By far, the best solution I have run into is FIOS by Verizon. But because The Villages had a sweetheart deal with Comcast, FIOS is not available in The Villages. CenturyLink has a competing fiberoptic service south of 466 that a couple of people I know have and to like very much. The advantage of fiberoptic is that you can get great TV and fast broadband service.

Comcast is the next best broadband solution but the worst TV solution. I have had both Dish and now DirecTV and love both of them. Outages are infrequent and minimal in length. The weather related outages are much less annoying thant he frequent pixelation we were experiencing with Comcast. Both satelitte companies offer much more and much higher quality HD than Comcast. The equipment features that the satellite companies offer is dramatically better than Comcast as well. The DirecTV equipment surpases Dish as well. The all room DVR feature is great.

If you like sports DirecTV is terrific. They emphasize special events and give expanded coverage for some events such as the Golf and Tennis majors.

When I pointed out to Comcast that their prices made it look extremely advantageous for me to at least consider a satellite company they would not do anything about their prices. They told me it sounded like I wanted satellite so I listened to them and switched first to Dish and now to DirecTV. Comcast was exactly correct, I love satellite. Either company is a great choice. I switched from Dish to DirecTV simply to get their promotional pricing for a year (worth about $400 over a two year period). DirecTV seems a little more proactive with customer satisfaction programs.

The only problem is that I live North of 466 and that leaves me stuck with CenturyLink DSL for broadband service. DSL is okay for surfing and email but it stinks for streaming video. There is such a strong movement for streaming video that DSL is beginning to look like dial-up internet. Comcast will sell you broadband only service but the monthly cost is like $60 per month.

You can probably tell that I am not a big Comcast fan. I was a customer of theirs for over 25 years and I can honestly feel they were more concerned about their next new customer than they were about a long term customer. I sure don't like the Comcast monopoly they have in The Villages Now they have acquired a majority share of NBC and I am scared to death that will signal higher cost across all TV providers since they will sell NBC stations to the satellite companies, FIOS and anyone else that wants to deliver TV products. Seems like too much control for one company to have in something we all consume.

Ed