I have been a customer of Cablevision for over 11 years. I am one of those people that when I like something I usually stay with it forever.
I have been having problems over the last year with both my TV signal and Internet. During critical time of watching “Game of Thrones” my TV signal with pixelate and skip causing my wife and I to miss key parts of the story. She was not happy about this. My cable modem on the other hand would lose connectivity again when the wife needed it the most.
I called Cablevision and to their credit they did try and fix the TV issues by digging up my front lawn and replacing an underground cable. I had the modem replaced several times with what looked like a very large car battery (I was under the impression technology should get smaller and thinner not bigger and fatter). Again the Mrs. was not happy about this. But we suffered through and called Cablevision every time we had and issue. It got to the point where we had them on speed dial and customer support knew our name.
A few weeks back Verizon had a deal going on where I could get a TV, Internet, and Phone for a cheaper price then what I was paying Cablevision . I did some research and talked to my neighbors that had Verizon and the reviews were overall favorable. I live in neighborhood where we have several choices for providers so switching is not difficult.
So I made the call, scheduled the appointment and last week had Verizon install the services. 6 hours later we had a Verizon lit house. As a technologist I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the services.
My TVs are showing in true HD. I can see every wrinkle and freckle. The TV guide provides so much information about every show. Navigation is a little complicated but it is nice to have options and different ways to get around.
As for the Internet, I got bumped up to 50mb/20mb and I am getting true speeds all day every day. There are no peak times where my service degrades. Configuration is done all thru Verizon provided software.
Overall the move was worth it. Let’s see how it goes over the next 2 years and what the increase in my contract will be. Being able to do more with my TV and Internet is always a plus.
A CIO's Voice 