The Observation Deck

Posted: **Mon Nov 19, 2007 7:51 pm**

David Lay wrote:If you want the speed and capacity, go with Cox.

Agreed. Cox has always been good to me. It may not be worth selling you soul to the AnTichri$T.

Posted: **Mon Nov 19, 2007 8:02 pm**

I'm getting the feeling that's the general consensus, David, but I'd like some raw numbers to compare so I can judge value for the price. Sad as it is to say, the hassle of changing email addresses will factor into the equation.

Posted: **Mon Nov 19, 2007 8:43 pm**

I just looked on the U-Verse site http://tinyurl.com/24ceod and here's one of the packages they're offering:

$74.95/month

Enjoy up to 200 channels included in our standard U200 packages starting at just $74 per month. The service price includes up to 3 receivers, one with a digital video recorder (DVR). Additional receivers are only $5 per month.

Add any of the following packages for just pennies more a day:
HBOÃ‚Â®/CinemaxÃ‚Â® Package: $24 per month. 9 HBOÃ‚Â® channels; 9 CinemaxÃ‚Â® channels.
Movie Package: $15 per month. This package has more than 30 channels of SHOWTIMEÃ‚Â®, The Movie Channel (TMC)Ã¢â€žÂ¢, FLIXÃ‚Â®, StarzÃ‚Â®, and EncoreÃ‚Â®, all at great savings.
Sports Package: $10 per month. The Sports Package includes Fox College Sports plus The Sportsman Channel, GolTV (English), HorseRacing TV, and much more.
Paquete EspaÃƒÂ±ol Package: $10 per month. Spanish-language package featuring novellas, movies, news, sports, children's programming, talk shows, and more.
High Definition (HD) Service: $10 per month. Enjoy a robust HD lineup. Produces images more than twice as detailed as standard analog TV -- delivering rich, realistic video and multi-channel, movie theater quality sound. AT&T U-verse offers customers access to a growing lineup of more than 30 HD channels.

The internet package that's included is their Express package, which is 1.5MBps down/1MBps up. (Their fastest package is 6.0MBps)

Bear in mind that ONLY one TV in your home can watch HD at any given time. Also, I don't think this includes telephone service.

Cox's offering http://tinyurl.com/yq8eh3 :

$99.99/month
240+ Channels
9MBps Cable Internet with Powerboost
Basic Line Digital Telephone

Hope that helps.

Posted: **Fri Dec 14, 2007 8:02 pm**

some interesting news to add to this thread that just won't die:

Today the Ohio Department of Commerce just announced that Time Warner has license to offer video services to 260 communities in 60 counties in Ohio.

Lakewood is one of those communities.

TimWarner is the second televideocom company (AT&T was 1st) group to do this this under teh new OH legislation that frees companies from having to negotiate franchise agreements with a city in order to provide such services.

Not sure if the law allows them to also allow HSI data service, in addition to teh video....

In other words, it looks like Cox and ATT's U-verse (or whatever it's called) will have some scary new competition shortly...

Posted: **Fri Dec 14, 2007 8:10 pm**

My guess is that Cox will try for a similar agreement with the state...

http://www.com.state.oh.us/press/display.asp?ID=1225

Posted: **Sat Dec 15, 2007 6:35 am**

But just because TW can offer video in Lakewood, that doesn't mean Cox has to share their lines does it?

It will be interesting to see if TW actually decides to build out an infrastructure or whether they went this route to simply avoid negotiating with all the cities they deal with individually.

Posted: **Sat Dec 15, 2007 6:48 am**

Bryan Schwegler wrote:But just because TW can offer video in Lakewood, that doesn't mean Cox has to share their lines does it?

I don't think Cox would need to share their lines. If TW wants to offer service here, they would need to build their own network of cabling and nodes, plus a fiber backbone connection from the nodes to the headend for each city they serve. Not cheap.

Posted: **Sat Dec 15, 2007 9:15 am**

Isn't TW only available in limited apartment buildings and the Gold Coast?

They already have cabling in place.

Posted: **Sat Dec 15, 2007 9:20 am**

To my knowledge, they do have very limited availability in Lakewood.

