Hi all. I've done some research on those around. I start with a caveat, that I am biased against satellite, so I'll just compare EPB and Comcast, and make a comment about DSL.
I have used both Comcast and Charter over the last several years. Where as I was happy with Charter in Wisconsin, I am unhappy with Comcast in Chattanooga. I have had several dealings with this company. I used to play a lot of online games, and would get frustrated because Comcast would shut down their service, with no pre-warning, for hours at a time. Additionally, their customer service is less than what one would expect for $160 worth of service per month. Comcast is a cable company, meaning you share your bandwidth with your neighbors. The more people online, the slower your connection becomes. You'll get great speeds at 3am, and horrible speeds at 5pm. I had a DVR box, and was disappointed with that. There would be times they would adjust their programming (Super Bowl ran over for example), but not adjust the times listed in the DVR, so 1/5 shows would have the first 5, or last 5 minutes cut off when I went to watch them. Sure you can adjust the start and end times to start and end 5 minutes different, but if you have back to back shows everything gets screwed up. Also, I had the medium TV package, so not every channel was available to me. Their box had no settings to filter out the channels I didn't get, so there would be times I'd find a show in the guide I wanted to watch, only to find out later I don't have that channel. There is a whole laundry list of complaints I have about them, but I'll leave it at that.
EPB is cheaper than Comcast on every package. I haven't looked at individual things, but overall they are less expensive. EPB's highest package is more expensive than Comcast's highest package, but EPB's has 100MBp as their top speed, where Comcast is 50. If you cut back to 50MBp on EPB, it becomes cheaper. Almost everyone I know has had service with EPB's power for decades, with 0 complaints. They are new to the communications sector, but if their service bleeds over, they will dominate Comcast in that aspect.
Comcast offers cable internet, which like I mentioned earlier is a certain bandwidth, divided by the number of users in your segment. Which is great if you are the only one on that leg, but if your neighbor gets internet, it drops your speed in half. I had a 12MBs service, and was lucky to see download speeds over 1MBs.
DSL, offered by most Satellite services is a certain bandwidth, dependent on how far you are from the Station, or junction box. The number of people online does not affect your speed. You get the same speed all the time. As long as you are closer to the junction, DSL is far superior to Cable. If you are out in the boonies, well you're out of luck.
Fiber optics offered by EPB has the best of both worlds. It has much less signal degradation so it can reach you in the boonies, and your signal isn't split with everyone else. If you have a 12MBs service, you will get 12MBs.
Summary, if you can get EPB, do it. Comcast would be the next best choice, and I'm sure they will improve as the competition increases. BTW, most of their price offerings are for 6 months only, be wary of that when they quote you a price.
***I 100% refuse to ever do business with AT&T, or their step child AOL again. They are the worst mismanaged company I have ever encountered. I had service with both of them, and regretted it from day one. I used to have a cell phone through Cingular. The company was fine until AT&T bought them. Once purchased, the service, and quality when down the drain. Please heed my warning. DO NOT GO WITH AT&T.***
