Internet options
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As someone who’s something of an expert at all things Internet, here are my (truly) humble opinions on Internet/Phone/TV and the assorted options we have.
Regarding SCPD, when I moved here in 2015, we had Verizon FiOS and a bulk/HOA contract with Verizon. As a guy who was working at the time and needed the quality of Internet that FiOS brings, it was a huge attraction.
Then Verizon sold some of its west coast bulk contracts and lines to Frontier and for some reason, we switched from Frontier to Spectrum when the bulk/HOA contract was up. At the time, I was upset over it - FiOS is still the very best Internet service you can get, Fiber-To-The-Home is the ultimate.
Frontier did go through a bankruptcy and reorg but is still; around and doing business. The bankruptcy enabled them to keep providing service and actually build out more fiber offerings. I kept my Frontier service all along and it’s been fantastic. Rarely any downtime - like 2 or 3 times in 8+ years.
The switch to Frontier from Verizon was not super smooth. But that was to be expected. Frontier has different price schedules, customer service, billing systems, etc. Converting all that over took a month or so and it was a hiccup, no doubt.
Spectrum was always offered in SCPD since I lived here. I had it in San Diego before moving here, and I really have only a few nits with it. They were using set top and router boxes from a company called Arris and those were just horrible technology. I’ll get more into this.
Spectrum and Frontier both offered a kick back to the board as part of their contract negotiations when the Frontier contract ended. This is not unusual - you can see Spectrum offers a free line if you pay for one (for 12 months tho) for their wireless phone service. It’s typical to offer some sort of spiff when contracts are signed.
Spectrum offered a few hundred thousand dollars more and we signed with them. The switch over to Spectrum was equally as ugly as the switch from Verizon to Frontier. Verizon had installed fiber to all the homes in SCPD at a figure of at least $1200/home (Frontier installer told me he was here doing installs and it was a lot more than $1200). Anyhow, $1200 x 5000 homes is a $6M+ investment in infrastructure for SCPD and someone else paid for it! Now it’s sitting idle beneath the streets, except for the few of us who remain Frontier customers.
Spectrum offers us all 2x (likely used, certainly old model) DVR boxes because they only have 2 tuners. With 2 tuners you can watch a program and record only one other program. With 2 boxes, you can watch one and record three. The first thing tech support at Spectrum (and their online Knowledge Bases) tell you to do is reboot your router. That’s simply a hack. There’s no reason your router should need rebooting (but it does with Spectrum!). It’s due to buggy software in the routers (Arris, remember?).
Sun City Shadow Hills cut a bulk HOA deal with Frontier for $12/month for 500/500 service, no TV or phone - just internet. The 500/500 means you get very fast upload and download speeds. Download is loading a web page or streaming some tv show or movie. Upload is used when you take a photo with your phone and it gets uploaded to the cloud so you can share with family and friends. Or when you attach some file to an email it all needs to be uploaded. If you take a photo and send it via text message, it also uses uploads speed. If you have a security camera and/or doorbell, the video is sent using the upload speed. If you do any video chats (Zoom, etc.), it uses upload speed.
To compare, we get 500/20 internet speed and TV and those DVRs from Spectrum for roughly $50/month. The 500 down is the same, the 20 up is 1/25th the speed. To put it in perspective, if you upload a video on Spectrum and it takes 5 minutes, the same file uploaded via Frontier takes something like 20 seconds. Rough numbers here, but the difference is that big.
Spectrum’s TV service can be streamed using smart TV or a device like Apple TV or Roku or Amazon Fire via the Spectrum App. I personally refused their DVRs and went with watching what little live TV I do watch using the App. It actually works quite well. I don’t care about DVR since I can watch pretty much anything via Video On Demand (VOD) anyway.
The big deal about Spectrum is two fold - bigger kickback and they show Dodgers games. The Dodgers games is probably enough to seal the deal, but the quality differences remain.
Spectrum also offers free WiFI when you are out of your home. They have tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of WiFi hotspots throughout the USA (and Canada and Mexico and maybe even overseas). You have to download a “profile” to add to your phone to activate it. The download is available through the MySpectrum app.
It doesn’t appear that Spectrum has any WiFi hotspots in Sun City Palm Desert. The free guest WiFi in the main clubhouse is Frontier still and 4/4 in speed. Yeah, 4/4, not 500/20, not 500/500. I notified Clint Atherton about this and how Spectrum would almost certainly install multiple hotspots throughout SCPD, including the clubhouses and along the golf courses. The idea would be for residents and visitors to have internet access (and WiFi calling, FaceTime, etc.) while walking or walking the dog(s) or playing the golf courses or using the other sports facilities…. I heard nothing back and as I post this, I tested the connection at the clubhouse yesterday and it is still 4/4 Frontier.
