Hawaii's Science, Technology and New Media Community
HOWTO: Boycott Oceanic Cable and Save a Bundle
Introduction
Having grown up in Hawaii, I've seen some of how Television has evolved in the local markets. Rabbit Ears and UHF "Hoop Antennas"? Yep, been there, done that, and spent many afternoons of my youth faithfully watching "Checkers and Pogo", hoping no airplanes fly overhead to jam up the TV signal. As I remember it, Hawaii TV pretty much boiled down to a choice of CBS, NBC, ABC, or "KIKU nihongo terebi desu" -- which aired Kikaida, my favorite action hero at the time.
When Oceanic first came onto the scene, it was a WELCOMED improvement: more channels to choose from, and no more snowy reception. By golly, CNN was actually a 24-Hour NEWS Station, and OMG, MTV actually lived up to their name and played Music Videos.
Today, my household looks upon Oceanic Cable (and Hawaiian Telephone) as the Blood-Sucking, Good-for-Nothing, Complacent Public Utilities that they are. Hawaiian-Tel still doesn't provide zippy DSL service to my ridge-top home (forget about Fiber-Optic to the home); and Oceanic -- well, their programming lineup is just downright INSULTING for the kind of money they've been charging. A hundred some-odd channels available, sure -- yet there's STILL nothing really worth watching. Every time I turn to CNN they're airing Nancy Grace; and every time I turn to MTV, there's a back-episode of "Flava of Love" or "I Love New York".
Truth be told, the only value I've had out of Oceanic is with their Broadband Service, and even that is insulting when you compare that to the bandwidth on the Mainland and abroad.
The Battle over TiVo
I love decent TV programming as much as the next guy - I follow popular shows like Life, Terminator S.C. Chronicles, Chuck, 24, etc; and have one of TiVo's high-end machines, equipped with a pair of CableCARDs that Oceanic happily charges $8/month apiece as "duplicated services tuners".
You know, I'd have been OK with an $8 charge per CableCARD -- except that Oceanic crossed a line: some channels "just aren't available" because Oceanic is using some fancy "on demand" technology that their standard-issue CableCARDs just can't do. Sorry, Oceanic, but I refuse to be left hanging with DIMINISHED SERVICE while you and your industry figure out how to get those darned CableCARDs working right.
Meanwhile, Oceanic tries to push their inferior DVRs as a cheaper, more functional alternative to my TiVo. Hrmph!
Well, this war in my home has been brewing for a couple of years now, and I'm happy to say that I've finally given Oceanic Cable the boot. All thanks to the TiVo DVR that Oceanic seemingly tries so hard to keep me from enjoying.
The "Cable Killer" Prescription
- One Tivo Series 3 Device
- One Amplified UHF Antenna, for Local Stations
- One Wireless Broadband Provider
- Hulu.com
- Netflix (Optional)
- Amazon Unbox (Optional)
I Heart My TiVo
Truth be told, the TiVo DVR has been the best investment I've made, and I've been a loyal lifetime-subscriber since their original 14-Hour Series 1. The current line (Series 3) supports HDTV; it can subscribe to (and play) popular Podcasts and Internet Radio; it can play Streaming Video from Netflix or YouTube (you read right -- I can watch YouTube videos on my Big-Screen TV, thanks to TiVo).
And oh yes -- the TiVo can even rent or buy movies on Amazon Unboxed. It's just an awesome device all around, though it's probably not an entry-level toy for the average consumer.
The Switch to Digital Television
Honolulu's recent switch to DTV was what really catalyzed my decision to cut off Oceanic.
Out of curiosity, I was keen to see just how good "Local Broadcast TV" can be, and so I picked up a cheap Amplified UHF Antenna from the local Sears, and hooked it up to the TiVo.
By the way, did I forget to mention the TiVo handles DTV (ATSC) signals? It's a great step up from those shoddy $40 DTV tuners you can buy with the Government Coupon.
One "Scan for Channels" later, and I'm soon picking up the standards like KITV, KFVE, and KHNL. For the life of me, though, I can't seem to pull in KGMB or KHON -- presumably because their transmitters are in "the other direction" from the rest. (I'm in Central Oahu, near Tripler, and point the antenna toward Waipahu).
Thankfully there's Hulu.com to fill in the void. Otherwise, I'd be screaming bloody murder about not being able to catch KGMB or KHON. :-)
Suffice it to say, I have enough local channels locked in with a cheap UHF antenna on top of my TV; and I can probably catch them all if I go with an Attic or Rooftop antenna with a beefier amplifier. Unlike the old days, there's no more snow; and I can receive HDTV broadcasts for free.
