Internet, TV, phone

[SabrinaFrance 8]

Hi, my fiancé (USC) is now back living in the States after several years with me here in France. He's got us an apartment in Northern Virginia, everything is pretty much set up, ready for me to get there BUT the internet.

With his new job he doesnt have much time to do the research, so I offered to do it but I have to admit I dont understand much.

We need internet, TV would be a plus, phone line would be very optional. In our area apparently our 2 options seem to be Verizon and Comcast. And let's just say they are prohibitive!

Here in France, I am getting the TV+Internet+Phone (national and international unlimited) for 30 euros. So when I am looking at American prices I want to cry

As I am not planning on spending 100-120USD (before taxes) on a communication bundle, I would like to know if you guys know different options.

I am sure a lot a people know a lot more than I do, so pardon my stupid question, but, does DSL internet mean that you absolutely need to get a phone line? Verizon is advertising a DSL service for 19.99USD/month, nowhere it says that you need a phone service but I am wondering.

So I am taking any advice, personal experience...

Thanks a lot in advance

[Heracles 417]

Welcome back to the states, where everything is a rip off.

Unless you have verizon fios in your areas, I would stick with comcast cable for the internet. Regarding your home phone, you can always sign up to a voip service like vonage, which actually includes unlimited free calls to France.

Both Comcast and verizon do offer bundles for about $100 a month. (Phone + internet + TV). The price here excludes 3 trillion separate taxes of course.

Edited November 3, 2009 by Booyah!

[rsn 135]

You always need a "phone line" if you want to use DSL. However, some providers now offering to sell DSL service w/out charging you for (providing you with) a home phone service. AT&T is one provider that does this. I'm not sure about Verizon, you will need to call them or check their website. I doubt you will get phone service + TV + internet for anything close to 30 euros here in the U.S.

Edited November 3, 2009 by rsn

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Don't bother with the phone service - just get a basic internet package.

If you don't follow network TV you could skip the TV entirely and just use netflix and hulu. There's really not much need for a dedicated cable TV package these days as most of the big shows (except HBO and Showtime, I think) are streamed online anyway.

For phone - use a cell phone for domestic calls and/or Skype for international.

You can also use Google Voice, a pay as you go service, which allows you to make $0.02 calls from your cell phone to other countries.

Edited November 3, 2009 by Gene Hunt

[Heracles 417]

You always need a "phone line" if you want to use DSL. However, some providers now offering to sell DSL service w/out charging you for/give you a home phone service. AT&T is one provider that does this. I'm not sure about Verizon, you will need to call them or check their website. I doubt you will give phone service + TV + internet for anything close to 30 euros here in the U.S.

AT&T does not service these areas.

I think my taxes on those services are $30.

[SMR 368]

Hi, my fiancé (USC) is now back living in the States after several years with me here in France. He's got us an apartment in Northern Virginia, everything is pretty much set up, ready for me to get there BUT the internet.

With his new job he doesnt have much time to do the research, so I offered to do it but I have to admit I dont understand much.

We need internet, TV would be a plus, phone line would be very optional. In our area apparently our 2 options seem to be Verizon and Comcast. And let's just say they are prohibitive!

Here in France, I am getting the TV+Internet+Phone (national and international unlimited) for 30 euros. So when I am looking at American prices I want to cry

As I am not planning on spending 100-120USD (before taxes) on a communication bundle, I would like to know if you guys know different options.

I am sure a lot a people know a lot more than I do, so pardon my stupid question, but, does DSL internet mean that you absolutely need to get a phone line? Verizon is advertising a DSL service for 19.99USD/month, nowhere it says that you need a phone service but I am wondering.

So I am taking any advice, personal experience...

Thanks a lot in advance

You can get DSL without phone service. I have Verizon DSL but don't pay for the phone service.

[Heracles 417]

You can get DSL without phone service. I have Verizon DSL but don't pay for the phone service.

How fast is that? Tell me it's at least 15 mb. Lie if need be.

Edited November 3, 2009 by Booyah!

[rsn 135]

Regarding your home phone, you can always sign up to a voip service like vonage, which actually includes unlimited free calls to France.

...exclusive of calls to mobile phones.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Hi, my fiancé (USC) is now back living in the States after several years with me here in France. He's got us an apartment in Northern Virginia, everything is pretty much set up, ready for me to get there BUT the internet.

With his new job he doesnt have much time to do the research, so I offered to do it but I have to admit I dont understand much.

We need internet, TV would be a plus, phone line would be very optional. In our area apparently our 2 options seem to be Verizon and Comcast. And let's just say they are prohibitive!

Here in France, I am getting the TV+Internet+Phone (national and international unlimited) for 30 euros. So when I am looking at American prices I want to cry

As I am not planning on spending 100-120USD (before taxes) on a communication bundle, I would like to know if you guys know different options.

I am sure a lot a people know a lot more than I do, so pardon my stupid question, but, does DSL internet mean that you absolutely need to get a phone line? Verizon is advertising a DSL service for 19.99USD/month, nowhere it says that you need a phone service but I am wondering.

So I am taking any advice, personal experience...

Thanks a lot in advance

You can get DSL without phone service. I have Verizon DSL but don't pay for the phone service.

You don't need a separate phone service either - its pretty easy to make internet calls.

With some cell phones now you can actually make free calls over the internet via a wifi connection.

