Satellite vs Cable STX?

For broadband I highly recommend BroadbandVI. Their residential service is simple, reliable, affordable. The rare customer service issues are dealt with promptly and very courteously. I have experience with Choice and Innovative and it has been uniformly bad.

As for TV, I recommend getting off your butt and enjoying the beauty of the caribbean. Who needs tv here? (or anywhere, for that matter.)

Points to consider, anyway. Good luck.

Here are a few thoughts...

CATV is more prone to service outages. Consider the miles of cable strung on utility poles and the devices (amplifiers, line extenders, etc) running to the head end that need to be maintained. The head end itself also needs to be maintained. Consider Innovative Cable TV doesn't have the best track record for service response time and reconciliation. Also consider all that cable in the air is exposed to the high winds and falling trees that accompany tropical storms and hurricanes. Have you been to the VI? Have you noticed how many poles are leaning - just waiting for a good wind to take them out? After a major storm passes restoring CATV is way down on the priority list.

An SATV system would consist of a small dish on your property and some coax feeding your receiver(s). The signals you receive come from satellites orbit ting the earth. So right away you've eliminated all those cables in the streets and all the maintenance and potential problems that go with them. With hundreds of thousands (I'm sure millions) of customers the SATV head ends are staffed 24/7 by highly trained technicians. SATV certainly offers more viewing choices, too.

If a major storm was to take out the CATV system you could be without service for weeks. With SATV, providing you protected your dish from the storm and you have a generator, you will have service back as soon as you reinstall your dish and fire up the genny.

For Internet we currently have Broadband VI. A few years back, at a different location, we had Huges Net. We had way less service problems/outages with Huges Net. Because Broadband VI's system runs through towers fed from WAPA they are susceptible to power outages. With Huges Net if you protect your dish from storms and have a generator you will have Internet service the same as with SATV. Consider, too, you can use VoIP to make calls to the outside word if Innovative and the cell services go out of service.

Bottom line - services fed via satellite will have far less potential for service interuption; their head ends will be much better staffed than local operations; after a major storm you will still have service (providing you protected your dishes and have a generator); you'll probably have more viewing options with SATV.

I have 25+ years of stateside CATV experience. If you were asking about services in the states I would most likely suggest going with CATV. Most major systems in the states now offer TV, Internet, and digital voice (phone) with discounts for subscribing to all three. I don't watch much TV. But I sure miss my cable modem and cable phone services. Here in the VI the CATV and teleco companies are strapped for cash. They can't afford to staff enough people to maintain their systems let alone offer quality service.

Getting SATV or Huges Net will depend on having a clear shot to the "birds" from your location. You should definetly have a site survey done before deciding to go with either of these services.

In over 8 years of providing DISH Network to STX I have encountered 2 homes that could not get a signal. Very Rare.
Also.... Dish can offer HD programming, DVR, PPV, and VOD etc..... Cable can't. Or doesn't here.

For clarification,.. Dish just surpassed the 14 million subscribers mark. You can bet they are on top of their headend!

Be careful signing up for DirecTV. It's actually DirecTV Latin America and they require a 2 year contract. I hear from people every week that regret locking in for 24 months before doing the homework.

Site surveys are free.
Dish Rocks!!

Alan

Satellite TV for sure--Dish not Direc. We have had it for over 6 years, little to no problems.

Broadband for internet (although I do have VI Powernet as a back up.)

At this time our condo has cable and it sucks. The boxes only work half of the time. We can usually get cable but don't get the menu of what is coming on. I know it's the box because my neighbor gets theirs.

Terry,
I've been contacted by the manager of your property. We are going to meet next week to look at the existing cabling of your buildings.
He stated that he's aware some of the cabling needs to be replaced. If it's in the properties budget maybe we can get Dishnetwork bulk programming into your home.(tu)

Great news, I sure hope so.