Help me out here. ATT has a great 2yr offer - I want to stay but???

[h2ouup2]

Okay, I have been a DISH customer since 2000. I currently have the Hopper 3, 4K Joey, and four wireless Joey's. My bill is around $170 per month.

My Internet is with Cox currently the Ultimate @ 300 Mbs @ $99.99

Home Phone through Cox at about $46 per month unlimited (Yes I still need a land line).

So my TV, Internet and Landline totals abound $316 month.

ATT calls and offers me TV (comparable to DISH channels, and equipment (I think DISH equipment is better thought). Their internet is Fiber, but only 50 Mbs, so a 250 Mbs drop in speed.

We do stream 4K to three TV's, usually not at the same time, PlayStation, Netflix, Amazon Prime etc.

ATT is offering a 2 year deal for all of this for $114.99 or around $200 per month less! Now the money is certainly better. I can think of a lot of things I can do with $200 per month. However I like the DISH remotes better, the speed of the Hopper vs the Genie, the PTAT recordings, and the 17/19 tuners (depending on your set up).

I also like the speed of Cox vs ATT (however they may be getting Gig speeds within the year (1 mile away now).
ATT has no limit while Cox has 1 TB per month (I did have 2 TB per month, but they changed it recently. I really don't go over so I'm okay most months, but if I do go over it's $10 per 50GB which could add up fast.

So please give me your real world experience on the Pros and Cons of staying with DISH or moving to ATT/DTV.

Thanks your your time and willingness to chime in.

Regards.....

 

[goaliebob99]

I would make sure you get an HS17 and 4K clients as that will give you the maximum amount of tuners. That is going to be the closest to the hopper until anything new launches in a few years. Remember DirecTV is the only provider doing live 4K at the moment, so that will get you the sports in 4K to include NFL in 4K later on this year aside from the PPV 4K channel and Audience in 4K.

Fiber is worth it. Although, I dont know why you wouldn't have gigabit already. Maybe some upgrades need to happen at the CO side. CenturyLink was like that for me at first, and a few months later after requesting gigabit, I was provisioned for it.

For me I moved from Cox to Gigabit Centurylink and have yet to look back. I did this when they lowered the cap on the Ultimate Tier from 2tb to one. CenturyLink also has no cap. I got locked into gigabit for 80 bucks a month for life on GPON fiber through CenturyLink. DirecTV is a premium product that I think you would like. The only downside really is the lack of Epix and some of the more popular HD channels like FXM HD. I hope that DirecTV gets around to adding these soon. The speed of the genie is improved. I know my clients fly through the guide.

Aside from the hardware, DirecTV isn't bad and is worth the shot. Full disclosure, I am an ATT employee, so I do have a bit of a partial view. If you can save a bundle by switching to us, go for it.

 

[bwexler]

I have a H3 and one Joey 2. I do not have any 4 K TVs.
I bought a 4 way HDMI spliter and power 3 TVs with it, I ran the cables. It was less tha $100 for spliter and cables. The picture is great on all 3 sets, but they must all watch the same channel.
I think I have the Smart Pack with locals for under $70/month all in.
I have Cox cable for Internet 50 MB down. I just lost my promo pricing and now it is $55/month for another $25 I am sure you could add phone. I have not had a land line in over 10 years.
I have 2 Verizon smart phones for $71/month.

So I have what I need for under $200/month.
I'll bet you also have cell phones.

 

[osu1991]

I would check and see what Cox has to offer too. Offers should be the same for OKC as Tulsa. The Contour 2 is a pretty good dvr with voice remotes and 1000hrs of storage. My sister left Dish and WIndstream for a Cox bundle last year. Contour 2 with 4 contour minis a regular mini advanced basic and HBO, 150/10 internet and 2 voice lines for $220 all in with taxes and fees.

I made the same move myself which is what prompted my sister to look at the Cox bundles.

 

[mdonnelly]

I made that switch a month ago. I like the discounts, but I hate not having the OTA channels integrated with the Directv service. I had to get a Harmony remote and hub to make it easier for my wife to switch over to OTA, and even with that there is no guide data. If Mama's not happy, nobody's happy.

