Originally Posted by magexpect
It is finally time for us to make the definite move from Switzerland to Atlanta. We bought an apartment already a while ago, but never bothered to inquire about TV and internet.
We are interested in getting cable as well as the fastest internet connection possible as well as overseas TV channels.
Do you know any providers in ATL?
Thank you for a prompt answer as we leave September 6th.
Welcome to Atlanta! I've lived there for just over 5 years now, and still enjoy it. Hopefully you selected somewhere in-town, and not out in Cobb county like so many of the ATL'ers on the Delta board
The two biggest choices for Internet in Atlanta are Comcast (
www.comcast.com), and BellSouth's FastAccess DSL service (
www.fastaccess.com). For television, your major choices are again Comcast, or DirectTV (
www.directv.com - also available through BellSouth in package deals) or Dish Network.
I personally use BellSouth FastAccess and DirecTV. I used Comcast (which was formerly AT&T Broadband) at my previous residence with fairly spotty results, though others have reported to be have better success now that it's Comcast.
BellSouth offers three levels of FastAccess -- FastAccess Lite, FastAccess Ultra, and FastAccess Xtreme (I hate the names!). THe Xtreme is the fastest, offering 3 MBit/second downloads, which are comparable with what cable Internet offers. I've been able to push this 3 MBit/sec limit with real downloads, and it is pretty zippy, and the latency is quite low which is also nice (that was one of the big problems I had with cable... many times, while I would have high throughput, the latency was higher than what I would experience with dial-up!).
From the television perspective, Comcast is wired (though if you're in an apartment, they may have a contract with an alternate service provider, so Comcast may possibly not be an option) and DirecTV and Dish Network are satellite providers. I've not used cable in a long time, but I could just about guarantee that your international television options will be much greater with DirecTV or Dish Network.
I hope you enjoy Atlanta, it's a unique city with a lot of interesting things to explore. There's some very good cuisine in-town. My personal favorite area is the area I live in, the Virginia-Highland neighborhood, lots of cool restaurants and bars and boutiques.
Hope this info helps, if you have any other ATL questions, don't hesitate to drop me a PM!
Cheers,
Chris