# Civic Matters > Ask Anything About OKC >  U-Verse vs. Cox?

## okie405

*I have Cox, and my basic cable and basic internet is running me nearly $135 a month.* 
Plus, Tivo is $15 a month. I wouldn't want TV without the ability to fast forward through all the commercials. 
So, $150 a month for basic internet and basic TV with Tivo.

I've tried Hulu and Netflix, but those aren't enough of a TV replacement for me. I'm a bit of a channel surfer. I want to turn on a TV and it work, not have to sort through Hulu/Netflix/Crackle to find a show I want, then watch it, then repeat. I like variety and stumbling onto movies and shows on TV. I don't want to have to sift through Netflix/Hulu listings for this. Not my style, I tried it. Over the air doesn't have enough channels for me or many shows that interest me. I guess I use TV as a bit of a background noise. So, I do want some sort of cable TV (or U-Verse). 

Cox wouldn't give me a discount because I'm not a new customer. I tried to say I would cancel, etc. No luck. My original price when I got it was $70 or so. Now it's $135. I have the very basic cable and very basic internet-- the lowest levels that they offer. It's not like I have the 200+ channel package with movies and nice perks. I have the lowest service level Cox offers, and the price keeps going up without notice too (no contract).

I saw a deal for U-Verse for internet and TV for $60something. After DVR and equipment rental, it would be about $80. That beats $150 with Cox/Tivo. That's not far from half the price I'm paying now with Cox/Tivo. 

Is U-Verse any good in NW OKC and Edmond?

Does U-Verse require a satelite dish, or does it run over the existing "cable jacks/outlets" in your house? Does the service go out often?

Is U-Verse really a better deal than Cox here?  I don't mind switching back and forth after 1-2 years of a contract with U-Verse then Cox back and forth if I could get intro prices.

Like I mentioned, Netflix/Hulu/internet "TV" just doesn't do it for me. I've tried having internet only. Not my style. There's only one TV in my house that I really want to have service, so having to rent equipment for each TV from U-Verse isn't that big of a deal with me.
*
U-Verse pricing seems too good to be true. Is it?

*

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## ljbab728

http://www.okctalk.com/current-event...vs-uverse.html

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## jn1780

Cox for basic internet and cable is usually 100 dollars unless your renting a cable modem or router.  

I would say your best bet to keep cost down is switch and then switch back after the contract with ATT is up. They are both going to go up in price after awhile.

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## bchris02

Cox Internet speeds are much faster being that in a lot of neighborhoods U-Verse Internet is plain ole' DSL.   You also have to deal with data caps.  If having good Internet is your priority, I would say Cox is your only option.  If you are not a very heavy net user and care more about low cost and the TV service, I would say give AT&T a look.  Just make sure they tell you what Internet speed package you will be getting.  In 2015, anything less than 15 Mbps will be insufficient if you are anything more than a casual net user.

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## stick47

Cox internet just raised their rates 10%

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## Achilleslastand

> Cox for basic internet and cable is usually 100 dollars unless your renting a cable modem or router.  
> 
> I would say your best bet to keep cost down is switch and then switch back after the contract with ATT is up. They are both going to go up in price after awhile.


This is what irks me about the cable companies. They give "new customers" the best deals to reel them in and when the initial deal expires they up the cost tremendously. When my Uverse contract is up in about 8 months I have every intention of calling there retention dept and raising cane.

If I found something that gave me around 25 mbps as well as NFL channel, ESPN and the local channels I would ditch them in a heartbeat.

