TV and internet in Hurricane (sales, house, subdivision)

[flaglerwrangler]

We will moving to Hurricane shortly and I want to set up TV and internet service.
What would be the advantages, disadvantages of Dish, DirecTV, Baja?

[GoOutsideAndPlay]

Most people here choose Dish over DirectTV when it comes to satellite providers. While DirecTV has the NFL ticket, I still don't think they have local channels (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX out of Salt Lake) in High Definition. Not sure why. But if HD is important and you watch a lot of network TV, Dish is a better option. We have Dish and really like them. Never had one problem with service.

Baja is a local cable company. Don't know much about their service and offerings other than they recently indicated they now offer 50MB internet at a pretty reasonable price. I have CenturyLink for internet and it's like 12MB - but when you do the speed test it's more like 2-3. I'm not wowed or dissatisfied, more indifferent about them. I do think it's overpriced and am considering switching to Baja for just internet and phone line to see if they might be any better or the same for about $25 a month less. Just haven't taken the time to make the call. Interested to see what others say as well.

[DoggieMatic]

I had Dish in Hurricane & it was good. Much of Hurricane is not wired for CATV/broadband Internet, but obviously they're expanding. If you can't get broadband internet thru some sort of wire (cable or DSL), your other option is known as MMDS -- Microwave Multipoint Distribution System -- which means you'll have a small microwave antenna put on your house & aimed at a local mountain. The receiver is then hooked up to your modem/router. Speed is much slower than true broadband, and similar to DSL but even DSL has gotten much faster. This service is pretty common in Hurricane, but despite slower speeds, etc. costs just as much of not more than faster cable/DSL would, so use it as a last resort.

I was damaged by Baja's gross incompetence 5 years ago & based on my one experience, I would never recommend them & in fact, I hope they go out of business:

In addition to their flyers mailed directly to my address, a Baja sales agent shows-up at my door (uninvited) one day shortly after I moved to Hurricane. "If you sign-up today, we'll get you hooked-up within a week!" I'm told. After further discussion, I sign-up, anxious to have service so I can watch the Olympics. No tech shows up on the day service was to be started (I took the day off work & waited...), nor did they call. I called them that evening & was told the techs got delayed on another call (no apology), & that my new scheduled date of service was 2 weeks away. Not wanting satellite & Baja being the only cable TV provider in the area, I tolerated this BS. To make a long story short, a full month after a Baja agent initially promised me service, and numerous excuses being given to me after I called Baja (they never took the initiative to contact me with updates), a service tech came out to my house. Within a few seconds of being there, he was nervously smiling & told me "I thought this was going to be the case -- sorry, but this subdivision isn't wired for cable yet." So I missed the Olympics, missed a couple days work, and missed numerous TV shows, etc. all due to Baja's extreme incompetence. I did call to complain, along the notion of "Don't send out sales agents to go door to door unless they've confirmed the area is wired for the service they're trying to sell!" & the woman was apologetic, but made no offer to compensate me in any way for my wasted time, lost income, etc.