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Best internet service for cord cutting in Austin

5,528 Views | 39 Replies | Last: 3 yr ago by rcannaday
tamc91
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AG
We used to have TW (now Spectrum) and dropped it due to poor customer service and price. Went with Google fiber but never get close to the average or max speeds they advertised and it fluctuates widely. They've replaced the box 3 times.

Looking for a new options for high speed internet so we can also look at cord cutting and going to more of a streaming content model.

Interested in speeds, cost and customer service experience others are seeing. We're in Circle C.
evan_aggie
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AG
Sad to say but you don't have many options. It's either Spectrum, Google, or AT&T. Everyone has their complaints.

We get 100mbps with Spectrum even when paying for 200mbps, but don't need any faster.
Aggieangler93
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AG
I am lucky enough to be in a neighborhood with ATT fiber installed about 3 years ago. I was getting 800mbps last night when I speed tested. I am guessing that is not an option for you? I am locked in at a lifetime rate of $69.99 a month on it.

I am also thinking about cutting the cord, soon. What kind of deals are you finding there?
Class of '93 - proud Dad of a '22 grad and a '26 student!
fig96
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AG
AT&T Fiber here (NW Austin) and it's been great, we stream with PS Vue.

Downgraded from the Internet 1000 to Internet 300 and haven't noticed any difference, though we do occasionally get notes that we're close to our bandwidth limit (mostly because my wife works from home and streams a lot of YouTube).
Furlock Bones
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AG
AT&T fiber in our neighborhood and it's craptastic. Some streets are fortunate to have Spectrum and it's far better.

i think its a total crapshoot depending on where you live.
MaroonStain
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AG
Spectrum offered me 3 years at 59.99 per month for HD cable and 200M min internets.
"Thanks and Gig'em"
evan_aggie
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AG
I think I got $50/mo , but it should be $45-$60/mo....
Caesar4
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AG
225 Mbps down, 10Mbps up in Round Rock via Spectrum. Approx $55/month.

Then, we have these monthly charges
~ 50 for YouTubeTV (on Roku/laptop/phone)
~ 5 for BritBox (British show app via Roku)
~ 5 for AcornTV (British show app via Roku)
~15 for Ooma (home phone)
~ 0 for PlutoTV (free movies/shows/etc but not on demand, via Roku)
~ 0 for RokuChannel (free on-demand movies/shows, via Roku)
~ 30 for Netflix (standard HD streaming via Roku & 3 DVD plan)

I was *somewhat* okay with Spectrum TV, Phone, Internet. But, I had 2 main problems with Spectrum:
  • call blocking list was capped at 50 numbers.
  • Recorded shows could only be watched on the DVR where they were recorded. TWC had a "Whole House DVR" and if you already had it before they became Spectrum, then Spectrum allowed/supported it. If you didn't already have the service, then you were out-of-luck, unless you paid an additional monthly fee for a cable box for every TV.

Other notes:
  • With YouTubeTV, I can watch recorded shows anywhere that I have a laptop, phone, Roku box and none have ever been deleted (so far, going on approx 1 year).
  • After a while (a week or so) if the recorded show is popular, then we no longer can skip through commercials (I suppose because *my* recording in their cloud is replaced with *their* recording)
  • Ooma call block list appears to have no limit. Nice, but the problem these days is spoofing, so there's not a lot of benefit of blocking numbers that are already spoofed because those numbers likely won't be used again by the spammers/scammers.
  • Roku also has a ton of other channels/apps available, some free & some not, ranging from shows in other languages, oldies/classics, fitness, news, weather, etc.
Charpie
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AG
With all these extra are we really cutting the cord?

I did the same and am literally not saving money.
AggieOO
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i went from 160+/mo to about 90.

was paying over $160 for cable and internet.

now: $40 for hulu. $50 for internet.

had netflix before and after, so that didn't factor in.
Charpie
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Caesar4
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AG
Charpie said:

With all these extra are we really cutting the cord?

I did the same and am literally not saving money.
You can call it whatever you want.

We went from:
  • $200-$225 with Spectrum for TV/Phone/Internet (No idea why it varied every month) to
  • $120 ($55 for YouTubeTV, $50 for Internet, $15 for Ooma phone).