As far as streaming services go…. Live TV is likely on its way out. The number of people cutting the cord and not paying for cable TV is dwindling very fast. Disney is looking to ditch cable TV for an ESPN streaming service and that’s going to really hurt cable TV (who wants it without sports?).
There’s another plus to having Spectrum TV. They give us free HBO/Max. To pay for HBO/Max is a $15+ cost and we don’t have to pay it. To get it (and you’re out of the home WiFi profile), you need to sign up for an account at Spectrum’s web site. When you start up the Max (was HBO) app, it asks you if you want to sign in with your cable provider and you do that and choose Spectrum. You have to use the username/password from the account you signed up for at the Spectrum site. And you’ll get to stream Max at no cost above the ~$50/month we’re paying in HOA fees for Spetrum. There may be other services (Cinemax?) that we get at no charge as well.
I recommend the following services (you will get some of the latest movies in theater on some of these, if not soon after theater release):
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Hulu (commercial free or not) for Video On Demand from a large catalog of past TV shows, current and new movies, current seasons of network shows, and some pretty good original programming (movies and series).]
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Paramount+ gets you all the latest and new Star Trek series as well as the old ones, plus all the CBS programming and live CBS as well, along with other original TV shows and movies. You also get to watch the catalog of old shows and movies from Paramount’s catalog. Showtime is bundled with Paramount+ so you get both.
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DIsney+ gets you some great original TV shows, along with shows from Disney owned networks (National Geographic is one of my favorites). Disney is heavily oriented towards Marvel and Star Wars content along with children’s content (good for the kids).
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Peacock gets you original programming and movies from the NBC and related franchises. You get live NBC TV as well.
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YouTube is full of content that can entertain for hours. From tennis and golf and softball tips to cooking shows to home organization, to music concert footage. You can get it for free, but it will contain obnoxious (timing) ads. It costs over $12/month to get it ad free. If you watch it a lot, it’ll save you a lot of time and pain of having your videos constantly interrupted. If you want to buy NFL League Pass (for $400!), you need to pay for YouTube TV at about $70/month.
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Amazon Prime is one of the major Movie and TV show production houses around. They have a massive catalog of old movies and TV shows along with Thursday Night NFL Football. Their original programming has some hits and some misses (as do all the services). If you’re bored and looking for something/anything to watch, Prime will have something for you.
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NetFlix is very expensive and is one of the least watched streaming services in my household. I find the hit ratio is rather poor, though they do have some big hits (like Stranger Things). They have a lot of worldwide content that is of little interest to me (shows in Hindi and Japanese and Chinese, languages and culture that I’m not part of). On the other hand, NetFlix has the best technology to make your TV and sound system perform at their almost full capabilities (HDR and Atmos).
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Apple TV+ is a fantastic service, IMO. It’s not very expensive and they have quietly built up a catalog of high quality programming. Their hit ratio is comparable to HBO’s (remember Sopranos and all the great shows and movies they made over the years?). Their programming is all in glorious 4K/HDR and Atmos audio. Pairs well with AppleTV but also with most streaming devices and smart TVs.
I’m leaving out quite a few others. There are too many to list here (CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, CNBC, ABC, ESPN, TNT, etc.).
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Michael: I stayed with Frontier as well. Spectrum signal strength was terrible on my street (Sunrise Canyon Ave), and they could not find a fix. One thing to note on Frontier. My monthly bill kept increasing at the same time Frontier was dropping premium content. I called Frontier an complained a couple weeks ago, and on the spot they dropped my charge by about $100/month for twelve months. They also were very responsive on a couple service issues I had with the tv and telephone. FYI, I supplement Frontier's service with Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime (including BritBox, Acorn, and MHZ add-ins).
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@jfricketts excellent! My experience is similar. I’m paying about $100 for gig service and phone.
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Also, I want to suggest that you get phone service.
We live in a community of seniors. We all can have a 911 kind of event at any time - us or friends visiting.
You do get E911 service with cell phone service, but you really want every option available to be able to call for help. Your mobile phone might be in another room, or you need to find it. You may be in a dead spot with poor service.
I have a phone line and we have a few wireless handsets scattered around the house so there’s one real close all the time.
With frontier, we pay $10/month. Cheap insurance. The phone system with handsets was maybe $100.
We leave the ringers turned off since we’re otherwise inundated with spam calls. Just for outbound calls.
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I already have the Frontier phone service. Had a few issues when they made the switch over to new software, but now it is working fine.
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I stayed with Frontier for numerous reasons...always felt Spectrum equipment was subpar. I may be paying an arm and a leg but that's my choice and it's my entertainment budget...going to theaters etc don't interest me. I also appreciate the internet speed. I will call Frontier to see if I can get a break in my price. Thanks for the tip.
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I can write up a home theater guide - equipment I recommend.
On it!
