics degree can correct me, but that seems like a big enough difference to me. If there's only one supplier of diesel in your area, are you not going to call them a monopoly because you can go pick up some used fry oil from a restaurant?

Or do you mean "never considered a monopoly" by the government? I've given up hope long ago of the government breaking up/preventing monopolies.
Well your analogy doesn't really work as nothing more special needs to be done to get cable internet as there does for satellite. You still need a device and wiring and what not. A better analogy would be how the fuel was delivered to you. The fuel itself is the same however.

But yes I was referring to the second part of your post. As long as the majority of the United states has other options there will never be a monopoly and satellite existing means there is always an option. (Note; I'm not saying satellite internet is good...because fuck that crap but it's still there none the less.)
 

Deathwing

<Bronze Donator>
16,396
7,396
I was going more for scarcity of competition. Most people won't even touch satellite or DSL for internet service that they might as well not exist in the market. Same goes for restaurant fry oil. I guarantee you that Comcast isn't worrying about customer fleeing to satellite and DSL if they change their prices.
 

Wolfen_sl

shitlord
746
12
I don't want to use cable for my tv, but even though I could get Dish or DirectTV, there really isn't any choice. In the summer time, it rains almost every day here in Florida, and when it rains, you lose your picture. After a few months of that, I wanted to nuke Dish out of existence.
 

Kedwyn

Silver Squire
3,915
80
I'm in Florida, its really not that bad. You get showers around late afternoon and lose it for a few minutes as it passes but the number of times its actually impacted something I've recorded or wanted to watch the last 5 years is probably once or twice? Its really not that big a deal. Unless you watch a ton of TV during 3-5pm est which is when most of the heavy stuff usually comes. Even then its usually only for a few minutes. Most of the non heavy stuff doesn't really impact viewing at all.
 

Wolfen_sl

shitlord
746
12
I'm in Florida, its really not that bad. You get showers around late afternoon and lose it for a few minutes as it passes but the number of times its actually impacted something I've recorded or wanted to watch the last 5 years is probably once or twice? Its really not that big a deal. Unless you watch a ton of TV during 3-5pm est which is when most of the heavy stuff usually comes. Even then its usually only for a few minutes. Most of the non heavy stuff doesn't really impact viewing at all.
Then you live in a different area than I do. It rains heavy here all the time. I would lose service several times a week, and when it's during a show I like, it turns me into a giant green rage monster.
 

LiquidDeath

Magnus Deadlift the Fucktiger
4,898
11,313
Caught a TV add a few days ago that Cox is tripling their highest tier and doubling most of the other tiers of internet speeds throughout the country. That means their highest tier will be 150Mbps for $100/month and the tier below that (which I'm on) will go from 24Mbps to 50Mbps, their old highest speed, for $75/month. Very tempting to move up to the new high speed once my current deal ends.

I think this is a direct result of Google Fiber moving into both Kansas and Texas, both areas that Cox serves.
 

Oldbased

> Than U
27,722
65,147
I'm pretty fucking sure the question was does anyone here have Dish and is it worth it, not explain and justify why I hated Direct TV to Tarrant thread.

In response to the local thing someone else posted, I couldn't even get distant networks. I literally had no ABC/CBS/FOX/NBC and short of going with a high powered antenna could not get them.
They jacked my bill 30 days in with a overall price increase, lied about channel lineups, ended up having to come back and install new equipment that they tried to charge me for to get the things I was promised such as on demand even though it was on my initial order sheet included, then had the issues with the installer. Sure as fuck seems a lot more there than contractor installer issues.

Why would I take a credit hit and fight them? If it was that shitty the first month what would the other 23 be like?
I'm the customer not the prisioner, I have enough shit on them and that whole process documented I would rape them in a court over those fees.

The whole issue at least with Direct TV is once they install they try to treat you like shit and will shit on you any chance they get.
 

mkopec

<Gold Donor>
25,398
37,481
I had dish at the last house I owned and I had no problems with it. I even installed the fucker myself (what a pain in the ass to point the fucker) Yeah the occasional outage when it rained hard or when it snowed hard enough, but those were so rare and so short lived that it really did not piss me off at all. I also remember it being way cheaper than any cable service.

The local channel thing, well this was a while ago, like late 90's, but when I first got Dish I got no local shit, I got the networks from other towns, I think somewhere in Ohio. But the cool thing was that I got them from the west coast as well. Which ended up being nice because If I missed a show or whatever, I could watch it on the west coast channel 3 hours later. This was nice in the days of no DVR.