And, we got a much better TV service (cloud DVR, anywhere, apparently unlimited) and better phone service.

The better DVR feature was actually my main reason for cutting the cord. I hated it when, with Spectrum, I'd have some program(s) recorded but I'd have to move to one specific room in order to watch it.
Charpie
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AG
When I had spectrum, I was paying $120. That was for internet, phone(which we never used) and tv. Then we got Netflix and Hulu. I hated the spectrum service and when we moved to our new home, we cut the cord


$60 for gigabit with AT&T
$50 for YouTube tv
$11 for Netflix
$11 for Hulu

I guess what I am saving on is the equipment fees. I can also watch my stuff anywhere.
evan_aggie
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AG
I never had spectrum as little as $120. Tv, one box, hd, dvr fees, always was $150 for me personally.

Caesar4
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AG
Lol, equipment fees reminds me...since we auto-pay bills, I regularly overlook looking at the paper bill.

So, about 2 months ago, I noticed that Spectrum was still charging us approx $5/month for their cable modem, which I had abandoned and turned in approx 10 months earlier. When I turned it in at their store, I was assured that the fee would be eliminated. Stupid me, I didn't check for months.


BTW, Spectrum's crappy modem didn't provide the ability for me to configure/specify which DNS servers that I wanted to use. Also, got tired of them doing a factory reset whenever it had a problem; the reset defaulted the mode back to routed instead of bridged.
rcannaday
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AG
I have google fiber 100 (didn't go gig - because mainly on wifi). Pay $140 - TV + Internet, and having a better experience then when I was using (PS Vue > Sling) .
Topher17
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AG
rcannaday said:

I have google fiber 100 (didn't go gig - because mainly on wifi). Pay $140 - TV + Internet, and having a better experience then when I was using (PS Vue > Sling) .

Interested to learn more about Google fiber and how the experience has been for people. We have Spectrum in our apartment for TV and internet and the internet suuucckkks. Constantly coming in and out, we can hardly ever get through a full show streaming without the internet cutting out. We are supposed to have the option of Google fiber within the next year and I'm very interested in switching.
TowGun93
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AG
I am in Circle C, too, and have had Google Fiber for a couple years now. Very happy with internet speeds but key was to ditch the Google box and get rid of the TV service. The Google box had terrible WiFi.
I now use a Google Wifi mesh system (instead of the google box) and subscribe to YouTubeTV.
Ferg
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I have Toast.net (ATT reseller). DSL 70 down for $70 per month, no caps or other charges or taxes.

Spectrum came buy and offered me the 200 mbps deal mentioned here, which i believe has a $5 wifi charge and then increase $21 per month after a year(which is still close to what i pay). I'm just not sure if its any better than ATT given some of the comments.
AgGrad99
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AG
Charpie said:

With all these extra are we really cutting the cord?

I did the same and am literally not saving money.
I feel the same way.

When the cable companies jack up my rates after 12-24 months, i call and renegotiate. Yes, it requires 30 minutes of my time, but the cost is not much more than setting up streaming only....if at all.

I kinda want to cut the cord, but just doesnt seem worth it yet.

evan_aggie
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AG
I was paying $120-$130/mo for one tv and one dvr plus internet with no premium content.

Now I pay $50 + $14 Netflix and watch over the air. We have Hulu for a few months at $10 and HBO for a few at $15.

I subscribe to PSVue during football season for $45 (last year). I'd say my average bill is $80 for 8 months of the year and then maybe $110 the other 4 months (we drop HBO and or Hulu). In fact. We already dropped Hulu because my wife got tired of Hands Made Tale.

AgGrad99
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AG
I pay less than that, for four TVs, and some premium channels (that I dont really even want)...along with internet.

I dont doubt people are saving money. But in most cases, you could save money, without cutting the cord....just by switching providers.

It seems the main benefit to cutting the cord, is not having to renegotiate or switch providers every 12-24 months.

I want to cut the cord, but after I pay 50-60 for internet, and then sign up for a streaming service, I'm at about the same cost.
evan_aggie
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AgGrad99 said:

I pay less than that, for four TVs, and some premium channels (that I dont really even want)...along with internet.

I dont doubt people are saving money. But in most cases, you could save money, without cutting the cord....just by switching providers.

