Houston stuck in stone age for broadband internet? (San Diego, Earth: apartment, how much)

[vijaik]

Hi Everyone,

I am relocating to Houston from Pennsylvania (Exton - Philly suburb) and the choice of broadband internet providers in Houston seems to be pretty poor.

First off, here is what I am comparing with:

Verizon FiOS 15 Mbps Down 2 Mbps Up @ 39.95 p.m with a 12 month contract.

The apartment community I am moving to seems to have contracted with Phonoscope for cable. They are asking

44.99 for 3 Mbps Down and 512 Kbps Up.

TWC or SBC DSL or Earthlink does not seem to be available. In any case TWC is pretty darn expensive.

It seems to me that Houstonites seem to be willing to get ripped off for very little. Any thoughts?

If anyone has a suggestion on broadband providers other than these, I would very much welcome recommendations!

thanks,

Vijai.

[H-TownBoy]

From what I hear, Houston will be fitted city wide for cheap broad band wireless within about a year for about 12 bucks service. I think Earthlink was the successful bidder.

[vijaik]

Well, the problem is, if you want to do non-trivial stuff such as using a VoIP phone, then I am not sure how much help you can get from a wifi connection.

But then still, the upside is that there is going to be so much competition that the current high & mighties will have to climb down or at least offer significantly enhanced services to be able to compete. Which is always a good thing!

We will see how things go ... I might end up going with a basic phone line with the hated phone company and get the higher DSL line and then couple that with my VoIP phone. Talk about convoluted!

Vijai.

[DJboutit]

I have road runner I use to get 590k download & 30k a sec upload now I get 450k download 30k upload for cable road runner is slow. Coax is the best 1200k download 75k upload $55 a month we need coax internet here bad. US is about 3 to 5 years behind europe & some of Asia over there everyone gets whats coax gets or better.

[i am just me]

SBC is ATT now, and their dsl starts at like 14.99...there is also verizon dsl in some places

http://www.att.com/gen/general?pid=6431

http://www22.verizon.com/residential/

[domoto]

Ok. let me start off here, I lived in Japan for many years, but left 2 years ago. I was getting 50 mbps up/10 mbs down for $45.00 equiv. in yen. for ADSL through a phone jack. I got to San Diego, and got cable dsl which ran me 9 mbps down for $44.95. This was just mid-grade service. 12 mbps is $60.95. There is something seriously wrong in Houston, a huge city full of suckers whom seem not care bout internet speeds. WTF.

[Mom2Feebs]

Oh yes, we're all suckers here. That must be it.

I pay $29 for RoadRunner, actually now known as Comcast since the merger with TWC. It comes in 6 or 8 mbps. It's fast enough.

Phonoscope, huh? Oy. I feel for you.

[Mr. Football]

Fision is test marketing in Cypress. They offer Digital Fiber Entertainment with TV, VOIP and Super High-Speed Internet (20 mb upload/download).

[DJboutit]

We need Cox here 1200 to 1500 down 75 to 85 up for about $55 that is there basic service that kicks I wish mid level Comcast would get that speed. In general Houston is pretty slow for internet speed just have to wait in see what Comcast does over the next 6 months to a year

[pacific_trader]

I am really looking forward to citywide broadband access. I love wifi, hate being bound to my Comcast line.