Florida Cable - Experiences (Orlando, Ocala: credit, home, live in)

[KYBob]

I was wondering what experiences people have had with Florida Cable - good and bad.

[dontaskwhy]

Do you mean cable companies in general or a specific cable provider ??

[KYBob]

There is a cable company called Florida Cable that services parts of central Florida.

[Hartwick]

Brighthouse Communications, a subsidiary of Time-Warner Communications, services much of Central Florida. Offers so[me bundling packages, products, and service. While not cheap, at least you have reliable RoadRunner broadband at your choice of speeds; wide variety of cable television options; and internet, unlimited telephone service...all very reliable.

Dish Network and Direct Television also serve Central Florida, but if you live in a development, one or the other service will not be allowed in. There is also Embarq cable which used to be called something else. They only offer broadband, if I'm correct.

In On Top of the Wold, and in Stone Creek, in Ocala, Florida, they have a "monopoly" with their DCM Cable service. It's basically Dish Network, re-distributed over their lines. They also offer Broadband services, at you choice of speeds( hardly the "appropriate word" - speed!. They offer one SLOW speed, free, but it's really slow. The "faster" connections are incorrect in using the word "faster." Televison service is almost daily interupped by loss of satellite signal...a rain storm, thunder, a bird flying in the sky, a blowing leaf...you get the idea. But, to their credit, they do have some great service techs, who although they only serve two sub-divisions, are nearly iinstantly available should you have a problem

Other cable services have tried to move into the Ocala and surrounding areas, but only Brighthouse is worth considering if it's avaiable where you live.

Good luck.

[dontaskwhy]

I use Cox communications for cable TV/internet at my home in Ocala.

[Dax13]

I have Brighthouse for cable/internet as well. I am not a fan of satellite after listening to my neighbors about outages, overgrown trees blocking reception, and such. Brighthouse is reliable and offers ON Demand programming that is not available on satellite. As I understand it, satellite's Weather Channel delivery doesn't give you true "local on the eights". Brighthouse also offers a channel out of Orlando that is like a "local" CNN Headline News, 24/7. I enjoy the on demand programming from that channel that showcases "Fla on a tankful" ( day trips ), cooking shows, and other highlights. Their internet is great as well..and they offer wireless...wonderfully fast. ......@dontaskwhy-> I have heard Cox throttles your bandwidth..Is that true-?

[dontaskwhy]

I haven't encountered any "throttling" of my internet with COX. I am not a big bandwith user, only have the 1.5 mbs connection currently. Can't say with any certaintly if there are any restrictions.

[KathyA11]

Originally Posted by KYBob

I was wondering what experiences people have had with Florida Cable - good and bad.

If you're moving from another area of the country and want to follow your home sports teams, satellite is really your only option. Comcast (which covers the area of Marion County where we live) doesn't offer a regional sports channel, and doesn't offer Extra Innings (as a diehard Yankee fan, that's unacceptable to me).

We went with DirecTV, which we'd had back home in NJ, and have found that the brief outages due to storms aren't any worse than what we experienced back in NJ.

[danbaseball]

I have DISH Network for Cable - in 2 months now I have had reliable service, no outages (and theres been a few good storms). I have COX for internet, I do not reccomend them. It took ~ 1 week from the time they said they would install it to actually come in and install it, and my actual connection speed varies on the time of day (sure, I get 1mb/s at 2 a.m., but at 9 p.m. its more like 400kb/s if i'm lucky). I wish I would have gotten DSL instead.

[morif]

Hartwick....

I believe you are incorrect when stating that one must only receive either Dish Network or Directv in some developments. They are both over the air antennae systems and according to the FCC it is illegal to prevent anyone from receiving over the air signals. It is much different when it comes to cable however since it is transmitted through wires and not over the air to the customer.

I had to deal with the satellite antennae issue in our development. I was the restrictive covenants chairman and had to address this issue directly. Our covenants prohibits antennaes, which according to the FCC is also protected right. The developer who put together the covenants had to back off from prohibiting any type of over the air antennae, with the exception of ham radio antennaes.

Also, I have seen both Dish Network and Directv dishes in Stone Creek during my visits there.