OK, so why do I need Oceanic Cable again? For Broadband? Pfft! Nope, not anymore!
I Heart My Wireless Broadband
Truth be told, I have been experimenting with Wireless Broadband providers over the last few months. I've got Clearwire hooked up to the main router; and I've also got Mobi's Hele Wireless USB dongle. They're both decent values for the money -- about $35/month (though, I've seen them go as low as $20/month), and you can take them to just about ANYWHERE on Oahu. Both of these services are perfectly fine for downloading Video Podcasts -- in fact, my TiVo religiously downloads Hak5, my favorite video podcast. :-)
Wanna make the combo really interesting? Go get a Netflix Account. Seriously! The TiVo Series 3 can play Netflix Streaming movies. So, that cheap $9 Netflix Account with Video Streaming is "The Ultimate Cable Channel". Want old stuff like the back episodes of Heroes, Lost, or Dr. Who? They got 'em on Video Streams, and if not, they got 'em on DVDs that will be mailed to your door. Want recently released movies? Those are probably available on DVDs until converted to a Video Stream.
Amazon Unbox has a similar selection, but they charge per download and those expenses add up fast. With Netflix Streaming, it's just cheaper to get the $9 Netflix account and watch Video Streams to your heart's content.
Unfortunately, the TiVo Series 3 doesn't handle Hulu.com streaming yet, so you'll still need to whip out your PC if you want to catch recent back-episodes of your favorite TV show. Hopefully that'll change soon, but I'm still not complaining.
And The Winner Is . . .
Well, the winners are me, my TiVo, Netflix, and either of my Wireless Broadband provider(s) - Clearwire and Hele Wireless. Sure, Wireless Broadband isn't going to be bit-screaming fast like Oceanic's Broadband, but for "Downloaded Videos" (not realitime streaming), they're sufficient. I'll admit, watching Streaming Video performance over Wireless Broadband is really only acceptable if you're watching during "off-peak" hours. Between 7pm and 11pm on Weekdays, forget about it -- both Clearwire and Mobi can get saturated at these times. You'll quickly get irritated by Video Pauses as your TiVo or PC tries to replenish its video stream buffer. Trust me, if you've got Wireless Broadband, you should watch video streams on afternoons or weekends, or stick with Downloaded Videos.
Still though.. I was paying $160 to Oceanic Cable for Broadband, Premium Channels, and "Duplicated Services" on my CableCARDs. Now I'm down to $45 - $10 to Netflix, and $35 to the Wireless Broadband provider I eventually decide to stick with. With savings like these, my TiVo and Wireless Broadband equipment literally pay for themselves in a year. :-)
And no, I'm not likely to use Hawaiian Telephone until they offer Fiber Optic to the Home. You can bet your bottom dollar that I cancelled the Hawaiian Telephone landline in favor of my Cellular Phone. I can always use Skype as a backup. How often do we have hurricanes or blackouts, anyway? ;-)
Comment
-
Comment by Jan McNeil on July 23, 2009 at 10:52am - So, what do any of you think about MagicJack as yet another cost saving tool?
-
Comment by Laurence A. Lee on July 8, 2009 at 8:26am - At the time, I had 2 wireless providers to put them head-to-head and see which one had better performance and reliability.
-
Comment by Bill on July 8, 2009 at 8:05am - Lawrence, Why do you have two wireless providers?
-
Comment by Truman Leung on June 12, 2009 at 11:14am - For the record, I received my $60 a few days ago, about 6 months after first subscribing. A month or so ago, I even had received two voicemails from a Mobi agent saying that my rebate was entered into their system and was being processed. I wonder how many other Hele subscribers received their rebate. ... off to the bank to deposit my rebate check!
-
Comment by Mark Enomoto on May 2, 2009 at 8:56am - Giving clearwire a try as we are in a temporary housing situation till our house closes in a month. So far its fine for email and most of the sites I surf but for iTunes specifically its been rough. We tried to rent a movie on iTunes and the trailers would make it about 40-50% through and choke. This can be repro'd consistently so its some glitch between iTunes and clearwire. Hulu seems to work fine if you fill the buffer with at least 2 bars though I was watching episodes of Heroes and The Office late last night so its not really a true road test of what the user experience is supposed to be. I contacted a tech via chat and they wouldn't say that clearwire wasn't totally compatible with iTunes. Pandora is fine... streams music all day long and no choking, uploads from iPhoto you might as well go make bread and watch the dough rise, movie rentals from iTunes made it OK after 3 hours at 1:48AM in the morning. I wanna believe that is is going to work for me but its clearly a lightweight service. Craigslist zips in and out (Pri-0) so in many ways its really seeing if clearwire really fits our personal usage. I've got 3 days left on the trial but for the most part its not bad for the price, setup and portability.
