We have been itching to get away from Comcast digital cable for a long time. The problem is they give you a good deal with their bundles that include voice, internet, and TV service. When you try to remove one of these, you miss out on the savings of the package.

But the cable TV service just needs to go, as the channel selection and quality is well below par. There is so much talk these days about high definition, there isn’t much selection with Charter cable TV. So I began doing a little research on who else was providing service in my area.

I am fortunate to be one of the individuals who have a couple of choices. Unlike some folks who can only choose from either the cable company or Direct TV satellite TV, I have a third provider in this area. The old telephone company in my neighborhood has been enhancing their network. So now I have an additional player with Verizon and their fiber optic service.

That doesn’t mean of course I won’t have the same issues. It could put me in the same boat as with the cable television company, because telephone guys want customers to bundle their television service with internet and voice service. If the deal works out well, I’ll be satisfied. Then again if the service is poor you are in the same circumstance that I’m in now with the cable operator.  So I’m doing a side by side comparison, Direct TV vs cable so I make the right decision.

The evaluations I found on the internet are pretty good on telecom television service. Of course it is new, there is sometimes a risk with a new technology like this, and some folks share their bad reviews. Some of those reviews are the quite amusing, because people make the decision to write a dissertation on their horrible experience and share it on the world wide web. They rail on the company like it is some huge conspiracy to screw the customer, as if the company does not want to make money!

Another way to go that I’m seriously considering is of course satellite TV. Because we have seven TV watchers in our house, we usually buy a high end cable television bundle. The satellite companies are pretty even, as the DirecTV Premier package and the Dish Network Everything package are both right around $100 per month. Sure that’s fairly pricey for pay TV, but when you make the comparison with treating your family to dinner and a show, it really isn’t all that much. Some of my family speak Spanish, so the Direct TV Mas package looks pretty good. The great thing is that there are plenty of DirecTV pros and cons to help me decide which direction to take.