3 for 1

I like bargains.

Who doesn't.

So when I saw a Promotional Package from our cable provider for their HD Triple Play deal for about the same price we are currently paying for cable alone; it got my interest.




You see, HD Triple Play is cable service, Internet service and unlimited local and long distance digital phone service all rolled into one package.

I had actually started looking into all the VOIP service providers out there with the intent on getting rid of our current phone bill, and there are certainly plenty of them out there. Just do a search for "Internet voip providers" and you will get plenty of sites which compare plans and providers.

There was also a company which has a phone device / system which can be purchased in many local retail stores such as Best Buy. They are called OOMA.

So anyway, back to my cable provider and their deal. The more I thought about this, the more I liked the idea of giving them a try.

For the price of my current cable bill, I get the following:

- The exact same channels and options I currently have from cable, HD channels, and programming.
- I greatly increase my bandwidth for Internet access from my current DSL connection to that of Cable.
- I get to use the same phone number I always have with all the same call waiting and caller ID features including voicemail.
- I get to do away with my DSL Internet service bill.
- I get to do away with my Phone bill.
- Yes my new cable bill is a combination of all those, but as I said at the beginning. I am not paying much more to the cable company for all of these service than I already am. The difference is literally 7 whole dollars.
- 3 for the price of one.
- And their voicemail is accessible not only from the phone but from the Internet as well. You can even respond back to a person who left you a message via email.
- I also have one belly button to push should something go wrong.
- And everything is on one bill, which will be paid automatically.

Hopefully the biggest hassle will be to adequately change all my Internet email addresses.

Perhaps I will technically keep the DSL Internet access going for a few weeks. That way I can still access the old email via the web just to make sure.

Oh and an interesting side note. While I was researching all this, I naturally had some questions for my cable company. So, one evening while watching the kids and TV (sort of) I figured I'd go online and try out their support pages. They give you the option of opening a secure chat window with a service representative, so I figured I could watch one more thing and try it out. When I connected the window said I was 18th in the queue. Great, I'm on hold. I probably should have turned the sound up on my laptop to find out if their was also the obligatory elevator waiting Muzak.

Anyway, it was not too bad a wait. About 10 - 15 minutes. The interesting thing was that twice I noticed that my number in line went back up! In other words, one minute I was 7th, then the next I was back up to 8th! I wondered who could be more important than me?

Well, when I finally decided to purchase the package deal, I naturally did it all online. As a last confirmation part, they automatically open up a secure chat window with a representative to confirm everything and answer any questions.

Guess What?

I was now one of the important people...

I entered the queue next in line and I realized that new service payment customers, new money, are more important than current old customers, old money, with nagging questions and, that I just bumped everyone else waiting online back up another number... ;-)

Anyway, it seems to be a great deal. I'll see just how great after next Tuesday when they come to make the actual switch and installations.