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?