Cincinnati Bell or Time Warner? (sales, houses, neighborhood)

[bk45209]

We're moving shortly to Oakley in Cincinnati. We only need phone and internet service, although we may want to download Netflix. Should we go with Cincinnati Bell or Time Warner (or something else) based on quality and price? Thanks in advance for your constructive input.

[kjbrill]

One simple procedure. Call them both up and get quotations. If Cincinnati Bell has the Fioptics service where you are locating, then consider them. Otherwise forget them as the internet will be a snail. Assuming both will be offering cable based service, in the case of Cincinnati Bell a fiber optic cable, then both will be offering VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) phone service on the same cable. This is how they can get the price down by bundling.

Be very specific on some items concerning the price. #1 you will not pay for installation - that is on them. #2 be careful of a lowball rate for just a few months. Insist on at least a two-year guaranteed rate. #3 recognize any form of a contract or cancellation fees if they do not satisfy you.

I switched to Cincinnati Bell about a year ago. When they began to install their Fioptics service in our neighborhood their salesman was Johnny on the spot to sign up customers. TWC of course knew this was happening and sent their own sales people out. Next thing is know I am talking to CB and 30 minutes later to a TWC guy. First shot out of the box the TWC says he can drop our TV and Internet cost by 40% over what we had been paying. And if we go with the VOIP phone service he can deliver the total still below what we had been paying. Since we had been reasonably happy with TWC I sign up with him. Two days later here comes the CB salesman back. I can beat that rate he says and shows me some numbers. Yes he did undercut TWC. The CB guys says I have work crews in the neigherbood and can have this installed today. I said go ahead. He did and they did.

Some of the differences between CB and TWC.

CB installs a control panel at some convenient location in the house. The fiber optic cable is run to this. At the control panel, the fiber optic is converted to the standard hard wired coaxial TV signal. If the house is already prewired they just tap into this. The phone signal is converted to the standard phone analog signal virtually all houses have been wired for millenia. Forget all of the digital bull****, all of the telephone wiring in your house is analog, and constantly converting back and forth. If your telephone does not work during power outages, it is likely due to the fact your phones have external power requirements for their accessory operation. CB says they have a battery powered source to keep the VOIP phone operating even through a power outage. Frankly I have not tested this though I should since I know salesmen just plain lie or at least do not tell the whole truth. Also CB converts the internet signal to a hardwired Ethernet signal at their conrol panel, which in our case they installed in the basement. They ran an Ethernet cable to our 2nd floor where we have the router which controls our PCs. So the entire conversion was rather painless.

TWC on the other hand still runs their hard-wired cable most places. If they now have fiber optic they do not run it directly into the house in most locations. We had TWC for a lot of years. Overall their service was pretty good, but we felt in the outer suburbs we were being robbed. TWC runs their cable though a variety of connections, called splitters, to feed your house. In the case of Internet, they give you a connection into what iw called a cable modem which converts their signal to a standard Ethernet connection which you can plug into a PC. Of course today they can also provide a wireless Internet PC modem connection.

I feel CB Fioptics system is more sophisticated. But I also feel it is more expensive to install. So if you get equivalent rates from CB and TWC and CB agrees not to charge for installation, I would tend to go with them. Over time, I feel they are in the best position to keep their rates in line.

[progmac]

i've had them both and greatly prefer TW. CB DSL was so slow i couldn't watch youtube videos. fioptics was not available.

[kjbrill]

Originally Posted by progmac

i've had them both and greatly prefer TW. CB DSL was so slow i couldn't watch youtube videos. fioptics was not available.

I stated right off, if CB does not offer the Fioptics product in your neighborhood go with TWC. The DSL sucks in comparison. If you are strictly cost sensitive, you might put up with DSL but only if you are a very infrequent internet user and have the patience to wait a lot.

[wolden]

We have been very pleased with CB Fiber optics, much better than our previous TW cable. But, the Fiber optics electronic interface panel has died 3 times in one year. We don't pay for the replacement, but it seems pretty shoddy. The repair guy said it is very rare, so I guess we're just lucky.

[kjbrill]

Originally Posted by wolden

We have been very pleased with CB Fiber optics, much better than our previous TW cable. But, the Fiber optics electronic interface panel has died 3 times in one year. We don't pay for the replacement, but it seems pretty shoddy. The repair guy said it is very rare, so I guess we're just lucky.

Our CB interface panel has not died yet, but it does seem to be a little flakey. The TV will just suddenly go dead for a few minutes. Just about the time I am red in the face it will suddenly return and everything is fine. Same for the internet, at times it just sits there and looks at me, then wham it is fine. Haven't noticed a cutout on the phone yet, of course we don't use it much. So far I would not rate CB as definitely superior to TWC, but maybe equal. Get the best price. I am grateful to CB for establishing their fioptics service in our area, as it dropped the monthly service charge considerably compared to TWC. Competition is good.

[bertwrench]

I posted a similar thread a couple of months back, as we moved from Ft. Wright, KY to Anderson TWP, OH. CB didn't offer Fiops in our neighborhood, so we went with TW 30mb a second service. I was pleased with their install. First, they noticed a weak signal at the house and instead of hooking it up and hoping for the best, they immediately put in an order to replace something at the pole in the neighborhood (I think he called it a cap). They then came back out at hooked everything up and said we had a great signal. They did all of that within a three day time span, which I thought was prompt service. The internet service has been great so far. No dropouts and very fast. We use Netflix and it streams great. Downloading movies etc. all works very well.

[23145tp]

We also had both and TWC is better than Cincinnati Bell by far.....

[kjbrill]

Originally Posted by 23145tp

We also had both and TWC is better than Cincinnati Bell by far.....

Are you comparing apples and apples or apples and oranges? Standard telephone service cannot hold a candle to TWC relative to internet speed. TWC's cable service will beat them hands down. But the relatively new CB Fioptics service, which uses a fiber optic cable for distribution instead of copper, offers the potential for even greater throughput. You need to be sure your are evaluting equivalent services. I am composing this on CB's Fioptic service, and it is typically faster than anything I had from TWC. However, note I said typcally. For some unknown reasons it will flake in and out. So far it has not been irritating enough for me to consider switching back to TWC. And than what would I do, ask them to give me a guaranteed 24/7 response time? I am sure they probably have such a program, at about 3 times what I am currently paying.

[mike1003]

What about cable TV costs between CB and TW?

Our TW cable bill has gone through the roof. Yes, we have 3 premium channels..HBO, Showtime and Starz.

I hate paying for channels we never use...Children's-religious-, etc. Someone should just allow us to pick and choose what we really want.