Go thru Dish direct or AT&T

[djsebran]

I will be signing up for Dish Network within the next month after my comcast
special expires.

My question is- Is there any advantage/disadvantage for obtaining Dish thru
AT&T? Has any one gotten a bundle discount by going thru AT&T? Any future issues with upgrades compared to Dish directly?

Thanks

 

[Claude Greiner]

Best thing to do is sign up through Dishstore and take advantage of our special satelliteguys offer. Once the system is installed you can convert the account over to an AT&T bundeled account for telephone and DSL.

BTW, the only savings you'll see with AT&T are if you can get both DSL and phone. No DSL, then no real savings!

 

[kovach]

You might want to check with AT&T first. Last I checked, there used to be a small discount if you bundled it with other AT&T services ($4-$6 per month), but seemed like you had to initially start with them, there was no conversion process (other than quitting dish for a specific period, like a month or more, then resigning up through AT&T).

 

[BoisePaul]

One other advantage that you might see by going through AT&T is that you could probably get the 622HZ (HomeZone) receiver that provides some additional functionality beyond that of a standard 622. If you're not thinking about an HD DVR and wouldn't use features such as remote scheduling or VOD, then this probably doesn't matter. If you're not interested in the HomeZone receiver, then by all means, see Claude first.

 

[Van]

You might want to check with AT&T first. Last I checked, there used to be a small discount if you bundled it with other AT&T services ($4-$6 per month), but seemed like you had to initially start with them, there was no conversion process (other than quitting dish for a specific period, like a month or more, then resigning up through AT&T).

I would not make that recommendation, after checking through the bundling recently and comparing their packaging to what I have with cable right now its actually cheaper for me to stay with cable for my net and phone and get dish for my tv. Seems that since the merger went through with bellsouth that the companies getting more gready.

 

[kovach]

I would not make that recommendation, after checking through the bundling recently and comparing their packaging to what I have with cable right now its actually cheaper for me to stay with cable for my net and phone and get dish for my tv. Seems that since the merger went through with bellsouth that the companies getting more gready.

Probably varies by region, cable system, date ordered, etc.

I know AT&T has DSL starting now at $10 (part of the Bellsouth merger agreement) in some regions for it's slowest service, going up to about $35 for it's highest speed service (6 Mbps) which I think is 1 Mbps faster than Charter offers in my area, and at least $10 cheaper.

The catch is though, for DSL, I believe you need to have your phone service with them, which I think starts around $15. But at years end, again as part of the Bellsouth merger agreement, I think that restriction is dropped, which then probably opens you up to using their comparable-to-cable-phone service over IP called CallVantage (unlimited long distance, a ton of features, for about $29).

Worth looking at. I've seen where AT&T comes out cheaper, and cable comes out cheaper, just depends on where you live for the most part.

 

[Van]

I have charter telephone with unlimited local and long distance, voicemail and all the calling features you can get, it comes out to $29 a month.

Att/bellsouth complete choice plan with 15 calling features and the unlimited local and long distance calling plan puts the monthly charges at 54.99 not including taxes and franchise and fcc fee's.

Adding the 6 meg dsl pushs the price to $92.94 wich is $37.95 for the dsl while Im paying $34.99 for charter high speed 5 megs.

so for $64.98 I get cable net and phone or I can pay $92.94 for similiar in telephone, its pretty much a no brainer for me. What I've found is that att is only doing the special deals in area's where it isnt the only phone company but in places like Georgia where one or more counties will be covered by one cable provider and one telco provider this is not the case and there are rarely any deals to be had.

 

[kovach]

True, you're comparing apples to apples, but some folks may be quite comfortable with a lower speed internet and less phone options, and could possibly knock as much as $25 off their bill if they're trying to cut costs.

I have the lowest speed DSL and am quite pleased with it for normal day to day activities, although I would say the rare time I download something huge the faster speed would come in nice!

But for someone wanting to cut costs, in my area, the cheapest Charter phone/internet package is $59.98. The cheapest AT&T phone/dsl package is $31.84. Granted, the AT&T package doesn't come with a load of phone features or long distance, but that may not be important for someone who either doesn't make a lot of long distance calls or makes them via a cellphone that has unlimited long distance. Bumping the phone up to something comparable to what Charter offers would put the AT&T package at $54.99 (but still with the lower speed internet).

I will concede that, comparing apples to apples, Charter does seem to have AT&T beat by maybe 10% (although there may be some bundling at AT&T that reduces or eliminates that advantage), but it appears you have fewer choices with Charter, possibly making AT&T a more economical choice for some folks who don't want or need superfast internet and/or unlimited long distance and loads of phone features.

The other thing I've noticed about DSL though, as opposed to cable internet, DSL doesn't seem to be available in as many areas, it's really pick-and-choose/luck.

Just pointing out that it's probably wise to check the details of both before making a decision, although for someone who just has to have the fasted internet available, looks like Charter does have AT&T beat there (but you'll pay for it).