 

[Riverpilot]

If you record a bunch of shows at once, you're going to run into problems and have to do the old, record at a later time dance.

4k is ok, but you need a genie and then a client to access. AT&T doesn't have 4k boxes by themselves. As well at the moment, there's only 3 channels that plays anything. A live sport every once in awhile. A channel with programs like Planet Earth, etc.. and a 4k PVP channel.

If you go their newest hardware, HS17... research it. It hasn't been released nationally yet. It only has 7 tuners and each TV needs its own client which takes one of those 7 tuners while that TV/client is in use, plus uses 1 tuner for each recording.


I'm with AT&T currently and am thinking of switching to Dish just because of the hardware. AT&T is years behind Dish on the hardware front, but ahead in programming. (4k etc..) If AT&T actually released hardware that competed with the Hopper 3 I would stay with them, but... it gets to be a pain when recording and only having up to 5 tuners, or with the HS17 up to 7.

 

[AlaJoe]

When the HS17 comes out nationwide I will likely switch back to direct with ATT but not for a standard genie.

 

[KAB]

I strongly suggest you take 4K out of your decision process. It's pretty much a DUD when it comes to PQ improvement/enjoyment. IOW, no diff of significance.

 

[rad]

You didn't mention who your wireless company is. If you have AT&T unlimited plan you get more discounts like $25 plus free HBO and any streaming doesn't count against your data usage caps.

 

[h2ouup2]

Thank you for all the replies!

I already have unlimited wireless on my iPhone, so I'm good there. I have no complaints with what I have now, other than the data caps by Cox, but $200 a month less is hard to beat. However if the hardware is way behind, I don't know if being locked in for two years would be worth the pain, if it was frustrating.

How has the service of ATT/DTV been?

 

[Riverpilot]

Service with AT&T is fine. I imagine, just like Dish, there are bugs that come up every one in awhile, etc..
If you're going with a genie, make sure to get the HR54. The HS17 hasn't come out everywhere, it's SUPPOSED to launch nationally in August, but it seems to be working out fine with people who do have it now.

There are some complaints about the mini-clients. C61K.. having audio problems at times, etc.. but it doesn't seem to be a wide spread issue.

My only real complaint about AT&T is the huge lack of tuners. They REALLY need to get on the ball and at least equal the Hopper 3.

 

[AlaJoe]

Thank you for all the replies!

$200 a month less is hard to beat. However if the hardware is way behind, I don't know if being locked in for two years would be worth the pain, if it was frustrating.

How has the service of ATT/DTV been?

$200 a month for 2 years is $4,800. That is a lot of money to me. In fact if I could save that much I would seriously have to consider turning my tv service off all together for two years and just go OTA. I would not give the equipment a second thought to save that kind of money. I have had Direct and while the Hopper is better than the Genie, the Genie is a strong second.

 

[fsds]

I Like the remote your are able to say what you want change channels etc, also just got a Amazon Echo that works with Dish, DirecTv does not have any of that, and you will notice Xfinity does not ever compare Dish to them always DirecTV. Good luck with your decision, Yes ATT very tempting I have internet service and cell phone, with them and they are always sending me these great offers.

 

[blake20005]

I Stayed with dish for the tv, and att for internet and phone ,cox phone is a hybrid voip it isnt a true landline like POTS, ATT offers me the 50Mbps and unlimited home phone for 60.00 Total (30.00 Extra for unlimited data)(90.00 total with Unlimited data, the 50/10 ATT plan is really more of a 55/12 Mbps if you don't have the iptv with them so you can at least stream 2 x 4k channels at once maybe 3 at the same time would be an issue.
talk to dish if you been with that that long , i renewed a 2 year agreement but my bill is Hopper3 ,4 joey's and 2 x 4k Joeys with top 250,dish movie pack, sho/starz/hbo,cinemax is about 165.00 with all fees and taxes and 90.00 to At&t so 255.00 taxes included and thats with 6 boxes with dish (pretty much your setup) the 50/10 ATT and unlimited data and home phone.I had cox 300/20 ultimate but they were not as reliable as ATT ,not even close, you can steam 3 to 5 HD programs /1 or 2 4k on your 50 meg internet and you wont notice much difference, the lantency is better with att than with cox for gaming by 10-30 ms . if its about just the money i would go with what att offered you but if you like dish right now i would try to make a deal with them and just get att for net/phone. you will have 2 companies so if 1 goes out , you can do on demand with dish(or something Dvred) through your internet line or watch something on your tv. if you go all with att and your line goes out you lose all 3 services.