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## oklip955

I live east of I-35 Edmond. I don't have cable as an option. U  verse just became available but the box at the corner is about 6" from a corner without any protection and its had issues. I have dish network from about their start. I'm one of there old custumers. I love dish, I own my own equipment since the start. In the old days you had to install it yourself. Now its much different. I still own my system by choice and its the HD two tv system so no rental fees. I do pay an optional $5 a month fee so that if anything breaks, they come out and fix at no cost. I have the middle package top 250 or so (about 270 channels with free premium channel previews all the time so basically you are getting a few premium channels) I was paying $72 a month now after all the fighting with fox its going up to $77 or so. They gave something like a free month free and a free pay per view movie) Anyway have very few rain outages. Good service and stable prices. I don't know what the cost of the tvo is. The cost for my system was like $350. when I upgraded to an HD system which required all new system. For internet I have dsl from att for $29.99 a month. Yah its their slowest speed but that is my only option unless I want uverse. = $$$$

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## Chadanth

> This is what irks me about the cable companies. They give "new customers" the best deals to reel them in and when the initial deal expires they up the cost tremendously. When my Uverse contract is up in about 8 months I have every intention of calling there retention dept and raising cane.
> 
> If I found something that gave me around 25 mbps as well as NFL channel, ESPN and the local channels I would ditch them in a heartbeat.


You'll be able to get espn without cable this year. I have a mid tier cox Internet package, stream all of. My video, and once I can add espn, I won't miss cable for a minute.

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## stick47

> You'll be able to get espn without cable this year. I have a mid tier cox Internet package, stream all of. My video, and once I can add espn, I won't miss cable for a minute.


How much monthly bandwidth do you use?

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## Chadanth

> How much monthly bandwidth do you use?


I'll have to look. Quite a bit, since we probably stream 3-4 hours of video per day.

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## roci28

I went from Cox to ATT Uverse and love the switch.  ATT customer service is much better and prices are overall cheaper with a huge selection of channels and 2 DVR boxes.  I am saving about $60.00 per month with ATT.  The only thing is its a one year contract for TV and internet, so the prices will go up after a year.  The sales lady assured me when its that time, I can call and keep my rates at what they are now and will not go up.  I have had friends do this and they said it was true, so I'm banking my rates won't jump drastically after the year.  Also when I called Cox to cancel, and I was a customer with them for over 10 years, not one person tried to see what was wrong and entice me to stay.   I just get flyers in the mail weekly saying, we miss you, come back.....

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## ctchandler

> I live east of I-35 Edmond. I don't have cable as an option. For internet I have dsl from att for $29.99 a month. Yah its their slowest speed but that is my only option unless I want uverse. = $$$$


Oklip,
LIke you, I live East of I-35, about a mile East of Frontier City.  Cable is not available and I have been on Dish forever.  I also have dsl and there are several options for faster internet speed.  I have their "Elite" package and it's plenty fast for me, up to 6mb downstream speeds.  Their "Honeymoon" price is $34.95 for the first six months and $49.00 per month after that.  I don't have access to U-verse at this time.  
C. T.

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## oklip955

Unfortunately, att doesn't want to increase speed they want me to switch to Uverse, they had planned on moving me and even sent me a letter to that effect. I had to call them to tell them no. They really want me off old fashion phone line stuff, I told them I want my party line back. As far as speed, its their slowest and that is all that they have been able to offer other then the Uverse. I'll just cheap out and keep what I have. I'm retired on a fixed income that shows no since of a cola anytime soon. No ss just a pension.

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## bchris02

It looks like Cox is getting ready to roll out hard bandwidth caps.

Exclusive: Cox Planning to Impose Usage Overage Fees | DSLReports, ISP Information

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## SoonerDave

It makes sense they were planning this as they've been "testing" the waters with their usage meter for several years now. They also bumped the limits quite substantially; the premier level is now 700GB/month and I've never even sniffed the 300GB level. That may change as 4K streaming becomes more prevalent, but I'm not too worried about that at the moment.

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## FighttheGoodFight

> It makes sense they were planning this as they've been "testing" the waters with their usage meter for several years now. They also bumped the limits quite substantially; the premier level is now 700GB/month and I've never even sniffed the 300GB level. That may change as 4K streaming becomes more prevalent, but I'm not too worried about that at the moment.


