I am very surprised about the service here (Tampa, I mean). I was expecting a multitude of companies, with high competition.... There are TWO: Bright House and Verizon :icon_rolleyes:, not really competitive, and not a very good service. For the basic cheapest one (3 services-pack), I pay EIGHTY FOUR DOLLARS!!!!, much much higher than in Cancun, then. Higher speed though, but my webcam (the same) is not as clear. All calls within the US are free, but there is little chance I spend so much. I have not tried the TV yet, they didn't give me a remote control, and that's not my priority.
There are lower packages.... at least there were.... and you should be getting many, many more channels all in HD quality on the TV, Internet that is at least 10 TIMES faster than that of Cancun, and all the calls you can make inside the US and Canada.. with reasonable international.... the cheapest is not as cheap but what you get is literally a world apart... I would gladly pay if I could get such service here....
Glad to hear you are settling in and also good to hear that the grass isn't always greener. Everything is a trade off. I am not sure if never being happy about where we are is what makes us humans or just makes us a pain in the butt to ourselves and others. Enjoy the new life!
Happy to hear you're settling in. Don't know which service you have, but we have the Verizon FIOS package and love it. Internet speed is amazing. Much better service and less expensive than when 3 separate services were necessary a few years ago. If you do have Verizon, one warning -- don't make international calls until you call the company and find out what the rate per minute is. (A good idea no matter which service you have). Year before last on Christmas Eve, a month after we got Verizon, I made my annual call to friends in Cancun and spoke for approximately 45 minutes. Never thought much about the charges because with my previous long distance service, an hour call to Cancun was always in the $30 range and I was assuming, silly me, that it would be similar. When I got the Verizon bill it was $84. I'm sure you've also been shocked when grocery shopping, since some produce items at the moment are high and of poor quality because of the bad winter we had. I still find myself thinking about what I was paying for things in Cancun versus here. As Jim said, everything is a trade off. There's good and bad no matter where we are.
Hmm...I thought RoadRunner (via Time Warner), Cox, and Comcast were all available in Tampa, but perhaps they are only available in certain zip codes. Might be worth checking out, although it sounds like you are already set up. For what it's worth, I've always received top notch service from Verizon. A phone/tv/internet package for less than $100 USD sounds like a pretty good deal to me. Before we left, we had tv+internet that ran around $90 USD/month and our phone was around $35 USD/month on top of that. In general, the US is more expensive than Cancun in just about everything. That includes internet in most cases, although it's usually much faster than what you can get here in QRoo. The difference between $50 USD/month for 10 MB/s and $30 USD/month for 1.5 Mb/s is in the eye of the beholder There are a few exceptions to the above rule. For us, the following things are cheaper in the US: cell phone plans, electronics (TVs, computers, etc.), and in some cases, electricity -- but the latter varies hugely on where you are at. Good luck in your new adventures!
Thanks for your comments. I am settling in, and very happy . I made more contacts in 2 weeks than in 11 years in Cancun (I mean POSITIVE contacts). I am already working... for free since I am not allowed to earn money as long as I don't have my visa, but that leads to more contacts. And it is a win-win situation, not a take-advantage-of one. I live in a nice and clean place (found in one day, in Cancun it took me 2 months and my first landlord was Jean Succar Kuri....:icon_frown where it seems there are people to... discuss with the administration. We have a neighborhood watch meeting in a few days then a picnic for the residents. I am more surprised than complaining about the internet service, most from what I read on this board from you Americans, always saying it was so good and cheap here (here being the US now for me ), also because when I left Toronto there were many companies in competition and that was cheap... Verizon asks for a 2-year contract, which I can't consider since I am -officially- a tourist, for 6 months max, and on city-data forum, everyone recommends Bright House: no contract and better service. And no, there is no other company. I make more calls to Europe than the US (now at least) and I use Skype, so unlimited calls in NA is not really interesting, but I don't have a cheaper option. Since I want a land-line, I took the min package. I don't know yet about calls to Mexico, I am using Skype, it IS expensive. I need to be very careful about money, because there was nothing I liked in Cancun (food and otherwise), so it is very tempting. At least to buy all I need (or want!), I don't need to pay for the flight anymore :mnm:. I don't know yet about electricity and water, but I don't A/C my places all day/night long. Jim, I lived in many places in the world, mainly for job reasons (I worked all my life and still have to, I have no pension, thus no income). There are 3 that I couldn't stand: one of them is Cancun, but I persisted many years before giving up. As you say, everything is trade off, and for many years living on my beach weighed against moving out. It didn't work out for me in all aspects, I had to accept it, I don't have much money, and when they threatened me to send me to jail, prohibited me to go to the garden, aggressed me all the time ("they" being the illegal administration), I had to reconsider my situation. It took me a lot of strength and a long time before achieving it. Corruption, scams, incompetence, unprofessionalism law-for-the-strongest is not for me. Now I have to work hard to get my visa, but since I started the process more than a year ago, all went very smoothly (even crossing the border ). Those who think others are a pain have just to avoid them, that's all. Here the French seem much more helpful, I can choose the Americans, there are... a lot :icon_razz:, and other nationalities, and avoid the Mexicans if so I wish. Let's see what the future holds for me, but I am positive.
Sorry to hear about the problems here but I understand and am glad you are getting on well there and settling in!!
