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Totally unbundled - Making the switch to DirecTV.

After two and a half months of WOW UltraTV, we finally gave up. The internet service has been rock-solid, but the phone service won't connect to our ADT system, and the TV service just isn't ready for prime time.

(Literally. We are constantly losing all high-def channels at the worst possible times, including yesterday during Breaking Bad.)

When you factor in that our WOW bundle cost in excess of $160/month, making the decision to unbundle was pretty easy. We're going with DirecTV, AT&T for their barebones landline, and - for the moment - keeping WOW for internet. More on that later.

With DirecTV, we'll be going with the Choice Xtra bundle. At the outset, we're going to be saving an absolute ton of money - TV is going to be about $50/month to start - meaning our "unbundle" will be about $40 cheaper than our bundle.



It will creep up to about $84 by the end of year 2, but even at that point, our "unbundle" will only approach the $160 we are currently paying WOW.

I ponied up for the HR34 Home Media Center from DirecTV, because I like the idea of a terabyte DVR that can record 6 channels at once and distribute to other TVs.

We'd like to switch to Comcast internet (at least temporarily), because WOW's 15 Mbps service is $50, while Comcast's is $29.99 for 6 months (granted, $62 thereafter, so we'd probably be switching back).

I went ahead and bought an Arris Docsis 3.0 cable internet modem on eBay for $44 - Comcast charges $7/month for modem rental, making the breakeven a somewhat ridiculous six months and change, even if the modem has no residual value when I sell it.

We AREN'T switching to Comcast internet now, however, due to a particularly Comcastian display of logic that I feel compelled to share. Turns out that because we had Comcast services at our old house three months ago, we are neither new customers NOR existing customers - and as such, we can't get the new customer discount OR the current customer discount. (!!!) Our only option is to pay full freight from Day 1.

Or, I guess, another option is to wait another 35 days to sign up. Or to just stay with WOW at $50 and ignore the 6-month discount period. Oh, Comcast, with your weird, byzantine subscriber rules and utter lack of logic and common sense.... I almost miss you. Almost.

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