-
Comment by Paul Graydon on April 29, 2009 at 8:01pm - I'd agree to an extent about TV quelling the population, but I think much of that is down to people using the TV as a babysitter instead of encouraging their kids through play and imagination.
-
Comment by Mark Enomoto on April 29, 2009 at 7:39pm
- I just connected my Clearwire modem and Airport Wi-Fi and the speeds are awesome! Where I was located speeds were horrid and I suspect it might be one of the neighbors running a bunch of servers, serving "what" I don't really want to know. With regard to TV I'm glad we pulled the plug in our house and we're into renting movies from iTunes or the library. I love technology but the affect its had on my kids and their generation in general concerns me. I've been listening to Al Gore's Assault on Reason I agree that TV has really quelled thought in the bulk of the population. Sorry... this is getting off topic but I had to get my .02 in about commercial television!
-
Comment by David Jacobs on April 26, 2009 at 1:48pm - Unfortunatley Paul is correct when it comes to routing anywhere outside of Hawaii. For example, routing to Japan and Australia both go through California which triples what the latency would be if we were routed directly.
-
Comment by Daniel Leuck on April 26, 2009 at 7:07am -
Paul: First, I'm told there is no local loop here for the internet? All traffic gets routed to the mainland before it goes anywhere else, increasing latency. All traffic gets routed to the mainland before it goes anywhere else, increasing latency.
We don't route all our local traffic through the mainland. Oceanic Time Warner, Hawaiian Telecom and all the other sizable networks use HIX to keep local traffic local. Additionally, DRFortress operates a commercial public peering exchange called DRFxchange.
-
Comment by Paul Graydon on April 25, 2009 at 9:52pm
-
As a British guy, hardly the bastion of fast broadband, I'm surprised to come out here and find no ADSL2 or ADSL MAX in place. BT (the main telco) for all their fussing upgraded the local exchanges quickly to take advantage of the newer ADSL technology. It leads to faster and more reliable connections. ADSL 2 will in theory do up to 24Mbps. ADSL MAX is a bit of a bastard child of ADSL2 and ADSL, bringing the adaptive rates technology to standard ADSL connections.
The adaptive rate stuff means the routers at both ends learn constantly based on the quality of the line. It speeds up and slows down as appropriate giving you about the best speed possible for your line.
It has helped that BT were forced to unbundle the local loop about 5 - 6 years back, allowing other ISPs to put their own technology in to the exchanges. BE, O2, Tiscali and a number of other ISPs jumped on the bandwagon and started pushing out ADSL2 stuff so BT came back with an "Anything you can do, we can do better, and faster" Most ISPs use BTs infrastructure (at a price) so BT always gets nice money in from having the good technology in their exchanges.
There are a couple of other things that have struck me about this state's network infrastructure. First, I'm told there is no local loop here for the internet? All traffic gets routed to the mainland before it goes anywhere else, increasing latency.
That seems nuts because Hawaii is a central hub, repeater and booster, for a serious number of trans-pacific pipes. If Hawaii had a local loop with direct access to transit connections then it would potentially stand to gain some business from those wanting to provide lower latency services to asia.
Second, lack of competition. We've only seriously got two choices, and they're offering two completely different services: Hawaiian telecom and Oceanic Time Warner. If you don't want to use Oceanic for TV, other than free to air your only choice is DirectTV. It's clear Oceanic doesn't consider internet access as an important part of their line up, just the same as Time Warner on the mainland. In the last 6 months there has been 3 significant cable internet outages which is utterly ridiculous, especially with how much they're charging for the privilege. So far *touch wood* I've had none with Hawaii Telecom.
Hawaiian Telecom has no local exchange competition, AFAIK. There is no real need for them to provide newer connectivity options to businesses or homes, because who else do the companies have a choice of using?
Europe has seen LES connections becoming serious business, an Ethernet presentation line that offers 10/100/1000Mb service, but importantly not shared bandwidth like Hawaiian Telecom seems to offer.
A couple of months back I remember reading about some legislation that was being worked on at state level that was aimed to drive forward broadband speeds and penetration out here. I'm not sure if it got passed though, and it didn't seem to be doing the vital thing which is to promote competition.
We all know that Time Warner doesn't like competition: http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/22/time-warner-and-embarq-cant-compete-with-city-owned-isp-trying/ :D
© 2010 Created by Daniel Leuck
You need to be a member of TechHui to add comments!
Join TechHui