Advice... I have ATT Uverse Internet and DirecTV

[CashGap]

What's my best move? I'm happy with both, and there are no other viable internet providers in my neighborhood.

Rather than do the days of research to figure out the best next move, I thought I'd post my details here since y'all have it down to a science. Seems like the AT&T/DirecTV synergy should benefit me in some way. I'm not interested in moving our cellphones off of Verizon, unless the savings are just overwhelming.

With DirecTV I have:

HR24-100
HR44-200

That takes care of the only two TV's in the house. Wholehome networking over Cat5. I have no real issues with the equipment, unless you tell me I should have something better at no charge.

Package is Ultimate Package 240+ with Audience and Sports Pack added.

New Charges:
DIRECTV Channels 105.98
DIRECTV Equipment Services 27.99
Other Charges, Adjustments & Taxes 15.92
Total New Charges 149.89

I have DirecTV protection plan, and qualify for an "Every Two Years" upgrade.

With AT&T I have:

Uverse Internet Max for $57/month plus tax. "Up to" 12MBPS down.

Wouldn't mind a new AT&T device, this one is five years old (Fiber/Router/Wifi unit, Wifi is not used, I cable to my Airport Extreme)

Both have been in place for five years.

With Verizon I have four iPhones and an iPad.

I don't really care to have more programming, though I'd take a deal on Sunday Ticket. I don't care to have more locations, but remote watching on iPhone would be nice. I don't think I'm close to tapping the capabilities of the equipment, but something much better is available, why not.

Any help or guidance is appreciated.

THANKS

 

[maestro7]

Off the top, things will be likely changing by Q4 this year, what with AT&T's streaming services it will be bringing to market.

As an amateur investor, I actually listened to AT&T's earnings call for the past quarter, and even with investor questions, no questions were specifically answered when it came to this future service -- only that AT&T expects increases in video subscriptions throughout the rest of the year.

More specifically, in your case, I'd actually recommend dropping the DirecTV Protection Plan, assuming you have this for the purposes of being able to upgrade every couple of years. I say this because, as a subscriber for somewhere between 10 and 15 years now, I don't think we've ever paid for an upgrade for our equipment. Then again, we simply wait about 5 years between upgrades, and that eventually allows our account to be eligible. So, we got the same benefit but didn't have to pay a monthly premium for it.

Other than these things, my recommendation would be to stick with DirecTV instead of U-verse, simply due to anecdotal evidence suggesting that U-verse -- on its best days -- is still susceptible to bad customer service or perhaps not the best equipment or pricing for packages (I did say, "anecdotal," so I could be smoking up the place with hot air on this ). Further, I think that whatever DirecTV is rolling out at year-end could be a serious benefit for those of us on AT&T wireless and DirecTV. As such, when our 2-year agreement on our HR44 is up next month, we're staying put to see what happens.

I hope this helps!