I hate Comcast

I recently moved to a new place. It has been exactly one week, today.

Among the things which have yet to be set up is television service. Before the move, I had a plan. I had done research and figured out the best deal would be to go with a dish. Costs less than cable for all the channels I wanted. Almost half.

However, last week while signing the lease, I discovered that dishes could not be installed at our new apartment community. We could only get cable. And that service could only be provided by Comcast.

Comcast is a rip-off.

There I said it. They monopolize an entire area, with a willing local government. And then we the consumers are stuck with insanely high cable rates. And all those taxes. Win-Win for The Man.

The last time I paid for cable was a little more than a year ago. My how things have changed. Before, the total bill for cable and internet was around $120. Now, cable alone is pushing $100.

They used to offer incentives at Comcast. I remember when I signed up for the first time, we got six months of a really decent price. Now, the actually do have the $33/$33/$33 offer. However, unfortunately for me, this offer is not available in my new neighborhood.

Verizon now has just (thankfully) been permitted to offer digital tv to allow for some competition and another alternative to cable television. However, the Montgomery County roll-out doesn't include downtown Silver Spring.

With no good options available to me, I must either go with Comcast or rabbit ears.

I wish the whole a la carte cable options happens some day - you know, where you can pick and choose which channels you would like to watch. Unfortunately, the cable industry runs the world, so there is no real hope of that. I would use only a few channels - NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, ESPN, ESPN2, and Comcast Sports Net. Oh yes, and the NFL Network. (Which just adds another dimension to my dilemma - should I shell out an extra $15/month to upgrade basic cable to digital, for the sake of the NFL Network? I am still working on that.) I don't need the hundreds of channels, or those useless digital music channels.

So. Nearly 90 bucks a month for 11 channels. To an evil monopoly. I don't want to do it. But I'll have to. The rabbit ears don't pick up a thing.

I hate Comcast.