Not Just a Startup Company Anymore
Written: Dec 14 '03
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Pros: Excellent products, packages, and service.
Cons: Service Interruptions do occur, dropped channels, rebooting is necessary.
The Bottom Line: Recommended services to avoid choppy broadcasts for reasonable price. They have excellent products, packages, and services.
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| storyland's Full Review: Cablevision |
Cablevision has evolved from a startup cable company from wired remote and basic cable service to infrared control and customizable packages including a family package. This modern cable company has services with more premium channels like the Starz SuperPak, with channels including Video on Demand, Showtime-On-Demand, HBO ON-Demand, IFC, Playboy, Thirteen, and the MegRack channel, than they started in the late 1970s. Service expansion includes digital cable through Digital IO with more on demand services than ever before. They also have a naughty, Adult On-Demand. The company expanded to include cable Internet through Optimum Online and Internet telephony through Optimum Voice. The impressive services and packages include:
Digital iO has the basic digital package that includes the price of the current package at $9.95 that includes one hundred more channels than the current package plus video on demand features. As they imply, if it’s television, it’s Digital iO.
Broadcast Basic includes standard channels that are in the area without cable, plus a few other channels and the Cable Channel Guide. The Basic is at $8.95 and it beats normal television reception alone.
The standard Family Package includes full-featured cable programming with Broadcast Basic stations, at $35.89 per month. It includes channels like Animal Planet, the Cartoon Network, the Disney Channel, Discovery, Nickelodeon, and the Learning Channel for the kids, great news channels like CNN, CNN Headline News, Fox News, and others for the premium news watcher. Channels under the Family Package includes, A&E, AMC, Bravo, Comedy Central, and MTV and MTV2, about fifty channels in all more than Broadcast Basic. More diverse channels include Court TV, the Food Network, Religious programming, WE: Women’s Entertainment. I think this package is geared for just about everyone.
IO package include iO Gold and iO Silver:
iO Silver includes the Encore ensemble of channels, the HBO cluster, and the Starz! Package, plus basic digital channels at $64.95 per month.
At $84.95 Cablevision can still upgrade the service to iO Gold that includes basic and iO Silver package, plus 26 others including such channels like the Showtime group (12), the Cinemax channels, TMC and a few others like NBA TV. It’s an excellent value if you can afford it. I can’t see myself spending close to $100 per month on cable television alone. But this premium package is excellent despite the price.
They even have add-on services that range from $1.95, $9.95 to $11.95 depending upon what cluster of channels that you choose. There are subscription mostly On-Demand services that is $4.95 per month extra and they can be cancelled at any time. Most of the subscription service requires the cableviewer to have the corresponding premium channel first. Separate Sports Packages are priced seasonally.
Optimum Online through Cablevision offers Broadband cable Internet at $44.95 for Cablevision customers and it is the fastest thing available in the retail market, at least in the NY Metropolitan area. It’s over twice as fast as DSL, which is high speed Internet through a phone line, and it’s 100 times faster than dialup.
At $34.95 for Optimum Voice, an Internet-Telephony system for unlimited local and long distant calls is a service for those who are constantly making toll and long distance callers and after a certain number of calls, it’s the best value offered in telephone service. However this service is only available in certain Long Island areas.
I don’t have Optimum Online but tried it in another area where I live and it is much smoother and faster than ordinary dialup, but others long ago told me that it’s very similar to DSL. I never had DSL so I can’t compare.
I don’t even have Optimum Voice which is an Internet based telephone system that is virtually free or nearly free in France. I do see myself owning a cellular phone that works indoors and outdoors and I’m paying $29.99 that offers great service and to have virtually unlimited calls to anywhere in the United States. Though I don’t know when I’ll have one but it’s just a thought in comparing two different systems offering nearly the same service before buying something that is nearly free anywhere else. The phone system in France is nationalized that can offer substantially lower priced service with slightly lowered quality than our own. While divestiture created a lot more jobs, more companies, and more services with more expense to the general public than France.
I only have cable service at $34 per month which includes basic package, Digital iO basic, with the Starz! Package that I find very helpful. Getting into stories of all kinds helps with a lot of pain over the loss of a family member.
Service interruptions are few, with mostly clear not spotty broadcast, though there have been a number of times that I had to reboot the box that includes a 2 megabyte electronic drive. The digital broadcast gets stuck every once in a while, and there are a few dropped channels that I had to call the company about. But all in all I think it’s four stars with excellent customer service with great field and service help. Cablevision is not just a startup company anymore with full cable and high speed Internet services available for those who need and can afford them.
New services include High Definition TV (HDTV) from HBO, Showtime, and others without cost but you will need to have a high definition television set and a high definition cable box. Another service include online bill payment which isn’t online so much that you would have to register for this service that Cablevision sends a bill to your email address and after sign-up have the balance of the bill deducted straight from the checking account. Electronic payment is better than writing a check since typically the bill payment system from your bank leaves the account and posts on an electronic payment system. It’s even better if the system is free. However if the balance is taken out of the account like a debit card deduction, than it’s no better than that.
Please note that this is only a review of the products and services offered through Cablevision and it is not advertisement nor is it intended to be advertisement. Products, services, and availability may vary in the Tri-State Metropolitan New York City area and prices are subject to change. Most likely one cable company is only available in a certain area, so if Cablevision is the only company it provides a good service.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 34.00
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Epinions.com ID:
storyland
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Member: Richard
Location: New Jersey
Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
Expert in American foreign policy.
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