I also have the ultimate tier and we sometimes get about 300gb but never got a warning.

Cox is also rolling out gigabit to certain areas. A press release said next summer it could come to parts of OK.

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## SoonerDave

> I also have the ultimate tier and we sometimes get about 300gb but never got a warning.
> 
> Cox is also rolling out gigabit to certain areas. A press release said next summer it could come to parts of OK.


Ultimate has a higher limit than Premier. Think they bumped Ultimate to 2TB/month. I do know of people who exceeded their 300GB limit and got a nasty note from Cox, but nothing more. Maybe I'm crazy, but if the info in that linked article above is accurate, a 700GB limit and the option to buy 50GB for ten bucks isn't entirely unreasonable.

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## zookeeper

> Ultimate has a higher limit than Premier. Think they bumped Ultimate to 2TB/month. I do know of people who exceeded their 300GB limit and got a nasty note from Cox, but nothing more.* Maybe I'm crazy, but if the info in that linked article above is accurate, a 700GB limit and the option to buy 50GB for ten bucks isn't entirely unreasonable.*


I think that would depend on what they plan to charge for the plan with the 700GB limit - and at what speeds? That would help to tell me if $10.00 for 50 more GB is an acceptable add-on. I am guessing they are planning some package changes, though I don't know this.

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## SoonerDave

> I think that would depend on what they plan to charge for the plan with the 700GB limit - and at what speeds? That would help to tell me if $10.00 for 50 more GB is an acceptable add-on. I am guessing they are planning some package changes, though I don't know this.


As I recall, Cox "realigns" their general pricing about once a year, and I think they've already done that for this year. So, given what I have (and when I phone-wrestled with them in January, they said my price/package/discount/combo/bundle/whatever was good for a year) along with this cap/increment is tolerable to me for now. As I said, I've never even sniffed the 300GB cap.

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## zookeeper

> As I recall, Cox "realigns" their general pricing about once a year, and I think they've already done that for this year. So, given what I have (and when I phone-wrestled with them in January, they said my price/package/discount/combo/bundle/whatever was good for a year) along with this cap/increment is tolerable to me for now. As I said, I've never even sniffed the 300GB cap.


Neither have I, haven't come close. That "phone wrestling" as you call it is a perfect way to put it. I just fail to understand their logic sometimes. Between tiers, bundles, paks, combos, it's just a frustrating experience. Fortunately, I'm down to a very basic package and have SlingTV, Netflix, and Amazon. Throw in a A/B switch to a decent antenna for all the digital subchannels in this city and we're good to go.

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## BBatesokc

I've mentioned this in another thread. Our cable finally got up to $150+ or so and I said enough is enough. I've been a Cox customer for probably 16+ years.

I bought a used Tivo off Craigslist and used a promo code to get lifetime subscription for about $250 (going off my memory). I then had to call Cox 3 different times before I got someone willing to give me a discount. Don't do the "I'm gonna cancel!!!!!" routine. Be nice and do something like, "I recently got laid off and we have to tighten the purse strings temporarily." They can often relate to that and not be as defensive.

I'm looking at my Cox bill online right now and its $81.46 total for Cox Economy TV, Advanced TV Service and Cable Card. Plus Cox Premier 100Mbps Internet and modem rental. 

We also bought a $35 Magic Jack VOIP online with promo code to use as a backup phone line (amazingly it works great!).

Gotta say, very happy with the change and LOVE the TIVO. TIVO customer service was awesome. They ended up sending me a free Moca filter and a free $50 backlit remote just because I called and was confused on the networking options.

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## oklip955

I've got lots of channels on DISH, very gotten hooked on the Cooking channel during free previews and was thinking about going to the next level of channels (250 but really a lot more) Well they just added the Cooking channel to my package so I don't have to spend the money for the next high package. I'm real happy at $82 a month ($5 is for free service, parts since I own my own equipment and I don't have a contract but do have free HD for life) Love my dish for my low price. They have recently added channels. More then happy with Dish network. I have ATT for dsl basically my only real choice.

