***UPDATE on 5/10/07: Time Warner’s $9.50 “cheapskate” package only available in parts of Costa Mesa. Read more. ***

No Gadgetress review today but something better — if you live in Orange County, that is. With AT&T and Verizon launching TV service here in the past month, it was time to take a closer look at how the services compare. Read the print edition by picking up the newspaper for a measly 50 cents. Or, read the online version here. More thoughts, comments and links below.

The contenders: AT&T U-Verse, Verizon FiOS, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, Dish Networks and DIRECTV.

Here’s what I did
I put together six profiles of customers, from the sports fan to the movie buff, picking channels, services, PVRs and other features geared toward each. Now, finding the prices myself on the TV company websites is pretty much impossible because of all the packaging that goes on. So, each company worked with me to come up with prices for each possible customer — specials not included.

So, newcomer AT&T’s free HD TV for the first year for new customers who sign up by June 30 wasn’t included. Neither was Cox’s $30 off each month for the first six months. Also, package deals got the short shrift because I wanted the companies to stick as closely to the “customer order” as possible. And for Cox users, that means buying only the “family tier” of channels costs $10.50 a month, but add two more and the total is just $13.95. That seems worth it, eh? That means the total price could be cheaper, at least initially.

Also, I understand that these packages may not represent you, even if you are a sports fan. According to Cox, most of its customers don’t have more than one HD digital video recorder and some don’t even have set-top boxes. They just plug the cable right into the TV.

Behind the numbers
The companies sent me either Excel spreadsheets or Word documents. We’ve converted them to easier to read packages (actually, thanks to Kevin Sablan, my editor and web guru). These numbers aren’t the easiest to track down, as any cable customer knows. Specials come and go, as do packages and bundles.

• The cheapskate details
• The family plan details
• The geek details
• The sports fan details
• The movie buff details
• The ultimate details

Afterthoughts…
Different companies offer different channels although these six contenders offer many of them same stuff. So if certain channels are important to you, you may be stuck with one option.

While most people in Orange County have at least two TV options (cable and satellite), more will soon have three as the telephone companies AT&T and Verizon enter your neighborhood.

The newest entries, AT&T and Verizon, didn’t seem to offer dramatically lower prices and there are other caveats. For example, because AT&T uses copper wiring technology to send HD video and high-speed Internet to the home, the house can only view one HD show at a time (the company is working on adding a second HD line though). There are also installation fees, but some are waved for new customers.

The old standards, Cox and Time Warner, have very full services. I haven’t been disappointed with Time Warner, although a ton of other customers were annoyed during the transition to become Time Warner customers. But old companies sometimes only innovate when forced to, such as when Verizon FiOS high-speed Internet launched with 5 to 30 Mbps speeds in Huntington Beach, Time Warner followed. But only after Verizon entered the neighborhood.

Good news for all though. Competition is already benefiting our community.

***UPDATE on 5/10/07: Time Warner’s $9.50 “cheapskate” package only available in parts of Costa Mesa. Read more. ***

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