Would you switch today?

[tencom]

Agreed, 200%.

The main reason is the high cost of fiber cable construction VERIZON is said to be pouring 18 billion dollars into FIOS. ATT is said to be spending about 4.6 billion on there copper/fiber system. It may be costing VERZON over three thousand dollars for each subscriber, It could take VERIZON many years to recover their investment if they don't go bankrupt first.

[CrashCamomilli]

I believe the only way that TWC hears the pitiful cries of their customers is when they no longer have their money each month.  TWC has become complacent with their service, only supplying as much content as they think is profitable.

I welcome ANY competitor to the Milwaukee market, even if it is AT&T.  Even if you don't want their service, just their presence will drive prices down in the Milwaukee area and most likely spurn TWC to take action.

For example:

I grew up about 90 miles north of here, in an area where charter cable and TWC compete.  Charter cable has been offering their all-in-one package for $99.97, so TWC has been running $99.99 to compete with them.  Normal price for TWC's package is $133 up there, but my parents get is cheaper because there is actual competition.

As it stands right now, 70% of the people who have responded have said they would leave TWC for AT&T.  

Personally, I don't know if AT&T will be any better that TWC, but since I don't have the option to use satellite, I'm willing to try anything that's not TWC.

Besides, If it doesn't work out, I can always go back to TWC as a new customer and pay less than I am now.

[gparris]

The only reason why our local TWC office would care if it affects their bottom line and so far, they don't seem to mind...competition would help all of us, including me, who doesn't even live in an AT&T area for service.

As far as what competition will do for me, once Directv launches its satellite for those HD national channels (actually delivering them) and CBS58 finally works WITH Directv for CBSHD delivery, I will sign up if  for service if TWC doesn't get its act together with more HD channels by then.
I had Directv before HD was as prevalent, before Milwaukee had HD local stations and lost it when I went to an apartment while my house was being built and I can get TWC again.

Currently, I am moving Dishnetwork for HT setups with its 30+ HD channel selection, great HD DVR and in Illinois, 4 HD local network availabilty.
Oddly, Comcast has so many more HD channels than TWC, though, its hard to imagine getting satellite there, but the customer is the boss.

[tencom]

According to the Federal Communication Commission the average profit margin for a cable television company is only 8.5% it doesn't seem that with that profit margin you can expect much of a price decrease due to competition in fact with a large drop in a cable companies penetration levels because of competition might result in upward presssure on prices.  Cable needs a large percentage of subscribers in their service area to be economically viable. One factor in recent
years that may have contributed to the rise in cable rates, may have been the presence of satelite television, that took away some of there best customers.
If their is a price war between TWC and ATT the big winner as television goes maybe the sattelite venders because of their lower operating costs compared to wired media. Remember with TWC it will still cost between $15,000 to $20.000 for every mile to install cable, regardless of how many subscribers that are on that route, plus they have to pay pole rent.

[pkphreak]

The only way they will ever make it is if they offer lower prices and better customer service than TWC.  I have wanted satellite for a long time, but I live in a condo and I can't put up a dish.  I will probably switch to get the extra HD channels, lower my bill by $40-$50 a month, and to get the NFL Network.  As far as I'm concerned, if they can't deliver on what they promise, I will switch back to TWC and take advantage of one of their new subscriber packages.  FTTP would be nice, but it's not a show stopper for me.  The cable companies are moving toward the same multicast model, but won't be there for a few years.  Once they do, they will have a lot more capacity on their networks and will be able to offer a lot more HD stations.

[UncleMeat]

I cannot stand ATT's lack of customer service... but I was "forced" to switch to them when TWC could not provided consistent RoadRunner service in my old neighborhood (north side Milwaukee).  My internet connection would drop for days at a time, this was a regular occurance that prevented me from working.  So I had to switch to DSL.

So now I'm dealing with ATT... I suppose it hasn't been all that terrible.  I'd certainly welcome more options.  If they end up coming to Brookfield and TWC doesn't have a deal with NFL network by that time, I will likely switch.  It's killing me to miss the draft coverage this Spring... I'm certainly not going to pay MORE money to TWC and miss some great games this season.

[Mrtanner]

The day I found I was eligible for Uverse, I called and ordered it.  I have had it for less than 72 hours so I'm still getting used to it.  I don't love the service yet, but I'm going to give it a two-month trial before deciding if I'll go back to TWC.