 

[mdonnelly]

When I made the switch to Directv in June, I hedged my bets on Dish and kept a minimal service for $45/month. I haven't used that "Plan B" yet, so I called today to terminate Dish. I told the representative that I wanted to terminate, and let him talk me into keeping the same minimal service for $13.95/month. I may not ever go back, but I decided to keep "Plan B" for another 12 months.

 

[Voyager6]

If you think that you can go with a 50 Mbs service from ATT, then what would 50 Mbs (or 100 Mbs) service from Cox cost? Go with Vonage or BasicTalk to lower that phone bill to around $12/month. Ooma or NetTalk would be even cheaper. You need to compare apples to apples here.

 

[Almighty1]

Cox Home Phone service is VoIP and not landline as only the telco can deliver landline. You can get a Internet adapter and use any VoIP provider from free (Google Voice which provides unlimited calls and also free long distance to the US and Canada) to other providers like broadvoice which is $9.95 a month.

 

[cjdish]

Cox Home Phone service is VoIP and not landline as only the telco can deliver landline. You can get a Internet adapter and use any VoIP provider from free (Google Voice which provides unlimited calls and also free long distance to the US and Canada) to other providers like broadvoice which is $9.95 a month.

Cox Home Phone service is VoIP and not landline as only the telco can deliver landline. You can get a Internet adapter and use any VoIP provider from free (Google Voice which provides unlimited calls and also free long distance to the US and Canada) to other providers like broadvoice which is $9.95 a month.

Just for my own info... what do you gain by having a "true landline" over one of the other phone services?? For "backup" phone service to my cell phone, I use MagicJack at about $3 per month. I've used it for several years now and it works fine.

I recently renewed with Dish and prices that I could negotiate were about the same between Dish and Directv. I really wanted to stay with Dish as I like the H3 with it's great number of tuners; bigger hard drive (ie 2 TB); and better association with an external hard drive (ie.. the hard drive acts as an addition to the Hopper and doesn't "replace" the existing hard drive like with Directv). Plus it's a "simple" thing, but I like the idea that with Dish you can see all the programs that are on "prime time" (from 8 to 10-11) on one screen without scrolling . While I usually carry the Protection Plan, the CSR told me I lose nothing by not carrying it, and activating it only if/when I have an issue! FYI .. My new contract with Dish resulted in no equipment charges for upgrading to H3 and Joey 2's; and free HBO/Cinemax for 6 months. I've had Directv in the past and was prepared to switch back if I couldn't get a reasonable offer from Dish.

PS .. a friend told me about Amazon Prime ...which for $96 per year gives you access for free to a bunch of Amazon videos; Amazon audio (which is not as good as Premium Spotify).. but still OK ; and free shipping with most stuff ordered on Amazon. Seems like a good deal and after trying it free for a month decided to keep it. I found several original Amazon shows that I liked and for about $8 per month seemed like a good deal.

My internet is OK with cable from Charter at 60 Mbps and no data cap at $65 per month. I've had very few instances of difficulty streaming 4K ; Netflix; Amazon; Spotify; etc

 

[littlecloud319]

Just for my own info... what do you gain by having a "true landline" over one of the other phone services?? For "backup" phone service to my cell phone, I use MagicJack at about $3 per month. I've used it for several years now and it works fine.

With a traditional land line you can still have phone access during a power outage with a corded phone. With voip you need electricity to power your equipment.

 

[rharkins]

Around here, if you buy a bundle that includes telephone and internet from AT&T you do NOT get a POTS land line. You get VOIP through the UVerse modem. There are two POTS jacks on the back that get wired into you home phone wiring. I'm not sure AT&T will even install new POTS lines any more. They have filed with several states to stop providing POTS service completely.

AT&T used to provide a Belkin UPS for their UVerse modem, but I understand that they no longer do. They suggest you buy your own UPS if you want telephone service in a power outage.