Palmer Lake internet and tv service? (sales, house, inspection)

[pablo_me]

Hi Fellow Coloradons!

I'm moving to Palmer Lake.

What is the best internet service pricewise? I prefer not to have a telephone landline.

We love football and will likely go with DirectTV NFL Ticket?

Any thoughts or advice is appreciated.

Thanks

[treedonkey]

I was wondering the same thing. I'll be working remotely from PL and will demand the fastest and most relaibel ISP possible. Not too concerned about TV, but it would be good to know. Hopefully someone may chime in with helpful info.

[Charles]

You might not have too many choices. You probably get comcast. If not, try Kellin.

[Swampy101]

Kellin may or may not be available depending on your exact location. PL is a mountainous area with lots of it being boxed in by the hills. Kellin is a line of sight service so if you can't see the tower, you can't use them. If you have an exact address already, you can call them and they can go out and see if it's available. Colorado High Speed Internet Wireless T1 Voice DSL Broadband.

There is limited DSL and the speeds may not be that great in the area as well. I have DSL available, but the CO is only fed with a T1 so max you'll ever see is 1.5mb down and maybe 800k up. I'm sure I'm sharing the T1 with multiple people and am only seeing about 900k down and 600k up.

I believe comcast is working it's way into the area, but not sure if they're in PL yet.

Direct TV shouldn't be a problem there, but you should already know that surrounding areas around the house could block your signal as it's line of sight service as well. So, the hills could block your line or you may have trees in your way, depends on your particular property.

I have Dish and generally don't have any problems with it unless there's a thick, wet heavy snow falling.

[treedonkey]

I just spent about 30 minutes at comcast.com and on the [hone with a customer service rep and here's what I found out:
1) The CS rep said with absolute certainty that they do offer service in Palmer Lake. I tried to explain that parts PL has some pretty quirky properties and I'd be surprised if they're all being serviced by comcast, but she insisted that they do offer it there, at at least to my address which is on the east side of the lake proper.
2) They offer a package for $103 for one year, which included cable internet (at 8mbps), TV (with 80 channels +some on-demand content), and IP phone service. It remains a mystery what that will cost after a year though. (phone and cable companies seem to think we have no interest in long term cost and just want to rush us into a plan, so beware)
3) If you choose not to do that package, or if, like me, you just have no interest in any one part of that package (like TV) the breakdown cost is: $52/62 per month for Internet (depending on speed) and then another $20-30 for the phone, plus other fees that are waived with the package. So typically, it ends up costing the same, or even less, to just spring for the whole package and ingore whatever you're not interested in. When I mentioned the downfall of that notion, the rep did say they could maybe make a deal on just 2/3 parts of the package, but she would not tell me what that deal might be until after I signed up for an account. Typical.

At any rate, the good news is that Comcast is likely offered wherever you are in PL. The bad news is that comcast sucks. The worse news is that most other media providing companies suck even worse. Did that sound to cynical? If so, sorry, it's just that I hate these media giants that try to get us all to pay a flat rate to pig out at their buffet of products instead allowing us to pick and choose what we want for a reasonable price.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by treedonkey

I just spent about 30 minutes at comcast.com and on the [hone with a customer service rep and here's what I found out:
1) The CS rep said with absolute certainty that they do offer service in Palmer Lake. I tried to explain that parts PL has some pretty quirky properties and I'd be surprised if they're all being serviced by comcast, but she insisted that they do offer it there, at at least to my address which is on the east side of the lake proper.
2) They offer a package for $103 for one year, which included cable internet (at 8mbps), TV (with 80 channels +some on-demand content), and IP phone service. It remains a mystery what that will cost after a year though. (phone and cable companies seem to think we have no interest in long term cost and just want to rush us into a plan, so beware)
3) If you choose not to do that package, or if, like me, you just have no interest in any one part of that package (like TV) the breakdown cost is: $52/62 per month for Internet (depending on speed) and then another $20-30 for the phone, plus other fees that are waived with the package. So typically, it ends up costing the same, or even less, to just spring for the whole package and ingore whatever you're not interested in. When I mentioned the downfall of that notion, the rep did say they could maybe make a deal on just 2/3 parts of the package, but she would not tell me what that deal might be until after I signed up for an account. Typical.

