Review by Zenit  - Location: Purcellville,Loudoun,VA
- Cost: $135 per month (12 month contract)
Good "Fast & Reliable Connection, Good Phone Service"
Bad "Installation Problems, Billing Issues, Rental Prices, Price Hikes"
Overall "The Only Choice in many Areas -Better than obsolete DSL, good luck with support/billing"
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(ratings match consensus)
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Update 9/29/13:
Well, rate hikes! Our bill has gone up from $135 to $165. The rent for the TV equipment is unreasonable. 1 standard HD box, 1 DCT700 SD box, and 2 DTAs is costing $25!
$165 for Performance, and the plain package of Digital TV is way too high. I know people who are getting Blast and DVRs at this price point. (Wait until they get their hikes!)
Time to negotiate with Comcast...
Dropping the value for the money rating, for the time being.
Update 7/10/13:
Still with the same service. Comcast recently changed the bandwith limit so our Performance package is a consistent 22Mbit down, 4.5Mbit up, down from 25mbit down. The quality of the connection is fine - decent latency and no slowdowns at peak times. The Digital Voice is reliable and has excellent clarity.
Verizon has begun to construct FIOS here, they will probably skip over most of the town, which means Comcast will continue to get our money. If FIOS becomes available in our subdivision, we will probably switch - that depends on VZ making an equivalent deal or better.
I noticed Comcast's newer promotions include a DVR at our price level. As usual, new customers get better deals than existing.
Update 4/14/13:
Still with the same services, no issues have arisen. Comcast renewed our promotional pricing, so we continue to pay $125 + rental fees for the TV boxes. They have started charging for the SD boxes, so we will be returning those. Comcast TV really is not competitive.
The Internet service has improved with time, with the removal of PowerBoost the speeds are a steady 2.5MB/sec down, 4mbit up. Seems that peering agreements have also improved. The IPv6 deployment has been completed in our area.
Nothing has changed with the phone - works as it should.
Now for the (minor) issues:
Billing has issues from time to time, dropping autopay and resulting in late bills.
TV Services are expensive, not too good channel selection, overpriced equipment rental.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------Origi nal Review------------------------------------------
Well, lets start of with the positive. The connection has been very fast and reliable. The Performance tier delivers a consistent speed of 1.8MB/sec, with powerboost it comes out to 2.4-2.8MB/sec. Upload is a steady 4mbit/sec. DOCSIS3 has practically eliminated the problem of congestion. Latency is generally low, however there have been some times of poor routing - this gets resolved (Poor Peering arrangements). Our previous ISP was Verizon, on their aging DSL. The 3mb/sec DSL was perfectly reliable, which is not a small miracle considering how VZ has abandoned their copper plant. The Comcast provided line is so much faster than the old DSL line - I don't look back at all.
The Phone service has worked fine, no complaints.
The TV product is aging. Comcast LOVES rental fees, and other fees. Why cant we buy our equipment outright like the rest of the world? The only reason we don't have a DVR is cost - its astronomical at $17 a month. Standard HD box is $9 a month. Additional SD box? $5 on your bill. The program guide is the same old Motorola system from 1999, very few changes. The Comcast Universal Remote is horrible compared to the DirecTV remote due to some odd glitches. (Turns on devices 1-by-1 rather than sending the signal all at once, a problem if you put down the remote too soon!) The only positive? The TV has been insanely reliable, never going out in the 1 year of service we have had.
Billing issues have been a constant pain, nearly monthly something gets screwed up (i.e DVR fee when we dont have a DVR, Package Price changing out of the blue, rental fee increases for no reason). Don't bother with Comcast's standard support - they are useless. Use the direct forum here.
Installation was a pain also. First tech was a contractor, refused to run RG6 to our Office upstairs and instead put the EMTA/Gateway in the living room far away from the hardwired PCs. (Brilliant) Second tech comes out (actual Comcast employee) and runs the RG6 in 15 minutes. He also replaces the Gateway with a standard EMTA (Arris 722G) at my request. This should not had required 2 Tech visits.
Overall? Internet is fantastic, Phone just works, and the TV product is aging in the modern era, an expensive core product. Just good luck with Support!
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