I did not go to ATT for telephone, just television and internet.

I do have to say this.  The Uverse customer service has been exceptional.  The installers were all very professional and treated my home better than I do.  (e.g. They slipped paper booties over their shoes every time they walked in.)  These are all ATT employees who have been through a lot of training.  (Some were more knowledgeable than others.)

I had to call customer service because of an audio/video sync issue.  It took about ten minutes to resolve and the agent told me I'd be getting a $15 credit because of the inconvenience.

[gparris]

Thanks for the reply Mrtanner, I hope you keep AT&T for your HDTV service provider and the excellent service you have had continues.
I asked AT&T if they could to do my house as a trial with two HD feeds, but was told that is not possible at my location at this time, even though my area has phone service with Verizon, but I will wait as long as it takes:
I'm been waiting for TWC to add some HD channels, so it's a "habit" by now.
TWC has not responded to any of my emails about HD channel additions in the light of AT&T's new presence.
No CSR at the call centers or kiosks has any idea when Milwaukee will at least get the HD channels other locations in the country already enjoy like CWHD, StarzHD, CinemaxHD, A&EHD or MHD (MTV, CMT etc. in HD to replace INHD2 lost in January) or even Wealth HD in On-Demand like TWC-San Antonio, TX has
(you should see how many HD channels they have...wow!)
So it's either wait for TWC Milwaukee to add new HD channels or AT&T to service my house first, so far nothing, but at least I will have another option, soon.

[neomaxi]

I don't know why everyone hates TWC...
I've had Dish in the past,  but now have TWC for over 3 years.
Way better service..less outages.. and better HDTV lineup.

Uverse is too new of a technology to even be considered yet.

I've heard alot of horror stories. about UVerse..   Also.. though don't plan on offering two HD DVRS until "sometime" in 2008.. and since we have two HDTV's   I wouln't even consider it....

[gparris]

Now that TWC has added ESPN2HD for the sports fanatics who have complained about not having it for so very long and recently, as of today, the CWHD and MyNtwkHD locals being added, there is no reason for changing to U-Verse any time soon.

As I see it, AT&T went back on their offer for 2-HD streams at a time for this year, offering no real incentive in pricing and those other plans for upgrades have been sent to next year, too.:bang:

The only thing that interests me about providers outside of TWC are the HD movie channels and probably the HGTVHD/FoodHD/Nat GeoHD channels:
For some of that, I have high def discs to watch, at least for now, until TWC signs some more agreements and has more capacity.
I am hopeful that TWC will offer CinemaxHD and StarzHD soon in our area as it does in many other TWC areas and that would suit me fine.

As for the person with more limited requirements for HDTV viewing, U-Verse's one-HD-channel-at-a-time thing is probably okay, like some folks I know who watch occasionally, but expect to play it back on a HD DVR without "power recording"

For those without HDTVs at all, their setup, I am sure, it is great to have some other outlet (pun intended)  outside of TWC or satellite hookups.

U-Verse with a multi-state expansion like they are doing is good, it's not FIOS TV, but close enough for those wanting a change from TWC.

AT&T took the cheap route (no FTTP) and it will pay the price soon enough and that is both bad and sad.

[packman]

Now that it is November, did you stay with it?  Any learnings to share with us?

The day I found I was eligible for Uverse, I called and ordered it.  I have had it for less than 72 hours so I'm still getting used to it.  I don't love the service yet, but I'm going to give it a two-month trial before deciding if I'll go back to TWC.

I did not go to ATT for telephone, just television and internet.

I do have to say this.  The Uverse customer service has been exceptional.  The installers were all very professional and treated my home better than I do.  (e.g. They slipped paper booties over their shoes every time they walked in.)  These are all ATT employees who have been through a lot of training.  (Some were more knowledgeable than others.)

I had to call customer service because of an audio/video sync issue.  It took about ten minutes to resolve and the agent told me I'd be getting a $15 credit because of the inconvenience.

I have DTV and am happy with my 70 channels HDTV, soon to be 100; I have DSL from AT&T and am happy with internet.  I had TWC HD in 2004 where I had overlap their digital cable with DTV, the HD picture was good on TWC channels numbered 500+, the digital channels 200-399 were acceptable but not great, channels 02-74 were down right terrible as I could send SD DTV to my HD and it would look better than the TWC signal for analog channels 02-74.  Snow on the Sci-Fi channel was completely riddiculous, but TWC had that in the analog range.

