Best TV/Internet and cell phone provider in Portland? (rent, home)

[Ochobene]

I'll be moving to portland at the end of November from NY and was wondering what providers do you suggest? I will be working from home (apt in Nob Hill) if that helps at all.

Thank you in advance!

[Nell Plotts]

I use Verizon basically because I am a legacy customer and am too lazy to try other vendors. My friends suggest Consumer Cellular for best deal. AT&T is also popular.

Cable service is Comcast, no avoiding them.

For fast internet I understand Comcast is best. I use Qwest 'cause its cheaper.

I DON'T KNOW A SOUL WHO LIKES COMCAST although their installers do arrive on time.

[urbanlife78]

Don't use Century Link when you get here, they will be a waste of your time and might not even hook up your service when they tell you they will hook it up.

[khyron]

If you will be working from home in some fashion that requires Internet access, then you really only have one choice...and it's a poor one but you can make it work. Here's my advice based on experience doing exactly this:

Despite a few other options like DSL from CenturyLink or wireless from Clear or someplace like Stephouse, unfortunately the most solid and reliable high speed option you will have is Comcast cable. They're an awful company and it hurts to have to support them, but you can make it painless. The key is getting a "business" account with them rather than a "residential" one.

When you sign up for Comcast Business just get the very cheapest most basic service, it will be fine (seriously, you can videoconference a ton and Skype with six people and run cloud backups and play videogames in your spare time and it will more than suffice). Definitely opt for your own modem and router, and don't rent from them (that option is cost-negative in less than a year). They can recommend a good modem to buy, and you should choose a router of your own liking...just get both from someplace like Amazon or Fry's. The installer will make your modem work, just as long as it's on their approved list.

You'll get your very own real live person support dude as a business customer, keep their e-mail and contact information handy. If you ever have downtime (unlikely) they will be reachable and responsive and it will get fixed fast. You won't ever have to worry about random slowdowns during peak hours, like all residential customers do. Everything will pretty much just work, and stay fast, so you can focus on work and other stuff. You'll also never be shaped or capped.

If you strongly dislike Comcast's business practices with customer data, or just don't feel like having them snoop on your traffic (like all cable companies, they do) you can get yourself a private VPN account for less than $4 a month from an outfit like Private Internet Access. You can turn it on and off at whim whenever you feel like being more private from your ISP, and you can log into it either on an individual device or at your router for the whole house.

Comcast Business: Business Internet, Business Phone Services, Ethernet Services - Comcast Business

Private Internet Access: https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/

You really don't want to waste your time on "residential" service from Comcast at all. There will be promo rates and bandwidth numbers that make it sound enticing but you will end up getting far less speed than advertised and you'll be paying within a couple dollars a month of the business class price as soon as the promo expires. This is really the best option.

[khyron]

I don't watch TV so I don't have a recommendation for that, but for cell phones Verizon and T-Mobile generally garner positive feedback from Portland users that I know. AT&T is functional, but generally garners more spite and frustration from the people I talk to who have used all three.