Internet Access
 

Hi Folks,

My wife and I just signed a contract on a new home in Lake Deaton. Who do folks recommend for internet access?

We are considering not getting a land phone line and go with our cellphones only (AT&T). Anyone else try this with success?

We are also thinking about not getting TV service and use an antenna for Over-the-Air channels. Anyone else try this - anything close enough to pull in?

Thanks.

Tom of Villages AV advertises on here and recently installed our over- the- air antenna last month. It pulls in all the network stations from Orlando in high def plus 3 PBS stations and too many to count Spanish and Church stations. Not a lot of variety, but then it's working out OK, along with Roku streaming. In our opinion, Comcast didn't offer much in the way of programming either.

If you have a choice either Brighthouse or Comcast for internet. For your phone service go online and buy an Ooma phone system $109 at Amazon. You will have free phone service for life just like what the cable companies charge you $30 a month for! All you pay is Fed Tax about $3.50 a month. I use it here and at our summer home. Been loving it for 4 years now.

I'd definitely recommend Brighthouse. And, even though you're thinking of just using cell, I went with the Brighthouse home phone as well - $10 per month with free long distance, caller ID, etc. I have not been disappointed.

Thanks so much for the info. We have been using Over-the-Air plus Roku for quite sometime and have been happy with it. I wasn't sure of The Villages was close enough to Orlando to pull anything in. I am glad to hear we can go that route.

I agree with TNLAKEPANDA that OOMA is great for phone service.

Also "AEREO" works great for low cost television service. Most people have never heard of it. Not available here yet, but coming soon to Orlando according to their website. When it became available to Boston last year, it also became available to a much wider area including Cape Cod. Hopefully The Villages will be included in the Orlando market area.

We close this Friday and called Brighthouse. They told us that they are not North of 466A. Which is better Comcast or Certury Link for speed or cost? We would like not to go with cable and stream.

For internet service, DSL (phone line) is about 5 Mbps compared to 25-30 Mbps for Cable Co. Some people in TV report up to 50 Mbps with Comcast. I bet the brand new installs on Brighthouse may be up there too (temporarily). Just depends how many users are on your node. You may find 5 Mbps is too slow even though they call it "high speed". That term is not regulated, so even 1 Mbps can be called "high speed". And nobody will tell you how fast it really is. If you plan on streaming any shows/movies/games, forget DSL. Only cable will do. I believe Comcast offers Business Class internet too. Don't know how fast it is and I'm sure it's more money.

You can measure your internet speed here...
Speedtest.net by Ookla - The Global Broadband Speed Test
Tonight my PING to Tampa is 60 ms and my speed is 28.52 Mbps DOWN and 5.86 Mbps UP. That's pretty typical.

What's yours and who's your ISP?

Skip

we have centurylink lowest speed, 756k, and stream movies with Roku with no problem

Century Link DL 3.6 UL 3.9

Of course they advertise faster... :1rotfl::a040::blahblahblah:

COMCAST for sure!!!

I have only cellphones and I use Comcast internet at the fastest speed they offer. All is well so far.

Which cellphone company do you use and where are you located in The Villages?

26ping
download 57.24
up 5.09


Comcast best there is!

they have whatever you want. slow is cheaper but who wants slow when surfing the net!

Is Brighthouse, Cable, DSL or Dish type service?

CenturyLink could only offer 10 mbs internet speed when we considered changing to them. So we just decided to stick with Comcast, unpleasant though they are to deal with.

I spoke with Century Link and they will do fiber to the house and can do 40 Mbits/sec for $72.94 + tax + $6.99 ( modem/router). Seems a bit pricey to me.

We have tentatively decided to have Villages AV install an over-the-air antenna in our attic. This is the sort of stuff I normally do but I got a good price and they told me they have had a lot of success with 100 installs. For phone service we are planning on going with OOMA. For internet, I am still undecided between Century Link (fiber to the house), Comcast, or Brighthouse. Still waiting for Brighthouse to get back to me. Thoughts and ideas are welcome. Thanks.

Well not quite 100 but definitely more than 50 ;)

My biggest hesitation in cutting the cable was not so much the channels we'd loose, but loosing the DVR and having to watch live tv (gasp!). But then I discovered the Tivo Premiere which can record two off-air programs at once and provides great DVR features (better than Dish, which we liked). It gives access to several streaming services, too, eliminating the need for a Roku/AppleTV. So far I'm barely missing the few shows I used to watch on pay tv, but I'm sure glad to have the extra $50 in my pocket each month!

Please report back on what you decide for internet service. We have gotten used to over-the-air television up north so will probably call Villages AV for that. For phone service we have been using Magic Jack Plus for a couple of years now along with cell phones, so when we get to The Villages the only thing we need to look into further will be internet service. Would appreciate knowing what you find out.

How much for the attic antenna??

I spoke with Tom at Villages AV - very nice, knowledgeable, and helpful. I recommend you call him for a price.