Then later they sent up another satellite, I remember it being a big deal at the time and I finally got my local channels. They even sent me a new dish to install with the dual receivers or whatever. But the sad part was that I lost the west coast deal I had going. Which really would of loved to get back. Fuck local networks, I dont need that shit and never really missed it.
 

Oldbased

> Than U
27,722
65,147
I had dish at the last house I owned and I had no problems with it. I even installed the fucker myself (what a pain in the ass to point the fucker) Yeah the occasional outage when it rained hard or when it snowed hard enough, but those were so rare and so short lived that it really did not piss me off at all. I also remember it being way cheaper than any cable service.

The local channel thing, well this was a while ago, like late 90's, but when I first got Dish I got no local shit, I got the networks from other towns, I think somewhere in Ohio. But the cool thing was that I got them from the west coast as well. Which ended up being nice because If I missed a show or whatever, I could watch it on the west coast channel 3 hours later. This was nice in the days of no DVR.

Then later they sent up another satellite, I remember it being a big deal at the time and I finally got my local channels. They even sent me a new dish to install with the dual receivers or whatever. But the sad part was that I lost the west coast deal I had going. Which really would of loved to get back. Fuck local networks, I dont need that shit and never really missed it.
Ya the only reason I was pissed about the locals was I had it installed in late December and ended up not able to watch new years shit except on news networks. Then missed the Daytona 500 for the same BS.

I may stick to cable though, I called my provider which is/was Insight who just got bought out by Time Warner and complained about internet speeds not being what they was supposed to and my sound/picture issues breaking up and they had someone out here at 8pm that night( last night ) to fix it, he didn't leave until well after 10pm. He was in a TW truck, insight never had that kind of support after 4pm it was see ya tomorrow.

Still though I miss direct tv/Dish picture quality. I get depressed every house I go into that has it compared to the compressed cable HD shit. Cable will never LOOK as good as anything satellite.
 

Joeboo

Molten Core Raider
8,157
140
Here is what you have to look forward to on Time Warner. Here is my 50mbps service that I pay $60 a month for
2655294844.png

looks pretty damn nice.

Here is my average viewing experience on Youtube
rrr_img_21683.jpg


I average about 1-2mbps just about any time of day viewing Youtube. Fucking Time Warner and their artificial Youtube throttling. Can't view anything over 420p(standard def) without extensive buffering. Even 420p is a problem during peak times and I often have to go down to 240p. I'd switch carriers, but my only other option is DSL, and well, that sucks just as bad. Come on Google Fiber, you're in KC, get that shit installed and expanded,
 

Nostrovia_sl

shitlord
442
0
Pretty much gave me an instant orgasm when I heard this the other day. Whatever happened to Zeste btw? Only other forum goer that I knew lived in Provo.
I used to live in Provo, but I abhor that fucking city. I moved to Ogden, so now Google Fiber needs to get their asses up here. Though, the Ogden city council members are cunts, and tend to side with Comcast and ShittyLink. Utopia is up here which is also fiber (not 1gig though!!) but they're everywhere AROUND Ogden, but keep getting shafted at every council meeting.

Pisses me off. Jimmies thoroughly russled.
 

Desidero

N00b
163
2
12/4 on Comcast is $65/month here. I'm in suburban Chicago, so it's not like I'm out in farm country and it'd cost a lot for them to improve service. AT&T might as well not exist since their service is so shitty, so Comcast has no reason to provide better services or prices. At one point a few towns near mine tried to start up their own all-fiber ISP and Comcast/AT&T managed to kill it before it could get off the ground.

I think everyone in the Chicago metro area would drop AT&T and Comcast in a heartbeat if Google showed up.
 

Vaclav

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
12,650
877
comcast keep jacking up my bundle prices, i looked around and there is literally 0 other alternatives in my area (not even FIOS)

I live between baltimore and maryland, pretty wealthy area

these dudes winning at monopoly like they owned park place and board walk
Soon FiOS should be there - and the wait will be worth it, outside Towson here and...

2689936617.png

Is my speedtest from here to Frederick. The closer one to Baltimore is being wonky right now, but it's hosted by Comcast, so I chalk that up to Comcast screwing with it since it's from a FiOS IP. (Still decent, but like 15 down and 32 up with a 1ms ping - bizarre numbers that don't make any sense. Day 2 after I switched it was pretty much identical to Frederick - seems like they just doing it at random, maybe they're bogged down or something)

2689936617.png