(Austin) Need Cable & Internet Advice

Does Grande service your area? As far as cable goes, TWC is pretty expensive but there is no contracts or anything like that. They don't have NFL network though.

As far as internet goes, I'd only get TW. You can get 10mbps down and 2up for $29.99 right now i think.

 

Grande gets you the Longhorn Network.

 

If you are lucky you can get grande. Check that first. Twc should be your last choice. In between check out uverse, or dish

 

There was an article the other day about grande upgrading their network. Check them out for sure. They are cheaper than twc. At least get grande for cable tv so you get the longhorn network and nfl. You get neither with twc

 

You won't be able to watch Rockets games, though. You can catch Texans games, though.

 

I'd go TWC for internet or even go through Earthlink (reseller of TWC at a cheaper rate). I have a friend who has Grande TV but just recently switched to TWC for internet only due to consistent issues.

Like others have said, you get NFL and Longhorn with Grande. I am however unsure if they offer NBA league pass. TW does for sure

 

I'm going to piggy back off of this thread. My wife and I just bought a condo and the only offerings for cable are comcast and uverse, which would be preferred?
Thanks for the help.

 

Buy a 1TB jump drive and pirate.

 

You won't be able to watch the Rockets if you don't get League Pass - Austin's a Spurs town.

I have U-Verse and am satisfied. Had Time Warner during college and had spotty Internet (routinely got booted from games). Most of the complaints about Time Warner come from their customer service, which is really one of the worst experiences out there. They don't care because they know they have areas like West Campus on lock (at least they did when I was in school).

 

I've had Grande for internet in 78751 for 8 years now, and it's been nothing but good. Had Roadrunner for the few years prior to that and it wasn't any better. Also, Grande offers "the fastest internet in Texas" now, after they just finished upgrading their infrastructure.

Also, their customer service is a million times better than TWC.

 

Bumping this thread.

I've had AT&T/Uverse for internet for the 2 years I've been in Austin. But I'm having some problems. The signal is spotty. The speed is spotty. Problems have magnified recently. Speed has actually gotten better... when its working at all. It will just stop working for hours at a time.

I have 2 options: (1) Spend hours on the phone with them to try and fix, or (2) switch to someone new (which may also require a lot of legwork but it "could" be better service). Since I'm no longer on one of their introductory 12 month offers I am also now paying $50 a month for 12 Mbps max. I of course rarely get that speed when it is working. So I'm overpaying, it's not working well and isn't super super fast when working.

I don't get Fios at my house.

Unfortunately I don't get Grande, since they seem really cheap. So my switch option is basically Time Warner.

I have not used Time Warner in a while. Is their internet DSL or Cable? Do you get closed to the promised speeds? Is customer service still horrible?

Any other options I'm missing - besides using the threat of a switch to get a better deal and hopefully better working internet??

 

TWC internet is Cable (Thus the C). They have been better lately, and they are running promotions if you ask customer service, which was really great the last I called which was a couple of weeks ago. I called to activate a cable box, but while there they upgraded my internet speed for the second time in the past year, and reduced my bill by more than $50 a month. Granted, it was too high before, but they brought it up. I was impressed.

 

Former TWC Austin employee here. The speeds are relatively as advertised. You will probably be off by around 3-4 mbps. For example, if you go with "extreme" which is a theoretical max of 30mbps, you'll likely get 25-28 ish.

Their internet is cable as it runs through a hybrid fiber/coax network through nodes in neighborhoods and apartment complexes. Customer support is TERRIBLE if you reach the outsourced people. Always dial 512-485-5555 and say you are having issues with CABLE , even if it's for Internet and you will likely reach the call center on Rutland Drive or the other Texas call centers (SA ,El Paso, Corpus Christi) . The phone system will usually route all internet calls to the outsourced people which is called "The National help desk"


Also, get your OWN modem. All (with the exception of one) modems that Time Warner Cable provides are pieces of ****. Either insist on a Motorola SBG6580 (You will get this modem if you get Extreme or Ultimate Internet, if you go any lower like Standard or Turbo, you're gonna have to beg for it) or buy your own modem on Amazon and call into have it activated. It also saves you a $3.95 modem leasing charge.

Also, order the service through the phone and compare what they are offering on the website. Sometimes the stuff I had to offer was better than the site, and sometimes it was vice-versa.

If you settle on speaking with a phone -rep, standard install is $39.99. Make sure to say something along the lines of "I'm ready to give you my business right now, and would agree to the sale, but I'd like to get the install waived" Chances are they are going to accommodate you as it earns them extra commission on top of their hourly pay.


As far as service goes, for me it was great and it never went out. Then again I would open up lock boxes and mess around with stuff. Most of the time, it's usually a wiring issue or dumb ass contractors that do the work and end up putting splitters left and right on stuff and degrade signal.

Also, another thing to keep in mind if this is an issue for you is that the Austin division of TWC does not do contracts, so you can always threaten to cancel to lower your bill lol. ALWAYS mention a competitors name if you do this. I used to not be able to offer a sweet deal until you said the word "DIRECTV" or "UVERSE".

 

I have U-Verse in Austin and I've had a good experience with them as far as internet goes. I'm paying $46.75 a month and just got the following on a speed test:



I've been with them about a year and a half, so I'm not on any kind of promotional deal. Have you tried getting a new modem from them? I've seen issues like you're describing in the past when I've had cable, and swapping out the modem fixed it.

 

I've been with TWC for years and really have no complaints. I will agree with Scionxa on the general crappiness of their modems. I have to reboot often but speed has never been an issue.

 

I believe I have one of their better modems - got it upgraded maybe 6 months ago. Do you know which modem you have specifically?

Are you on a promotional deal? Online even their best promotional deal that would get you that speed is $44.95 a month for up to 18 Mbps. If you want up to 24Mbps is $55 a month.

or maybe you're bundling with other services (which I'm not).

 

That Grande server that speedtest defaults to if you're in the Austin area is terrible. Test on the Comcast Houston server. Watch your ping go down dramatically

 

Yeah I also have TV with them.

I have one of the black 2Wire gateways. The devices do go bad and cause performance degradation, so it might be worth it to just swap it out before going through the hassle of switching providers.