The Best Deal in Broadband: $39 for AT&T U-Verse, Amazon Prime, HBO | |
The Best Deal in Broadband: $39 for AT&T U-Verse, Amazon Prime, HBO  $39 a month gets you U-Verse broadband Internet, basic cable, HBO Go, and a full Amazon Prime subscription. We're all in the same boat here: Your relationship with Comcast, Verizon, Time Warner, etc. is neutral at best, and "I HATE THEM WITH THE FURY OF A THOUSAND SUNS," on a normal day. But it's a struggle we all must endure to access those precious Internet pipes (unless you're some lucky duck who can get municipal broadband or Google Fiber). But not all is doom and gloom in the world of Big Telecom and Big Cable. Sometimes a deal so rad comes along, that you must put aside your burning hatred, of only for a moment. Now is one of those times, my netizen friends. AT&T recently took the wraps off a new U-Verse plan aimed squarely at the cord-cutting generation. For $39 a month, you can get broadband Internet "up to 45 Mbps" (depending on location, which speed you choose), basic cable for your TV, HBO (namely HBO Go), and a full Amazon Prime subscription. That means free two-day shipping, and access to Prime Instant Video. Let's put this deal in perspective: HBO normally costs $15 a month on top of the cable you're already buying. Amazon Prime is $99 a year, or $8.25 a month. That's $23.25 a month right there, which means your heavily-subsidized broadband connection and basic cable cost a whopping $15.75 a month. That is less than I spend on Humble Bundles every month, I think. The usual caveats apply: The cost doesn't include taxes, fees, etc., so you're on the hook for equipment. And AT&T does employ a 250 GB bandwidth cap per month, which is standard fare for many cable companies (even if it's really, really crummy standard fare). Furthermore, the deal is only good for the first 12 months you're signed up, and appears to be limited to new customers. So fees, a 12-month cap, and other cable company nonsense are all in play here. However, a "I AM GOING TO CANCEL IF YOU MESS WITH MY RATE," call to AT&T in that twelfth month could keep your bill at the advertised $39, and a similarly aggressive call when buying the service could knock out some fees, too. Complaining while frothing at the mouth works 60 percent of the time, every time. If you've read anything I've written on here about cable companies, net neutrality and the like, you know I am not a friend of the cable industry. The relationship I (we?) have with them is a necessary evil...but even I know a good deal when I see one. Source: AT&T | |
A shame that's not available in our area. We're finally ditching our horrible dsl that keeps optimizing from 3mbps down to .6mbps soon. For the same price from TWC we'll get "up to" 15 mbps internet, no tv or any of the rest of it included. | |
Is this an article or an ad? | |
I ilke to get Verizon fos internet and phone but I don't lke their tv service so will try to stick with cable | |
Thanks for the heads-up, Devin. Believe it or not, the bandwidth cap isn't widely known or discussed in online circles, so I'm glad you pointed that out. FYI, this cap applies to both downloads and uploaded data, so it's a total of all internet activity. Anything over the 250GB limit means $10 charged for an extra 50GB, which isn't that bad I guess. | |
It's making a population of people that effectively lives on the Internet aware of a good deal that allows cheap(er) access to the Internet. and Amazon Prime. But hey, thanks for the snark. -Devin Connors | |
Yet another internet provider deal that is only for a limit period and then they jack the price up. | |
250GB/mo bandwidth cap is not standard fare. I wouldn't touch this deal with an 80ft pole. Eastlink is trying this where I live, and I've been extremely vocal about it. | |
But bro, aren't you willing to pay for the privilege of having access to speeds that allow you to use your entire cap up in half a day? Fucking thieves. | |
It's Up to 45 meg, that means it will last WAY longer then half a day, maybe a whole day! What? You expect to actually reach your advertised speed? | |
In the states? As far as major providers go? It kinda is. | |
This statement right here makes me very sad. As someone who works in customer service call center (for a cell phone company) i beg yall to please keep in mind the following: A. The person that you are screaming at is a human being. this has been a public service announcement from your friendly neighborhood 'customer solutions specialists,' who would like to remind everyone to chill the eff out. | |
Basic cable apparently doesn't actually mean cable. It just allows you to get the free local channels that you can already get for free. And this up to 45 MBPS is actually 24 in my area with faster speeds costing more. Then there is the fact that there is a 100 dollar install fee and 7/month cable box fees and more. | |
I'd be highly interested if U-Verse existed where I live. Sadly, it does not. That means I have to stick with slowish but affordable ATT DSL or go with the faster but more expensive Suddenlink Cable. Since I live in an apartment complex, cable seems like a bad idea. | |
Your article reads more like advertising copy than it does an actual piece of journalism. That would be an issue at any point, but you really can't blame the gaming community for being a touch sensitive on these matters right now. For that matter, where on earth was the 'snark'? | |
So, this means that your "heavily-subsidized" broadband still costs more and provides less than half the speed of my internet. On top of that, yours are advertised to go "up to 45mbps" whereas rela life reports show HALF the speed, whereas mine would get sued into oblivion if it tried anything bellow 90mbps (plan says 100). While this may be good deal to these people that complained about paying 200 dollars for internet, its hardly beating normal internet elsewhere. | |
Or you can just go with a company like....charter....which has decent speeds, no cap, a set monthly fee of $40 for 5mps (may seem slow but it's 10x faster then verizon in my area which I had before...and it doesn't go down 20 times a week for hours on end). You can get netflix for $7 a month (new members I think pay $9 now) and screw the cable companies all together, and you can run your phone off your internet as well (tons of ways to do it...I use my cell phone company, which gives me a wireless device at home to allow me to have home phones (on a different number then my cells) for like $5 a month). Sadly charters cable tv blew (or at least did over a year ago when we tried it, but the internet is great and has gone down like twice in two years. $40 a month, with no hidden fees, no signup cost, no rental equipment etc...works fine for me. | |