Comcast Houston Hikes Broken DownAT&T pleased with rate increases... ( old news - 09:03AM Tuesday Oct 02 2007) Tipped by whocares  Comcast just raised rates on Houston residents by about 6.1%, though local residents say some users are seeing higher rate increases than others, depending on the packages they chose. Comcast, who took over the network from Time Warner Cable earlier this year, says the hikes were necessary to offset their $200 million investment in the market this year. The Houston Chronicle sorts out the new increases for locals: Comcast's basic Digital Starter package went down by a penny a month, but other digital packages increased by between $5.01 and $12.01 in Houston. The monthly cost of a la carte movie channel rates for HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, The Movie Channel and Starz went from $10 to $19.95. The company's most popular package, Digital Classic, increases by $5.01 a month. While implementing larger increases for digital packages, Comcast dropped the cost to have cable TV installed by $4 and the cost to install a new outlet by $2. The company also cut the monthly digital cable box rental fee from $6.75. It dropped the monthly equipment rental charge for DVRs by $3.01, although the cost for the high-definition DVR service increases to $12.95 from a range of $6.95 to $9.99. AT&T is taking the opportunity to remind some locals that they now have a telcoTV alternative. "We're happy they're raising prices. That's good for us," said Ed Cholerton, AT&T vice president and general manager for the Houston market.
|
 
ieolus
Support The Clecs
join:2001-06-19
Duluth, GA | $200 million investment Are there details as to the $200 million investment they sited as the cause for the hikes?
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"Speak for yourself "Chadmaster" - lesopp | |
| Zoly
join:2004-01-04
Houston, TX
| Price Hikes happened even before! Even when TWC controlled Houston's market, price hikes happened several times, but what is going on now is even worse then ever.
I had cable service here in Houston for 6 years. For about 2 years ago TWC decided to do some upgrades in my area, when they completed my digital service went down to hell! Constant drops of the signal on all HBO, Showtime channels, most of VoD, as well as CNN International and some HD channels.
They came to fix my service multiple times, they even replaced all cables from the node up to my TV but nothing helped.
I went then on my own and swapped the STB and the problem was mostly sorted out, kind of.
Then they started adding additional fees almost every other 3 months, moving channels in and out, dropping some for good including (CNNi), moving Tennis Channel to so-called Sport package. Why should I pay for that sport package just to get one single Tennis channel when I don't care about any other channel they force me know to buy?
I don't care about football, baseball, basketball... I never watched then and I never will!
Then HD channels started implementing some sort of compression which caused huge amount of pixelation on all fast movement scenes.
Then when I finally called back in January about the quality and increased prices we pay, the CS lady said that "there is nothing I can do". I have been loyal customer for 6 years and they could not give me any promo/special price (I had all digital packages including HBO and SHOWTime).
In response I said that then I have no choice but to switch to U-verse. I could not believe what I have heard after that!!! She said "Whatever... Is there anything else I can assist you?"
The word "Whatever" just made my day! LOL I instantly called and signed up for u-verse. It had been installed 1.5 weeks later after I called.
Now I have U-400 package with HBO/Cinemax/Showtime/Starz plus never touched by me many Sports channels and not perfect HD service, plus DVR, the Internet and all for $138 per month, the same price I paid for TWC/Comcast and gotten not all channels included in U-400.
I have to be honest that I don't even watch 90% of what U-verse has. No one physically can watch all 400 channels. LOL
But U-verse is not ready yet. They do not have the Tennis channel.
HD quality (especially on locals) is pretty bad, though they say that new codecs should change that. WE SHALL SEE!
Only 1 HD stream per household... | |
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KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK | Re: Price Hikes happened even before! Two Words:
Dish Network  | |
| | | elister
join:2006-07-17
Seattle, WA | Re: Price Hikes happened even before! Unless you live in an apartment complex. Hello 200$ deposit to put up an antenna, yet along a freaking dish. | |
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JakCrow
join:2001-12-06
Palo Alto, CA
| Re: Price Hikes happened even before! said by elister :Unless you live in an apartment complex. Hello 200$ deposit to put up an antenna, yet along a freaking dish. It's against the law for them to do that. | |
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cdru
Go Colts
Premium,MVM
join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN | Re: Price Hikes happened even before! Maybe, or maybe not. It depends on where you are locating the dish. | |
| | | | | | FixManTx
Premium
join:2005-02-06
Carrollton, TX
| Re: Price Hikes happened even before! Yeah I'm seeing the difference. Until 3 years ago I had TWC digital cable and Speed channel was included in basic digital service. Since my poor credit prevents me from getting Uverse I had to go with Comcrap, and they want me to pay for a whole 14 or 15 channel sports package just to get Speed. I have no interest whatsoever with football or basketball or all that other nonsense. On second thought, sometimes Fuel has stuff I like, but mostly I watch Speed. With the package and equipment I have it looks like I'll about break even on the price changes.
I don't even consider any dish service. They regularly loose signal when storms roll in, no matter which service or what part of town I'm in, and here in Houston it doesn't take much for a hard rain or full thunderstorm to pop up and block satellite signals. | |
| | jester121
join:2003-08-09
Lake Zurich, IL | There is a Tennis Channel?
Go figure.... | |
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christophertowle
@ti.com
| I am going through the same thing in Houston. I am looking at Dish, but when I go to their builder I am not able to select a HD TV AND a PVR. I can only get a SD TV with a PVR.
Is this possible or is it a user error?