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## Urban Pioneer

I posted this in another thread and felt it would be appropriate to copy here-

Our company has started doing Smart Home Systems in SOSA and other areas. My own home has turned into something of a sponsored guinea pig for technology so that we can beta test equipment before installing it in client's homes. Obviously audio/visual is a big part of what people want in a Smart Home and Internet is a major backbone in remotely controlling devices if not streaming the actual content.

We have beta tested Dish, DirecTV, Cox, and AT&T Uverse for cable and/or Internet.

After all of these tests in OKC, I can confidently say that if you live in a neighborhood that has Uverse with fiber optic "wire", that is the route to go. AT&T is desperate to reclaim market share and offset their losses of home telephone. Many new neighborhoods have fiber run down every street as a result. In our case, the salespeople were clueless about our neighborhood. I learned about the presence of fiber by talking to a AT&T guy working on the local junction up the street. It took four months of visiting the AT&T store before our neighborhood was "green lighted". Once it was, they came out and literally trenched and buried fiber optic cabling up to the house and installed an exterior demarc panel. CAT 5 carries the signal into the house to a modem and router. The DVR is tethered by CAT5. It then wirelessly communicates to the aux units in other rooms. I can manipulate all of the TV's, DVR, and transfer programs between rooms all of my iPhone. I actually use the phone more as the remote to this system than the actual remotes that came with the system.

*BEWARE!* "Uverse" is a catch all term used by AT&T. There is a distinct difference in copper based DSL service and the speeds and television capability that a fiber optic glass cable all the way to the house can provide. 

The other benefit to this system is that much of AT&T's infrastructure is buried. You won't have the blackouts and other problems that many other providers have during inclement weather. It is important to put a Uninterrupted Power Supply on your modem and router though. The demarc panel actually has one to keep connectivity up to the house.

Also, since this service is new, HBO, Showtime, and other channels are free in HD with the mid level package.

I would rate DirecTV second best. They were purchased by AT&T and much of the technology is the same between the fiber based Uverse system and the DirecTv dish based system. They are both very sophisticated and discrete. Our DirecTV system was notorious for cutting out during storms. Be sure to ask for the DVR with "mini genies" for each room that are "Apple compatible" to receive the latest technology from them. Particularly if you want to remotely manipulate their system with an iPhone or iPad.

Dish is OK.

Cox sucks but still has the highest speed internet available. They still require a big cable box at every television. I refuse to use them for television service in a smart home but am glad they are around for Internet service in most neighborhoods.

BEWARE! Do not use Cox's Internet modem. Go buy one for yourself such as a Motorolla surfboard or CISCO router. Put it on an Uninterrupted Power Supply. Their modems suck! They use the cheapest modems that cannot handle the bandwidth that you are often actually usually paying for. Spend an extra $80.00 to $120.00 and get a cable modem that isn't theirs. I have often wondered if the modems they provide are intentionally manipulated.

Hope this helps some folks- Jeff with Vox Public Audio

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## CaptDave

> After all of these tests in OKC, I can confidently say that if you live in a neighborhood that has Uverse with fiber optic "wire", that is the route to go. AT&T is desperate to reclaim market share and offset their losses of home telephone. Many new neighborhoods have fiber run down every street as a result. In our case, the salespeople were clueless about our neighborhood. I learned about the presence of fiber by talking to a AT&T guy working on the local junction up the street. It took four months of visiting the AT&T store before our neighborhood was "green lighted". Once it was, they came out and literally trenched and buried fiber optic cabling up to the house and installed an exterior demarc panel. CAT 5 carries the signal into the house to a modem and router. The DVR is tethered by CAT5. It then wirelessly communicates to the aux units in other rooms. I can manipulate all of the TV's, DVR, and transfer programs between rooms all of my iPhone. I actually use the phone more as the remote to this system than the actual remotes that came with the system.
> 
> *BEWARE!* "Uverse" is a catch all term used by AT&T. There is a distinct difference in copper based DSL service and the speeds and television capability that a fiber optic glass cable all the way to the house can provide.
> 
> Hope this helps some folks- Jeff with Vox Public Audio


Great info - I'm beginning to wonder if I have an all fiber connection. I recently switched from Dish to U-verse and am generally pleased. However, the TV signal breaks up of momentarily freezes far too often in my opinion. I wonder if there is a way to have them check and if not will they put the fiber line in? I think a phone call is in order.