At any rate, the good news is that Comcast is likely offered wherever you are in PL. The bad news is that comcast sucks. The worse news is that most other media providing companies suck even worse. Did that sound to cynical? If so, sorry, it's just that I hate these media giants that try to get us all to pay a flat rate to pig out at their buffet of products instead allowing us to pick and choose what we want for a reasonable price.

You might get comcast at your home. I tried this too. (I live east of Roller Coaster, south of County Line, west of 83, and north of 105.) I called comcast and some sales guys would tell me I could get it. I'd call back and a different guy would say no. I think they have to dig deep to be sure. Turns out I can't get it but my neighbors a couple hundred yards west of me can.

The only thing that sucks more than comcast (besides Ipods and Itunes) is DirecTV as you have to have a box for every set and since it is digital it takes a long time (greater than 0.1 seconds is a long time) to change channels. I'm stuck with Falcon broadband (wireless from the King's Deer golf course) and I get like 1.2 Mbps which sucks.

[treedonkey]

Originally Posted by Charles

I called comcast and some sales guys would tell me I could get it. I'd call back and a different guy would say no. I think they have to dig deep to be sure.

Yes, that was exactly my feeling as well. But, i just remembered I have a friend who works for comcast as a service tech. I asked him (nicely, with sugar) to dig into it for me. I'll let you know what he tells me, although, as Charles points out, results may vary down the street.

As for what sucks the most, I think that's one of those unwinnable debates (like mac vs win or whether or not baseball is boring). So I'll just say that all media providers suck to some degree or another.

At any rate, thank you Charles for the helpful info.

[treedonkey]

Okay - final update (as if anyone is actually reading this).

My buddy who is a service tech and comacast says if you use the comcast website to look up service in your area and if it says you have it, then you have it. He says don't believe the phone operators but that the website is correct. (I'm still a little doubtful, but I'm not the one who works for comcast) He also said that if it comes up as not available for your address but you know Comcast services nearby residences, then you can arrange to have a first-hand site inspection, where a service tech will actually come to your house and determine the feasibility of providing cable to you, based on the location of nearby cabling.

Hope that helps - James

[Charles]

Originally Posted by treedonkey

Okay - final update (as if anyone is actually reading this).

My buddy who is a service tech and comacast says if you use the comcast website to look up service in your area and if it says you have it, then you have it. He says don't believe the phone operators but that the website is correct. (I'm still a little doubtful, but I'm not the one who works for comcast) He also said that if it comes up as not available for your address but you know Comcast services nearby residences, then you can arrange to have a first-hand site inspection, where a service tech will actually come to your house and determine the feasibility of providing cable to you, based on the location of nearby cabling.

Hope that helps - James

I had this done. This is called a site survey. They determined that it was too expensive to lay the trunk lines out to our street. Our neighbors maybe 1/4 mile to 1/2 away have Comcast. I hate DirecTV too....almost as much as I hate Ipods.

[treedonkey]

Quick update, if it still pertains...

I'm all settled in here in Palmer Lake now. I called comcast on arrival and they immediately came out and setup Digital Phone and Internet for me with a wireless router (extra charge for setup if you donlt want to do itself) and I have had absolutely no problems with the phone or internet connection yet - I use both almost all day everyday. As a bonus, there's no distance charges for the phone, since it's digital though the cable lines.

Oh yeah, one caveat to warn you about -- if you have comcast service your home for cable internet and/or phone, but NOT TV, then they will clamp off your line so you get no cable signal at all, including the free broadcast channels - which means you'll get no TV after January, when the analog signals go away. I believe you could call them up and argue and probably get them to allow it (since I don't think they have a right to block my free digital signal access), but I haven't done so since I don't feel like watching TV anyways, so I can't say for sure.

I think they figure it's a non-issue most of the time since 95% of the people who have comcast for other things would want to add on basic cable for a little bit more.