Cable/internet... it's a floor wax AND a dessert topping!
January 12, 2006 3:34 PM Subscribe
Best deal for getting both cable and internet in Portland, Oregon?
[MomFilter] So here's the situation: My mom has "cable" and dial-up internet. I haven't dealt with a cable company or an ISP in years but, it seems to me that she's paying way too much for something that isn't even giving her things like HBO.
She gets her cable through DishNetwork (has one of those little dishes on her roof, some weird black box near her television with a memory card in it) and thinks she's paying about $55–$60 a month. She was on some basic plan until recently when when they moved a favorite channel of hers (Bravo maybe?) off of the basic set and to get it back she had to get some spendier plan.
Her dial-up internet she gets through Earthlink and pays $240 a year ($20 a month). She uses the internet pretty much only to grab and send a few emails a week — no streaming video, no downloading of podcasts. While she doesn't need faster internet, I thought perhaps a local cable company (not satellite dish, but actual "call the cable guy" cable) might have some deal where if they provide both internet and cable, they give you a lower price.
Here are the channels my mom likes and would want from her new cable provider:
HGTV (for the decorator shows)
Bravo (for Queer Eye for the Straight Guy)
Comedy Central (for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart)
C-Span
CNN
MSNBC
The "normal" Portland channels (ABC, CBS, NBS, PBS, KPTV, channel 49)
She also likes The History Channel and Law & Order and a channel with old movies (like The Big Sleep, The Thin Man, The Philadelphia Story, etc) would be great. Also, if she could get a cable hook-up in more than one room without having to pay a extra monthly fee that would be nice.
She's in N.E. Portland (as far as cable provider goes) and has an iBook running OS 9 (as far as the computer she'd be accessing the 'net with goes).
Any cable-having, internet-using Portlander's out there got any ideas/experience/advice? Thanks all.
[MomFilter] So here's the situation: My mom has "cable" and dial-up internet. I haven't dealt with a cable company or an ISP in years but, it seems to me that she's paying way too much for something that isn't even giving her things like HBO.
She gets her cable through DishNetwork (has one of those little dishes on her roof, some weird black box near her television with a memory card in it) and thinks she's paying about $55–$60 a month. She was on some basic plan until recently when when they moved a favorite channel of hers (Bravo maybe?) off of the basic set and to get it back she had to get some spendier plan.
Her dial-up internet she gets through Earthlink and pays $240 a year ($20 a month). She uses the internet pretty much only to grab and send a few emails a week — no streaming video, no downloading of podcasts. While she doesn't need faster internet, I thought perhaps a local cable company (not satellite dish, but actual "call the cable guy" cable) might have some deal where if they provide both internet and cable, they give you a lower price.
Here are the channels my mom likes and would want from her new cable provider:
HGTV (for the decorator shows)
Bravo (for Queer Eye for the Straight Guy)
Comedy Central (for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart)
C-Span
CNN
MSNBC
The "normal" Portland channels (ABC, CBS, NBS, PBS, KPTV, channel 49)
She also likes The History Channel and Law & Order and a channel with old movies (like The Big Sleep, The Thin Man, The Philadelphia Story, etc) would be great. Also, if she could get a cable hook-up in more than one room without having to pay a extra monthly fee that would be nice.
She's in N.E. Portland (as far as cable provider goes) and has an iBook running OS 9 (as far as the computer she'd be accessing the 'net with goes).
Any cable-having, internet-using Portlander's out there got any ideas/experience/advice? Thanks all.
It's about $100 from comcast together. It's about $50 for cable TV package with lots of channels (only one premium) and $50 for a cable modem. The $10 basic cable doesn't even include cable channels if you live in a standalone home (it's just public TV without needing an antenna).
I don't know if there are any other cable providers in the area apart from Comcast, they seem to have a lock on the area.
posted by mathowie at 4:08 PM on January 12, 2006
I don't know if there are any other cable providers in the area apart from Comcast, they seem to have a lock on the area.
posted by mathowie at 4:08 PM on January 12, 2006
We just moved to PDX recently and what Matt said is true: there aren't any other cable providers & it's pretty pricey.
However, if she lives where she can get DSL, I think she can get it for ~$25/mo (we live SE and can't get it there - we're stuck with Comcast cablemodem -- sigh).
posted by j at 4:27 PM on January 12, 2006
However, if she lives where she can get DSL, I think she can get it for ~$25/mo (we live SE and can't get it there - we're stuck with Comcast cablemodem -- sigh).
posted by j at 4:27 PM on January 12, 2006
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by ibechase at 3:55 PM on January 12, 2006