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Review by GeNomer See Profile

  • Location: Indianapolis, Marion, IN, USA
  • Cost: $97 per month
  • Install: about 4 days
Pretty good speed for cable internet, significant increase in reliability over the last 2 years. Friendly support staff.
It is a bit pricey, but not uncompetitively so. Limited by Hybrid Fiber-Coax topology.
Overall leagues ahead of any other provider in the Indianapolis area. Still has room for improvement though.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

I've had Bright House for just shy of 3 years. I stared out TV and Internet. I currently have just internet. As with any Cable or phone provider, advertised rates fail to include equipment, taxes, franchise fees, etc... Best way to get and accurate monthly rate is to call and ask. Base rates, taxes and franchise fees typically will vary depending on location, so if you call and tell them your address and what services you are interested in specifically, they can calculate an accurate quote.

Original order had a mistake that the installer caught. He was able to call in and get someone to correct things on my account. I was VERY impressed with the installer and all subsequent technicians that have been out in the last 3 years. Bright House will use a mixture of in-house technicians employed by them and contractors for jobs. Typically simpler things will be assigned to contractors and more difficult issues or jobs will be given to in-house guys. I've had several of both out and they were all great.

Customer service and tech support are pretty good. They seem very friendly when I call them, although all the scripted small talk stuff is pretty tiresome. If you have a technical issue, especially with internet or phone, I recommend requesting to speak with their Tier 3 support. Customer service and lower tech support reps are very friendly and they try their best, but really aren't capable to help much.

TV service is very improved over the last few years. When I was first installed, there were moderate problems stemming from antiquated equipment and problems with return signal on their network. I was installed with a Scientific Atlanta 8300 HD-DVR. It is from 2003. They still use these and I highly recommend that if you get one that you demand a newer model. They may resist, but you have to be insistent. The 8300's are junk. All of my video service issues went away when I got mine swapped for a Cisco 8600 HD-DVR. I also tried out their 6 tuner Arris DCX3600M DVR (advertised as e-DVR or enhanced DVR). I would recommend this if you watch a lot of shows that air at the same time. Channel selection is top-notch. I could nit-pick about a few obscure channels that I'd have liked to see, but I understand that the cost of BHN adding them to their lineup would probably not be justifiable.

Price for TV service is brutal. I'm sorry, but it is. It is competitive with other TV providers, and I don't feel like BHN and other providers are really at much fault for this, but my main gripe is the way BHN and many other providers approach it. The biggest culprit is re-transmission fees, which local channels will charge to carriers. You will see this on your bill as Local Broadcast Fee and Regional Sports Fee. These fees are the reason I dropped my TV service. They are listed as fees instead of services so that they are not subject to promotional rates. So BHN can and will increase your bill even though you may be locked into a promotional rate for 1 or 2 years. I understand that their carriage costs go up all the time and understand when the price for services gets raised, but sneaking in rate increases as "fees" really rubbed me the wrong way.

Internet service is very good. BHN makes a very good effort to constantly improve throughput, latency, and reliability on their network. In my first year with the service I had a few issues, mostly caused by outages on their network. This has improved significantly, especially in the last year. Reliability is leagues better than anything I've experienced before and is probably the thing I am most impressed with on their service. When I first got service in 2012 the highest throughput they offered was 40mbps download and they currently offer 150. On the other hand, their offerings for upload are very lacking with 10mbps as the best they can do currently. Online gaming will suck up that bandwidth, especially on the latest generation of consoles with the options they have for broadcasting gameplay. It's a flaw in the Hybrid Fiber Coax network that most cable companies use, including BHN, and something that really compares negatively to fiber to the home providers out there.

Latency on their network is good for a cable provider, typically between 10 and 30ms in network, again not up to scratch with an all fiber network. Of course anything goes once it’s out of BHN’s network, but there usually isn’t much they can do for that. It should be noted that there are not any widely available fiber providers in Indianapolis and that BHN latency compares very favorably with other Indianapolis providers. Currently, a lot of BHN internet traffic will use the Time Warner Cable backbone, so take that as you will.

BHN rental modems are good but not great. I’ve had a Ubee DVW3201B, Motorola SBG6580 and an Arris DG1670. If you will be renting equipment, I recommend the Arris, unless you need port forwarding or use VPN on your computer, in which case the Motorola is far superior. The Arris was 802.11 N dual band, while the Motorola and Ubee were 802.11 N single band. I currently use my own modem and router.

Pricing on BHN internet seems high as well. It’s expensive but very good. If you know what you’re doing you can save $10 a month by buying your own modem and router. Modem rental is $4. If you plan on using your own modem, check their website or call and ask to make sure it’s compatible. If you do not know how a router works or how to set it up, they do offer a very good wireless service for $6 a month. They can even add in extra access points, but I never tried this because my house is pretty small. So yes, their internet is pricey, but you get what you pay for and in my experience with BHN you are paying for very good, reliable internet service and very helpful, very friendly and very fast tech support.

Also, if you need tech support, they have a tech monitor the DSL reports Bright House forums and he is very good. Shout out to BHNtechXpert!

member for 11.1 years, 325 visits, last login: 7.7 years ago
updated 9 years ago