Silver Spring MD TV/Internet Providers

[The_Universe]

My wife and I are moving from Alexandria, VA to Silver Spring, MD later this summer, and our current cable and internet provider will be unavailable to us, which means we've got to start from scratch. We currently have:

Digital Cable
Hi-Definition Service
DVR Service
High Speed Internet

...and we want to make sure we have all of those things in the future. Similarly, we wouldn't object to adding some kind of low-cost phone service in there.

Our choices seem to be:

DirecTV (TV)
Dish Network (TV)
Comcast (TV and Internet)
Verizon (Internet and Phone?)

...of which we're (of course) willing to mix and match to ensure we get the best deal. So, inform me! What are the benefits of each service provider? Do you know alternatives that can give us cheaper/better service?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Psionicist]

Intersting, nither Comcast or Verizon give any information at all about their internet connections, except that they are "Super Fast". Sounds trustworthy.

If broadband is important for you I'd call both of them and ask a few intelligent questions, such as: Is there a download cap or can you download how much you want without paying extra? Do you use any kind of sneaky traffic-shaping or can I use my connection as I please without getting degraded performance in certain circumstances? Do you block all email from Europe?

Don't know anything about the rest sorry.

 

[diaglo]

buddy of mine has Erols. but i don't know anything else about them.

 

[The_Universe]

Sounds like Comcast has a deal that would let me get all of the above (except phone) for 100/month. Barring a startlingly frugal revelation from someone in the know, I'm thinking I'll probably go with that.

 

[loki44]

For what it's worth, my brother lives in Silver Spring and uses Comcast for his internet provider. He's a musician and deals with a lot of large music files. He doesn't seem to have a problem with the service in terms of reliability and such. I live in Atlanta and used to have DirecTV for everything. Their internet service sucked so I soon cancelled it in favor of BellSouth (our local telephone provider), and I almost never have problems now. DirecTV's customer service is great though. Never had any problem with the digital TV satellite service at our old house. However, when we moved last fall the satellite was constantly going out. It really matters how your house is situated. We switched to Comcast for cable. The service is more reliable but the customer service sucks big time. I hate cable companies. Our neighbors have problems with Comcast's broadband service. I stuck with BellSouth. If AT&T is ever an option for anything avoid it like the plague.