The installation and initial custom service from TWC were good, but when I decided to disconnect the service was not good; no surprise except they did not try to win me back.  I had to bring the digital cable box back to some building I could not find but maybe that was due to install at my house vs. disconnect is different.

I am not eligible for U-verse where I live in Muskego.  If I could try it or get a sample that overlaps DTV I would try it before making a commitment to go one way or the other.  I heard they offer recording four SD channels at once in their DVR  Wow.
Then I also heard that if you record or watch HD you only get one channel at once.

As an HDTV fan I would expect more and can do two simultaneous recordings already on my DTV HR20.


Some interesting points no one has yet mentioned: AT&T claimed their service is entirely IP-based and they will have VOD and more IP based services.  What and when not specified.  They also claimed that FTTN would guarantee roll-out to condos and apartments where the final right-of-way was owned by someone who had copper wiring.  This has cost savings to them (to not rewire your home), and lowers the investment risk if today's fiber is replaced by a new standard.  I have tons of RG59 in my 30 year old home that I had to replace with RG6 when getting DTV, and likewise have rewired half the phone lines myself so maybe there is something to not running fiber in the house.  Replacing the existing Fiber up on poles would be cheaper and easier than replacing that in your home every five years.

Also not mentioned is that although FiOS runs fiber to your home, they are running QAM architecture just like the cable company.  Although Verizon is offering VOD on IP, the rest is traditional cable and they would have to change a lot if they switch to IP video.  This cut some corners getting to market quickly but could be an issue if they offer new IP services.

[UncleMeat]

I was supposed to have UVerse by now.  I went through some runarounds and I think my mistake was going to an ATT store to sign up.  Turned out it wasn't yet available in my apartment.  2 weeks later, it is.  They will be here just after Thanksgiving to install.

Having 1 HD stream and limited VOD service for now is fine, because it will be $30 less than my current TWC bill.  Also, TWC said that my service will be going up $45 as of January 1st (I have a 1 year discounted rate that expires right along with the rate hike).  So I can pay $155 for TWC or $75 for essentially the same service through ATT.  Hmm...

[PaulKTF]

No because it's just a fad which will be discontinued within 5 years if not sooner.

[Jack 1000]

For me,

No because right now I only have an SDTV and the All in One Package from TWC and haven't had any major problems.  DTV doesn't have the Digital Phone and the High Speed Internet AFAIK.  BUT I still think that if you are a faithful HD customer without the added digital phone and high speed Internet, Dish seems to be a better option.

It is too early to speculate how much more cable competition would lower price and provide better CSR training.  Dish does have the contracted 1 year or two year commitment contracts and there can be an expensive service charge to have an outage repaired.  With TWC it costs nothing.  I know a cable guy that used to work for Dish that now works for cable, and he said that the customer complaints about Dish were just like customer complaints about cable.  It really depends on your home environment, the amount of TV you watch, the pricing structure that you select, and comparing and contrasting dish vs. cable.  But those two sides have been at war since, forever.  It may take the phone companies to bring in the new services.  People may be looking for fresh alternatives over cable or dish and right now, you are stuck with one or the other unless you want OTA and an antenna.

I compared my cable bill before I got All in One with a buddy of mine with Direct TV in the Madison area. (He has NO cable options because he lives in one of those little rinky dinky towns where Dish is the only option.)  At that time, he and I were paying between $90-$95 a month.  I think he was paying the $95 and I was paying $90, but I can't say for sure.  I was concerned about dish's long term commitment contracts and at that time favored TWC I-Control VOD service, which dish didn't have.

I also believe that any "deals" are temporary and that after they run out, regardless of whether you have cable or dish, they will find ways to get your money.  A good point is raised that cable rates may have to be higher than dish rates because they have to run thousands of miles of fiber-optic cable and maintain it.  Dish doesn't have to do that, but what they give you in monthly "savings", you are still charged for service calls and contractual obligations.  So there are points to be considered on both sides.

Jack

[picopir8]

AT&T is not dish, it is tv over your phone lines.

There are no contracts, no hidden fees (3 boxes w/ remotes are included in the price), they offer more SD and more HD than TWC, and their prices are lower than TWC or either dish.