I finally succumbed to the wiles of a cold caller a week or so ago and agreed to combine my cable, Internet and telephone providers into one. Normally I’m pretty resistant to these calls, they happen so often and I’m not really inclined to change things just to get the latest ‘hot deal’.
They installed the new hardware today.
Pros
I have a new PVR with a bigger hard drive so now I have two.
For the next six months I will be paying a bit less for all three services combined.
I don’t have to reprogram my Harmony remote to control the new PVR.
Cons
I have less TV channels available than I used to.
My Internet connection speed is about half what it was (about a quarter of the advertised speed).
I now have a digital telephone box under my TV as well as a Xbox360, PVR, PS3, AppleTV, DVD Player and audio receiver.
I can’t use the wired telephone sockets I have installed unless I drape an ugly cable around the room.
I’m having problems collecting my email.
The new PVR is not the fancy new Gateway system.
The wireless connection dropped out this afternoon.
Overall, not the ‘upgrade’ I was hoping for.