Satellite has come a long way in the past few years. The dish is much smaller than it used to be and the service is much better. Local channels are available in most areas. The competition between cable and satellite has become fierce which is in favor of the retailers and installers. Stronger competition means better promotions for the customer. Free systems and free installation is what put DIRECTV on the map.
As far as bad weather is concerned, it is my opinion that the installation is what determines if the customer will have problems in bad weather. A DIRECTV dish will get a great picture with a 60% signal level. However, when there is a rain storm and the signal level drops 10 or 20% you will lose the picture. If you align the dish with a good meter, you should have no problem getting a signal in the high 90's. If you have a 98% signal and you lose 20% of the signal from storm clouds, you will have no interruption in service. Sure you may lose picture in a major storm or blizzard, but usually only for an hour or so until the heaviest of clouds passes over. The biggest mistake the satellite companies made was self installations. The customer would get enough signal to get a picture on the TV and thought they were good until it got cloudy. They would get pissed off every time it rained and ended up cancelling the service. Then of course they told their friends and neighbors what a piece of sh*t satellite is. Satellite companies got a bad rap due to ignorance. Free professional installation was the cure for that. I sell and install DIRECTV and I also install cable modems. I won't install a service I don't beleive in. For TV service DIRECTV is the best for the buck and for internet you can't beat a cable modem. That's my feeling anyway.
> "REMEMBER WHEN" Those were the good old days.Cable TV was different back then.I can remember a time when Cable TV people were looked apon as something special,no matter how rough shaud they were.It was a time when Cable was just beginning.You were the ones bringing cable to the towns.You could be working on any given street,kids would run up and down the sidewalks hollaring its the cable man,people would come out of their houses and talk to you, offer you something to drink and sometimes something to eat,they would ride by and toot the horn,women would sometimes ride by and flash you when you were up a pole,it made you feel special,everyone liked the cable man.How times have changed.Unless your doing New Build or Storm damage working,the public attitude has changed,now its as if you owe them a service,if you have to shut down their cable to upgrade it or for what ever reason, you are the bad guy,and heaven forbid they miss an episode of a soap opera,or some thing the subscriber considers important,(various cable services)your the hated gossip for the week. I just think back now and think how what we started has changed everyones life.MERRY CHRISTMAS to all the Cable Dawgs/Dogs that make this industry continue to "TICK" "WHITFIELD"