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## okatty

How do you find out if your area has the fiber optic?

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## Urban Pioneer

A couple of things. I saw a AT&T technician at the neighborhood node and stopped to talk to him about it. Also, the node is unlocked, so I was able to confirm this.

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## okatty

> A couple of things. I saw a AT&T technician at the neighborhood node and stopped to talk to him about it. Also, the node is unlocked, so I was able to confirm this.


Have Cox TV and internet now.  So is it worth the hassle of changing over to U-verse TV if we are fiberoptic in our area in your view?  Have 4 TV's with 2 cox HD / DVR boxes now.

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## LakeEffect

> Have Cox TV and internet now.  So is it worth the hassle of changing over to U-verse TV if we are fiberoptic in our area in your view?  Have 4 TV's with 2 cox HD / DVR boxes now.


From my friend's experiences, yes, it is.

AT&T has some fiber in our historic neighborhood, but not on my block. I really, really want them to come in...

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## bchris02

You do have to be careful with U-Verse and know what you are getting, especially with the Internet connection.  The salespeople act like its all the same but for many neighborhoods without fiber optics its classic ADSL.  Also in some areas the TV service is provided by satellite dish. Their deceptive marketing really turns me off and thus I will never have U-Verse unless there are no other options.

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## SoonerDave

> You do have to be careful with U-Verse and know what you are getting, especially with the Internet connection.  The salespeople act like its all the same but for many neighborhoods without fiber optics its classic ADSL.  Also in some areas the TV service is provided by satellite dish. Their deceptive marketing really turns me off and thus I will never have U-Verse unless there are no other options.


I'm wishing (probably "wishful thinking" is more like it  :Smile:  ) that Google Fiber might actually get expanded in to OKC. Fibre to the home is such a huge game-changer; however, I think I'd rather dye my hair purple than pay one penny to ATT for anything they sell.

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## Urban Pioneer

> You do have to be careful with U-Verse and know what you are getting, especially with the Internet connection.  The salespeople act like its all the same but for many neighborhoods without fiber optics its classic ADSL.  Also in some areas the TV service is provided by satellite dish. Their deceptive marketing really turns me off and thus I will never have U-Verse unless there are no other options.


Agreed. That is why it is important to do some research and ask people other than the sales people. Over the last few days, I have had to deal with Cox, Uvers, and DirecTV.  DirecTv wins them all when it comes to forthrightness. However, if you can get actual fiber-based Uverse, still the way to go in this market in terms of bundling. Very price competitive too.

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## OU Adonis

I loved the prices of AT&T but didn't like the service problems I have.  I went back to Cox.

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## okatty

Uverse service truck was outside my house today and I talked to tech.  He said as a general rule for existing neighborhoods it is fiber to the box and then copper to the house.  He said in new construction neighborhoods it is more likely to be fiber all way to house.    Unfortunately ours would be copper to house, not fiber.   :Roll Eyes (Sarcastic):

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## zookeeper

> Uverse service truck was outside my house today and I talked to tech.  He said as a general rule for existing neighborhoods it is fiber to the box and then copper to the house.  He said in new construction neighborhoods it is more likely to be fiber all way to house.    Unfortunately ours would be copper to house, not fiber.