[HAL 9000 96]

You always need a "phone line" if you want to use DSL. However, some providers now offering to sell DSL service w/out charging you for (providing you with) a home phone service. AT&T is one provider that does this. I'm not sure about Verizon, you will need to call them or check their website. I doubt you will get phone service + TV + internet for anything close to 30 euros here in the U.S.

AT&T offers dry loop DSL. No phone line at all, at least in the Midwest market.

The max DSL speed is comparable to the average cable speed (6 vs 6), and is about half the price.

As for TV AT&T also has Dish network, and the programming ends up cheaper than cable, but with this you have the dish location limitations as well as possible service outages.

Nothing will be near that price in France unless you lock in a good promotion, which these days are nearly impossible to secure.

[rsn 135]

You always need a "phone line" if you want to use DSL. However, some providers now offering to sell DSL service w/out charging you for (providing you with) a home phone service. AT&T is one provider that does this. I'm not sure about Verizon, you will need to call them or check their website. I doubt you will get phone service + TV + internet for anything close to 30 euros here in the U.S.

AT&T offers dry loop DSL. No phone line at all, at least in the Midwest market.

The max DSL speed is comparable to the average cable speed (6 vs 6), and is about half the price.

As for TV AT&T also has Dish network, and the programming ends up cheaper than cable, but with this you have the dish location limitations as well as possible service outages.

Nothing will be near that price in France unless you lock in a good promotion, which these days are nearly impossible to secure.

AT&T will still need a phone line to deliver the DSL service to your house, they simply won't provide analog telephone service on the line.

[HAL 9000 96]

You always need a "phone line" if you want to use DSL. However, some providers now offering to sell DSL service w/out charging you for (providing you with) a home phone service. AT&T is one provider that does this. I'm not sure about Verizon, you will need to call them or check their website. I doubt you will get phone service + TV + internet for anything close to 30 euros here in the U.S.

AT&T offers dry loop DSL. No phone line at all, at least in the Midwest market.

The max DSL speed is comparable to the average cable speed (6 vs 6), and is about half the price.

As for TV AT&T also has Dish network, and the programming ends up cheaper than cable, but with this you have the dish location limitations as well as possible service outages.

Nothing will be near that price in France unless you lock in a good promotion, which these days are nearly impossible to secure.

AT&T will still need a phone line to deliver the DSL service to your house, they simply won't provide analog telephone service on the line.

I've done the AT&T installation routes a few times. Worked there a while back. Basically- the analog phone signal travels on the inner core of the telco line while the DSL routes on the larger volume surrounding this core. What dry loop does is pretty much ignore the analog portion of the line. Even before they marketed dry loop- you could still request it without phone service. The plain ole way of doing so is in filtering the DSL signal from each hub location instead of the way it used to be done (with those plug-in line filters when we had phone lines and DSL).

Its far from perfect as a technology since the signal still runs on copper.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

rabbit ears and dial-up. FTW!

[SabrinaFrance 8]

Thanks for everybody's answers. AT&T came up a lot, unfortunately it doesnt serve Northern Virginia.

Hi, my fiancé (USC) is now back living in the States after several years with me here in France. He's got us an apartment in Northern Virginia, everything is pretty much set up, ready for me to get there BUT the internet.

With his new job he doesnt have much time to do the research, so I offered to do it but I have to admit I dont understand much.

We need internet, TV would be a plus, phone line would be very optional. In our area apparently our 2 options seem to be Verizon and Comcast. And let's just say they are prohibitive!

Here in France, I am getting the TV+Internet+Phone (national and international unlimited) for 30 euros. So when I am looking at American prices I want to cry

As I am not planning on spending 100-120USD (before taxes) on a communication bundle, I would like to know if you guys know different options.

I am sure a lot a people know a lot more than I do, so pardon my stupid question, but, does DSL internet mean that you absolutely need to get a phone line? Verizon is advertising a DSL service for 19.99USD/month, nowhere it says that you need a phone service but I am wondering.

So I am taking any advice, personal experience...

Thanks a lot in advance

You can get DSL without phone service. I have Verizon DSL but don't pay for the phone service.

SMR would you mind telling me what kind of plan of DSL w/o phone line you have with Verizon, and esp. how much a month it is?

The most important for us is internet, cable and phone we can def do without. France will call me as they can do it for for free.

I am really surprised at the prices though, there are so many providers in USA, and they are all so expensive, I thought that capitalism was good for the customer for this reason: lost of competition = attractive prices lol

[NickD 203]

We are still paying for TV, net, and phone service for my wife's son in Venezuela, same thing we have here, but we are paying 156 bucks a month, and even with the crooked exchange rate, his same service is costing us 45 bucks a month. For some reason, cell phones down there are also dirt cheap, but can't say the same thing about food. You actually can live without TV, phone, or the internet, I even tried it for a day and survived. But for some reason we are getting super creamed in this country. And over 50 bucks a month in taxes for the two, cable company and the cell.

360 bucks goes out the door per month for cable and cell with these microvolt signals far surpasses our food bill, and it's only in this country. Yes, we are getting ripped off.

My son could get free internet from his company, they set up a wireless system, but unfortunately he purchased a home out of his town and out of range. Something to check on. But you can check your yellow pages or ask your neighbors what they are using. I see cellular phone companies are also offering internet service, but have to sign a contract and buy one of their phones.