It seems the main benefit to cutting the cord, is not having to renegotiate or switch providers every 12-24 months.

I want to cut the cord, but after I pay 50-60 for internet, and then sign up for a streaming service, I'm at about the same cost.

What city do you live in and who is your provider? That is a great deal. I used to threaten to cancel and get a retention person re-enroll me as a new customer, but at the end of the day, their TV + Internet were always $89.99 basic, and then you had $10/mo for DVR 'rental', $9/mo for DVR 'services', $5 HD, $10 premium, and after all of that it always ended up $125-$135. My parents have Spectrum and pay $180-$200/mo. My sister is around $160 with ATT, similar setup. Never seen a deal < $130 for 4 TVs with full service. Don't ever lose that!

fig96
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AG
Yeah, that does seem super cheap. I do agree that there's often not a huge price break, but there generally is on multiple tv's when you factor in box cost and extra fees. I think we knocked like $30 per month off by switching.

The other big advantage with internet tv is no contracts. I decide I want to take a month off from paying for PS Vue it's a 30 second process and you're done, no phone calls or fees or anything to worry about.
AgGrad99
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I had DirecTV with ATT the past two years for less than $100. I'd periodically call and ask for propmotions, and it got way low. dont think I'll see that again.

When they jacked up my rates, I complained and their retention dept offered me good rates if I switched to ATT/Uverse. It's $118 out the door.

Once the delta gets big enough, I'll finally cut the cord. Just havent gotten there yet.


Edit: Just checked. We used to have 4 TVs. Apparently we only have it on 3 now
expresswrittenconsent
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AgGrad99 said:

I had DirecTV with ATT the past two years for less than $100. I'd periodically call and ask for propmotions, and it got way low. dont think I'll see that again.

When they jacked up my rates, I complained and their retention dept offered me good rates if I switched to ATT/Uverse. It's $118 out the door.

Once the delta gets big enough, I'll finally cut the cord. Just havent gotten there yet.


Edit: Just checked. We used to have 4 TVs. Apparently we only have it on 3 now

It's weird they would push you to UVerse, which is being shuttered. How long ago was this?
AgGrad99
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about 6 months ago.

And I agree.

I had Uverse for years...and then had to switch once they jacked up the rates, and wouldnt come down. I assumed it was because they were pushign people to DirecTV because they were shuttign down Uverse. Then this past year once my DirecTV contract ran out, they gave me good rates to switch back to Uverse.

If you look online though, they still have some attractive bundle prices for new customers. So maybe it's sticking around?
expresswrittenconsent
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Interesting. I've had uverse for a few years and been pretty happy but am about to move because of all the channels they've dropped.
fig96
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AG
Yeah, we actually got pushed the other way about 18 months ago. We'd been with Uverse for a bit and they offered like $300 in gift cards and a cheaper rate to switch to DirecTV i.e. use less of their data.

We switched, pretty strongly disliked DirecTV and cancelled after we got tired of it, and now have PS Vue.
evan_aggie
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Curious: how do you access the PSVue portal? Roku? Built-in-TV? Casting?

fig96
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AG
AppleTV, though I've actually got a Sony set with AndroidTV built in as well. AppleTV is a lot faster with a much cleaner interface though.
jah003
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S
I was with Directv/Uverse for several years. Finally switched over to Spectrum about a year ago. I pay a heck of a lot less and the internet is way faster. Uverse could only max at 50mbps for some reason... I get 200 now. I pay about $150 for silver TV (just below the top tier) and internet. I also like that Spectrum has no contract.
Aust Ag
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AG
OK, so I bit the bullet and dropped my Spectrum for Sling...only to find out, they don't carry the Fox News network. What are ya'll doing about this? Is there another service I need to subscribe to?
Ferg
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Aust Ag said:

OK, so I bit the bullet and dropped my Spectrum for Sling...only to find out, they don't carry the Fox News network. What are ya'll doing about this? Is there another service I need to subscribe to?
Youtube TV has it.
fig96
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AG
Aust Ag said:

OK, so I bit the bullet and dropped my Spectrum for Sling...only to find out, they don't carry the Fox News network. What are ya'll doing about this? Is there another service I need to subscribe to?
I am doing nothing about it

(PS Vue does carry it though.)
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