Advice on Cable / Broadband / Phone packages (Cary, Chapel Hill: apartment complex, chapel, neighborhood)

[Comedian]

currently we live in UK and there are excellent deals for bundled packages with Cable TV, Broadband and Phone. Are there similar packages available in the Cary area or is it all separate ? any suppliers have better customer care than others? any to be avoided at all costs?

also, what sort of cost should I expect to pay per month for these services

thanks in advance

[North_Raleigh_Guy]

I think Time Warner Cable serves most areas here in the Triangle. They bundle televsion, internet, and phone services. They only seem to advertise their teaser rates that are only good for the first 12 months so I don't know what the cost is after that.

I have their cheapest cable package (not digital, not HD) and it costs $11.50 a month., but then again I only get 15 stations. I think there lowest digital service costs about $59.99. I also have Earthlink Broadband that is billed through TIme Warner Cable, but I called Earthlink Directly to set up the servcie and pay $41.99 a month. I don't know what Time Warner charges for their digital phone service but I use a company called Vonage and pay $30.00 a month (includes taxes and fees) for unlimited local and long distance calling. The price for this vonage service also includes caller ID, call waitng, voicemail, three way calling, and call forwarding. So all in all including taxes and fees I pay around $85.00 a month for all three services combined.

But muot people have bigger cable packages that are more expensive so it all depends on what you are looking for.

Hope that helps a little!

[alice_61]

NRG,
Thanks for that info. I was interested in what Internet services are available in Chapel Hill.

Thanks,
Alice

[magicmk]

I've heard ads on the radio where Time Warner has a deal packaging phone service (something that is similiar to Vonage, I presume), one of the digital cable packages, and high speed internet for "30 bucks each" - about $90 a month.

Bellsouth also has some packages that bundle phone service and DSL internet together also.

Most areas in the Triangle are pretty well "wired", so you should have a choice of either DSL or cable internet access no matter which community you are in.

And then there's dial-up, which of course, presents a myriad of choices... but being that it's dial-up... well, I won't go there.

[AnotherRelocatingNYer]

I just recently subscribed to the Time Warner HD DVR service - here's my take on it after a couple of weeks...

The video quality is pretty lousy - terrible pixelation on non-hd channels. I've had Time Warner back a few times and they insist I have a great signal. So I guess that's it - this is the best we're going to do.

For all you Cablevision folk - the difference will be noticeable.

DVR interface/functionality is real good (it's a shame the quality sucks). Another bad thing - only 40 hours non hd channels (if you tape a few HD shows - you're finished).

Unfortunatley, I think they are the only game in town. Also, my advice for the internet - check the wireless before you fork over $50/month. If I scan the wireless in my neighborhood, I can pick up 5 connections.

Hope this helps...

[Comedian]

thanks everyone for some good quality information - it is so useful having a forum to exchange this type of knowledge as it saves substantial time and effort in doing the research

[magicmk]

While on the topic of cable, I've been looking into moving to Knightdale and the apartment complex I'm looking at says they are serviced by "Mediaworks". I've never heard of this cable service before, I thought Time-Warner pretty much serviced everyone in the area. Is anyone familiar with Mediaworks? Are the channel offerings and service any good?

[brightmidnight]

Is Earthlink's cable service as good as Time Warner's? I want to switch to Earthlink because it's less expensive, but my boyfriend thinks Earthlink won't be as good of a quality. This is in Carrboro, but I'd be interested in anyone's reviews of Earthlink.

Thanks!

[JackieRTP]

Originally Posted by magicmk

Most areas in the Triangle are pretty well "wired", so you should have a choice of either DSL or cable internet access no matter which community you are in.

I live in Morrisville and I was SO surprised when I called BellSouth (now AT&T) and they did not offer DSL where I lived in Morrisville. So I went with Time Warner.

[StoneOne]

Originally Posted by AnotherRelocatingNYer

For all you Cablevision folk - the difference will be noticeable.

Couldn't agree with you more. I've been living outside the U.S. for about four years, so I haven't had to deal with cable/internet issues here in the states for a while. The last time I had cable service was through Cablevision in N. Virginia. What I had 4-5 years ago was considerably better than what I have with Time Warner now, price and quality-wise.