The new state-wide contract basically gives them carte blanche to set up networks all over the state, but in order to do that it would cost them a lot of money to build-out what they already have. It would require lots of fiber, nodes and CATV wiring, not to mention new headends to support all the (potentially) new users.

Posted: **Sat Dec 15, 2007 10:11 pm**

dl meckes wrote:Project Lightspeed is "Yesterday's Technology For The Future" (Firesign Theatre's "Forward Into the Past!").

Throw in some untested tech, a relatively backbone-fee structure and connections that don't come "to the porch" and you have an interesting marketing project to watch play out. ISP Edsels.

Reading back through this thread, you couldn't have said it any better. With U-Verse's current DSL offering topping out at 6MBps, and other providers eclipsing that speed multiple times, I'm sure they might be rethinking their investment.

Now that Cox has a 2010 Plan in place (1GHz network, 25MBps+ speeds, 100+ HD channels), it's back to the drawing board for AT&T.

Posted: **Sat Dec 15, 2007 10:31 pm**

David Lay wrote:With U-Verse's current DSL offering topping out at 6MBps, and other providers eclipsing that speed multiple times, I'm sure they might be rethinking their investment.

Between the capability to watch one program PER HOME at a time and the big beautiful boxes, it's quite a deal...

Posted: **Sun Dec 16, 2007 6:54 am**

David Lay wrote:
dl meckes wrote:Project Lightspeed is "Yesterday's Technology For The Future" (Firesign Theatre's "Forward Into the Past!").

Throw in some untested tech, a relatively backbone-fee structure and connections that don't come "to the porch" and you have an interesting marketing project to watch play out. ISP Edsels.
Reading back through this thread, you couldn't have said it any better. With U-Verse's current DSL offering topping out at 6MBps, and other providers eclipsing that speed multiple times, I'm sure they might be rethinking their investment.

Now that Cox has a 2010 Plan in place (1GHz network, 25MBps+ speeds, 100+ HD channels), it's back to the drawing board for AT&T.

I agree, AT&T has some real re-thinking to do. I really wish AT&T would hve gone the same route as Verizon did with FIOS instead of their half-baked, "cheaper" alternative they said was just as good. Well, it's not.

To be honest, I would love to see some real competition for Cox or any other cable company honestly. It's happening in the Verizon areas. Internet speeds are faster, TV and phone are cheaper.

Cox provides good service, but they're not altruistic. It would be great to see real competition to be able to spur improved products and potential price decreases much faster. I know some have claimed that won't happen, but I beg to differ and stats back me up.

In the areas where Cox competes with Verizon FIOS (NOVA is one area), Cox lowered prices, increased net speeds to 10mbps down...oh and that was 4 years ago when we were all languishing at 2mbps. True competition is good for everyone.

Posted: **Sun Dec 16, 2007 7:25 am**

Bryan Schwegler wrote: In the areas where Cox competes with Verizon FIOS (NOVA is one area), Cox lowered prices, increased net speeds to 10mbps down...oh and that was 4 years ago when we were all languishing at 2mbps. True competition is good for everyone.

I agree that competition is good for prices and developing new technologies. Faster speeds and more channels is definitely part of Cox's 2010 Plan. They are running DOCSIS 3.0 trials in some markets.

Cox probably does view U-Verse as competition, but not as much of a threat compared to FiOS because of the severe limitations of the network. U-Verse just doesn't have the bandwidth that Cox does.

From talking with a couple of Cox techs, they are splitting nodes in Lakewood, which is in preparation for the 1GHz network upgrade, if they haven't done so already.

On a side note, a tech installed a new HD box here yesterday...an Explorer 4240HDC. It's smaller than the previous version, a heck of a lot faster, and has a multi-stream CableCARD interface. Now that Cisco owns Scientific Atlanta, they've been improving their STBs.

Posted: **Wed Dec 19, 2007 7:01 pm**

DOCSIS 3.0 is no longer vaporware, the first round of gear has been approved by Cable Labs:

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6514101.html

160MBps?

Yes please!

Posted: **Wed Jan 16, 2008 7:26 am**

Looks like AT&T is replacing exploding batteries:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120045143379793329.html

The Observation Deck

Ahead at Lightspeed