Before you do anything, you need to check to see if AT&T U-verse is available in your area ... if it is, then **** any of the satellite or cable providers out there because U-verse beats them hands down, IMO. I've had Direct and Dish both ... the last one being Dish. They were pretty interchangeable to me. Also, U-verse has the fastest in-home internet speeds that I have ever seen. It's downright amazing.
I have UVerse now and I like the TV service they offer, but their internet sucks compared to Comcast. I used to get about 30-40mbps download with Comcast. I have the highest available internet with UVerse (up to 24mbps) and I only clock around 5mbps normally.
Haha. I was surprised I had it in this house when we bought it earlier this year. It is only in as handful if neighborhoods off of a 3/4 mile stretch of one road here on the northwest side of town. Maybe 100 homes in the entire town.
I had comcast in my old place and I agree it is faster. However uverse is plenty fast for what I've want. I've only noticed the difference once.
I think the picture quality delivered by Direct is better. I have also had Time Warner Cable and I would rate them ahead of Comcast. I really, really, really hate Comcast.
It must vary with proximity to the switch? I don't know ... all I know is my internet is faster than it's ever been. Maybe mine sucked so bad before that anything was an upgrade.
I just changed to Comcast after about 3 years of U-verse. Like others have said, my eyes must not be keen enough to find any discernable difference in picture quality between the 2. The internet is far superior, and I'm saving about $40 a month, for a year anyways, when I'll need to renegotiate. I didn't mind U-verse, but the equipment failures were fairly frequent, and you needed an appointment for each one for some jackass to come out and put a new box in.
I have Dish and have had Direct and Comcast in the past. From a quality standpoint, I think they're all similar but Dish is less expensive.
Its likely just bad luck on my part, but I had 3 boxes and 2 gateways die within maybe 6 months. Had no problems for a few years prior to that. It just pissed me off that they won't overnight you equipment, or allow you to go pick it up, which Comcast will do.
I might have Direct if I had a spot to put a dish at my apartment. Doubtful that I can get one pointed the right way. I'm not even sure though, because I'd still have to get internet and I don't really know what the cost would end up being. As it is, I have Comcast, and it's fine, except it doesn't have BeInSport in HD, not that you soccer haters care about that.
Called Dish yesterday and asked them to lower my bill. They took it from 97/month to 47/month for a year. With no contract. It's just a month-to-month rate.
Gonna have to look into Dish. Comcast will look you in the eye, raise your knees over their shoulders, and sodomize you without even a smile.
Comcast can suck a [penis]. They applied a 300gig Internet cap (regardless of which speed you pay for - which mine is much faster than most so I'm basically penalized for using data faster) to many markets including Knoxville. For every 50 gigs over its $10. I used to, on average, use 700 gigs easily (with 2 people). I can imagine very tech savvy, larger families being ****ed as they use upwards of 1 TB a month probably. Especially if someone works with Remote Desktop for work or has a job that is basically any type of Internet service. It's criminal and they are stuck in the Stone Age (with their infra stricter and Internet policies) where people just use Internet for email and browsing the web. Everything is streamed now and 1080p Netflix streaming can use like 6-10 GB/hour. This cap also includes the upload of data. They only do it in markets with no real competition - so Chattanooga doesn't have it since they know everyone will just switch to fiber.