But, it doesn't matter! They are simply laying the "fiber to the house" infrastructure. AT&T is NOT providing those speeds in Oklahoma City. Until they throw that switch, it doesn't matter how the wiring is from the node to the house. So rest easy - you may have it before they even throw the switch. By the way, on AT&T's page promoting the "U-verse with GigaPower" service, the cities are clearly laid out on a map where it is available, where it is planned, and where they are exploring. Oklahoma City is not on the list. It will eventually be here, they are obviously building the infrastructure, but it's *very* expensive to throw that switch. 
Future Plans & Current Locations for U-verse with AT&T GigaPower

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## okatty

> But, it doesn't matter! They are simply laying the "fiber to the house" infrastructure. AT&T is NOT providing those speeds in Oklahoma City. Until they throw that switch, it doesn't matter how the wiring is from the node to the house. So rest easy - you may have it before they even throw the switch. By the way, on AT&T's page promoting the "U-verse with GigaPower" service, the cities are clearly laid out on a map where it is available, where it is planned, and where they are exploring. Oklahoma City is not on the list. It will eventually be here, they are obviously building the infrastructure, but it's *very* expensive to throw that switch. 
> Future Plans & Current Locations for U-verse with AT&T GigaPower


From what Urban Pioneer said above I thought it did matter.  Once they throw the switch won't it matter if you have fiber or copper to your house?

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## zookeeper

> From what Urban Pioneer said above I thought it did matter.  Once they throw the switch won't it matter if you have fiber or copper to your house?


Absolutely! One gig up and down is unbelievably fast. But just having the infrastructure doesn't open the pipes. AT&T has to do that and all they are doing now is carefully building out their infrastructure.

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## tfvc.org

> From what Urban Pioneer said above I thought it did matter.  Once they throw the switch won't it matter if you have fiber or copper to your house?


I second (third) that.  I worked for a cable company in Florida for almost 10 years, and I can tell you it is all based on available bandwidth.  Fiber to the home is a marketing ploy to make you pay more for basically the same thing.  The ISPs still can control and shape your bandwidth however they want both at the main plant through generalization shaping (making some ports faster/slower than others) to controlling your individual speed at their modem.  Also if the ISP's plant's hardware isn't enough or able to handle the increased bandwidth and throughput that slows things down considerably as well.  When the company I worked for rolled out docsys 3 which gave speeds above 10mbs there was a ton of equipment that needed to be replaced before we could offer that service.  Cable is already a hybrid fiber to the pole system, from there it gets changed to coax.  That little bit of difference of distance from the pole to your house or that fiber going to your house isn't going to affect speeds at all.  My internal network is all copper gigabit with four of my connections being aggregated to be 2 gigabit.  The biggest advantage to fiber is that you can carry a ton of bandwidth over a long distance without a need for a bunch of repeaters or bridges in between.  When it comes to the home run, fiber vs copper isn't going to make much difference if it and the plant behind it is properly installed and implemented.

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## okatty

> I second (third) that.  I worked for a cable company in Florida for almost 10 years, and I can tell you it is all based on available bandwidth.  Fiber to the home is a marketing ploy to make you pay more for basically the same thing.  The ISPs still can control and shape your bandwidth however they want both at the main plant through generalization shaping (making some ports faster/slower than others) to controlling your individual speed at their modem.  Also if the ISP's plant's hardware isn't enough or able to handle the increased bandwidth and throughput that slows things down considerably as well.  When the company I worked for rolled out docsys 3 which gave speeds above 10mbs there was a ton of equipment that needed to be replaced before we could offer that service.  Cable is already a hybrid fiber to the pole system, from there it gets changed to coax.  That little bit of difference of distance from the pole to your house or that fiber going to your house isn't going to affect speeds at all.  My internal network is all copper gigabit with four of my connections being aggregated to be 2 gigabit.  The biggest advantage to fiber is that you can carry a ton of bandwidth over a long distance without a need for a bunch of repeaters or bridges in between.  When it comes to the home run, fiber vs copper isn't going to make much difference if it and the plant behind it is properly installed and implemented.


Good info!  Thanks!

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