Zoly, Do you play tennis around town? Where and what level do you play? | |
| | | Zoly
join:2004-01-04
Houston, TX | Re: Price Hikes happened even before! No, I do not play. But my roommate does. And now he needs a new person to play with. PM me | |
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treeman
Premium
join:2000-07-15
Mcgaheysville, VA | Too much for Dish Thought about Dish for a moment, till I priced thier gear VIP222 for the 4 HD sets I have would be 1000.00 up front. | |
| | dualsub2006
join:2007-07-18
Newport, KY
 ·Vonage
 ·Insight Communicat..
| Re: Too much for Dish When I first priced DirecTV I came up with a similar number for all of my TVs. Just a bit over $900. I already had Dish and was not at all interested in spending that kind of cash.
Then I called DirecTV. The person got me all sorts of credits and freebies and got my cost to install down to $175 which included my first month of service. He also gave me 3 programming credits that saved me a total of $25 a month for 2 years.
You never know what you will get from either DTV or Dish until you call. All I had to say was "I am interested in switching from Dish" and the dude tripped over himself to save me money and get me to change. It worked. If you call and don't like what the first person offers, decline and call back later. There is wide latitude in what these CSR's can offer you to sign up. | |
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KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK
 ·AT&T Yahoo
·AT&T DSL Service
·Cox HSI
·AT&T Southwest
| Re: Too much for Dish I just surfed over to www.dishnetwork.com and used their Dish Builder.
I pretended you wanted the Everything Pak (America's Top250, plus all HD, plus Showtime(s) HBO(s) Cinemax(s) and Starz(s) networks. Local Networks, Local HD's
I put you had 4 TV's, two HD, two SD. Set you up with 2 DVR's.
Price was $106 a month plus tax for everything. Course you could save $$$ if you didn't need all those movie channels or full packages, etc.
There's a one time setup fee of $49.99 but you will get $49.99 credit back, so....
--
"Regulatory capitalism is when companies invest in lawyers, lobbyists, and politicians, instead of plant, people, and customer service." - former FCC Chairman William Kennard (A real FCC Chairman, unlike the current Corporate Spokesperson in the job!) | |
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treeman
Premium
join:2000-07-15
Mcgaheysville, VA | Re: Too much for Dish See thats the problem I want all the sets to have HD boxes, dont want SD on a HD set | |
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KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK | Re: Too much for Dish Ok I'll adjust. I was making assumptions. | |
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treeman
Premium
join:2000-07-15
Mcgaheysville, VA | Re: Too much for Dish When I use the builder after you get to 3 sets it tell you too call CSR--when I did that they would part with 3 boxes and wanted me to feed the 4th set with the SD output of the dual tuner box | |
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treeman
Premium
join:2000-07-15
Mcgaheysville, VA | Re: Too much for Dish Directv is better it seems as to the amount of boxes you have, when we were in the DC area we had 4 and never any issues | |
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KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK | Yep you're right it says call CSR.
Course you could negotiate with em.  | |
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KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK | You need to look into the starting offers, They set up your whole house for way less then $1000. In fact it's close to free with rebates and stuff. | |
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treeman
Premium
join:2000-07-15
Mcgaheysville, VA | Re: Too much for Dish They don't seem to want to give you 4 boxes for some reason,when I talked to one rep they want too part with only 3 and use the SD output on one box for the 4th HD set | |
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Snowcat
join:2004-02-02
Nashville, TN
·EarthLink
| Re: Too much for Dish said by treeman :They don't seem to want to give you 4 boxes for some reason,when I talked to one rep they want too part with only 3 and use the SD output on one box for the 4th HD set They don't want you to have more than 4 tuners, since the default equipment that is installed can handle that. Since the 622/722 are dual-tuner boxes, they count for 2. You can get more tuners, but you will likely have to pay extra for it. | |
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treeman
Premium
join:2000-07-15
Mcgaheysville, VA | Directv seems easier to deal with most of the time, at least thats what I hear. I would think that the PQ would be the same from either Directv or Dish | |
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treeman
Premium
join:2000-07-15
Mcgaheysville, VA
·Comcast
| Cost Your right about getting the right CSR, thats a real important part of what kind of a deal you get. I can go to Costco and get the Directv STB for 84.00 each (granted it's leased) but that a lot better than 1000.00.Directv may well be commited to becoming a HD leader now for a change, and maybe worth looking at thier package, we had Directv for 8 years in the DC area before we moved from the rat race to the country. Comcast is the internet provider as DSL is not here, and I must admit that when we did a side by side Comcast PQ was better. That may have changed now that they have the new MPEG4 compression not sure. Are you getting good PQ with your setup? | |
| 
morbo
Complete Your Transaction
join:2002-01-22
00000
clubs: | simple solution simple solution: cancel your cable service.
either go without, use an antenna, or go satellite. those are your options. | |
| | jester121
join:2003-08-09
Lake Zurich, IL | Re: simple solution Bitch-n-moan is, sadly, a valid option too. | |
| moonpuppy
join:2000-08-21
Glen Burnie, MD | Interesting.... Cut the price of one time services and jack up the monthly stuff. More money in the end to pay for the cuts on the other. | |
|
No to ESPN
@comcast.net
| What Choise Do I Really Have? I wish that there was another viable option for internet service but too far from Ma Bell for a fast connection and the fiber is going into the neighborhood down the street. My Sprint Broadband Direct died when a building went up and I got RoadRunner which was not that bad. When Comcast took over the speed went up some but I am now experiencing micro-outages. Oh, bitch and moan, ponder the lack of choice and propaganda on the TV. When the micro-outages occur Comcastic becomes Comcraptist.
At least I have my antenna with amplifier for HDTV. | |
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