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Hey guys. After taking a moment to look at my outragous broadband, cable and phone bills, I realize I can consolidate all these services to Time Warner by getting digital phone, Roadrunner (instead of Earthlink), and Digital Cable (Speed channel mainly...) for $8 more monthly.

Before I pull the trigger, are there any unforseen drawbacks of Digital Cable? It seems like a easy decision.

Oh yeah, plus free long distance.

Digital cable rules and Roadrunner is WAY better than Earthstink. Go for it!!

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9

From the Time Warner Website:



Um, yeah, lots of us are using Vonage, www.vonage.com and only pay $25 per month for the same level of internet phone service as Time Warner is offering. You can also get other packages that are cheaper.

Even Earthlink will sell you unlimited local and long distance for $30 per month.

Yeah, I have digital cable and a cable modem, but don't see the need to let Time Warner get paid extra because they think no one shops for a better price.

Scott

I'll second the Vonage.

I get Earthlink Cable Modem for $39, and my Vonage account is currently only costing me $15/month. If I find I need more then 500 minutes a month, then I'll increase it to $25.

Overall, Earthlink offers their services for a little less then Time Warner, but you will take a hit in customer service. For these types of services, that's not a big issue for me, because I don't have to contact them very often. Usually when I do, it's because the cable conection is down, at which point earthlink just redirects you to Time Warner anyway.

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In need of car.

Oh, that was fun.

I currently have Digipic 2000 (HBO and Cinemax), and Earthlink broadband (via Time Warner - it costs $5/month more than Road Runner). I'm also using Vonage for the phone.

Here's Time Warners Savings calculator. Maybe I should call and ask for an upgrade!!!

That's funny to see. I was staring at that damn spreadsheet for like 30 minutes yesterday doing different scenarios.

Scott,
How'd you manage Digipic 2000 and Broadband and "Vonage" (sp?) for $120 mo.?

If they have any referal credit system, I'll "hook you up".

Time Warner's pricing is pretty odd. We did a switch from Satellite over a year ago and part of that deal was "free HBO and Cinemax." Well, that free stuff disappeared, but I don't think we've ever started paying full price for them.

My invoice reads:

Basic: $9.60
Standard: $26.35
Digital Preferred: $14.00 (HBO, Cinemax, Cable Box, Remote)

Order on a different day I bet you get a different package. Jason pays less for his Earthlink than I do...

I've been told that if you call Time Warner and theaten to cancel they will lower the price to about whatever you want.

I honestly don't remember how long we were supposed to get the promotional pricing for switching. I doubt it was for over a year though (we were paying $10 for HBO and Cinemax). Whe the rates went "up" they had to call and remind us, I think I offered to cancel HBO and Cinemax at that time and they said "Will you keep it for this price..."

My guess is they would match the price of Vonage if you asked.

Scott

I have Vonaga now for about a year and it rocks, I pay 14.99 for 500 mins of calling to anway in us and canada and a tone of features, for as much as I use my home phone it is way worth it.

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David Teague
2015 Lexus IS 250c
1994 Honda Del Sol HS 39
2009 Dodge Journey R/T
http://teaguefamily.us

A couple of things to keep in mind as you compare options: Note that I have Time Warner Digital TV with Earthlink Broadband (I have an old Mindspring e-mail address) and Bell South telephone plus Verizon Cell Phones (which we use for most long distance calls to family out west)

Doesn't phone over cable "go away" during power failures? Time Warner says theirs goes away. FYI my parents (who live in Washington State) have a version of cable phone that they say doesn't go away during power failures. I make sure we have at least one "regular (i.e. doesn't need ac power) phone to use during power failures since "usually" the regular phone system stays up during everything except Hurricane Fran type storms. FYI in my neighborhood (near I540 at Leesville Rd) the first thing to go away during a power failure type storm is Time Warner . . . TV and Cable. Cell phones "can" be a back up . . . except the towers tend to get rather busy then . . . until their backup systems die during long outages

If you travel and need dialup on the road, you might look at how much, if any, dialup access time is included. Earthlink cable used to have no limits and lots of dialup access numbers. I think they just cut back to 20 hours dialup free per month.

Note also that during extended (i.e. ice storm) power failures I was still able to get dialup internet via my laptop . . . which I recharged using the generator in our camper van.

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Dick Rasmussen

FS 50 2018 Mustang GT

Matt,

I have had digital cable (DigiPic 2000 w/HBO and Cinemax) along with Roadrunner for the past year. I can say that I have been extremely satisfied with both services. For me, it is definitely worth the extra money for these.

My first experience with TWC's digital phone service came this week at my parent's house. It is extremely convenient dialing long distance without worrying about fees. The only drawback that I know of is sometimes people on the other end of the line claim that they can't hear you very well. I have also had it disconnect my call twice. For $40 it seems like a good deal. However, Vonage may be worth looking into...

Another happy Vonage customer here. We switched back in Feb I think. We had been paying ~$65/mo for nothing in particular with Bellsouth, and now we're paying $16.94/mo (that's the bottom line, with taxes and fees) for their 500 min/mo plan. We usually have about 400 minutes left over. Vonage is not associated with TWC at all and is billed separately.

We switched our old Earthlink dialup account to broadband (through TWC) and it's $41.95/mo, which was $4 less than RR at the time. They must be taking it out on us elsewhere, though, cuz our cable bill is way more than Scott's!

Our invoice sez:
Basic: 12.10
Standard: 32.90
Digital PLUS: 25.80 (HBO, cable box, remote)

I'm calling TWC tonight to complain!

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Carl Fisher

Be Cool to the Pizza Dude:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=4651531

All I can say is I hate all you people who can get DSL and/or Cable.

Heck, I'm only ten minutes from Carl and Mary, but apparently I'm ten minutes in a VERY wrong direction.


--Donnie

I've got Bellsouth DSL Extreme. Had DSL for a few years now and have no complaints at all. Bandwidth is consistent. It also gives you access from a dialup modem when needed.

The only complaint I've heard in this area about TWC-RR is too many people on that shared bandwidth trunk. So some opinions will vary from area to area depending on the load. Depends on how many kids are in your neighborhood downloading MP3's


My TWC cable bill is about the same as others. Only difference is the addon package. I have all the HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, TMC movies package (Digital Plex) w/digital cable, box, remote for $34.50.

And SpeedVision, of course... I bet Ann wishes that could be selectively removed...

Graham

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http://www.greywinds.com

Oh, I've got good bandwidth and it's perfectly consistent. But that's because it's via a T1 since that's MY ONLY OPTION for high speed Internet out here. Well, okay, there's satellite, but I can't really handle 2 second latency. *sigh*

I'd compare bills with all of you, but that would make me cry.


--Donnie

T1 to your house. That's disgusting!!!

Setup your own VPN station and rent bandwidth to all your neighbors so you can defray your costs. You'd be the hit of the neighborhood

Graham

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http://www.greywinds.com