I was wondering if Directv's IP service would be better, but it sounds as if it's not. The neighbor has Prism, and the service is awful, while this local cable company has excellent service. If they hadn't pulled out of the tv business, I'd still be using them for TV. The real problem is probably they under-wired the community. The newer sections have different wiring. 10 yrs ago, no one knew streaming would be this big thing and now, retrofitting is too big a deal to take on.
We have had Dish Network TV service for several years. Anymore if we get a hard rain we will lose our TV signal so I would suspect if we had Dish's internet service that would also go out. I would think the same would be true for DirecTV.
I guess I really have no idea how big a deal streaming really is as I don't use it or even know how to get it.
When we first got internet, some twenty years ago, it was on the same old-school cable as our cable TV, which wasn't really cable at all, but satellite signal received at the local telephone coop/monopoly, then distributed via cable to all the customers; whenever any weather would occur that would block out satellite signals, our so-called cable service would go out as well.
There was only the single co-ax cable coming into our house with splitters going to three TVs and two computers; I don't know how it worked but it did; during this time, we had telephone, TV, and internet all on one bill, and we could have gotten cellular telephone service from them as well but it was ridiculous expensive.
This service provider kept jacking up rates and dropping channels we really enjoyed, plus service was out as much as it was working, until about eight years ago we switched TV and internet to Dish.
In both TV and internet, Dish is way ahead of the local service that we had; however, that is not to say we are happy with Dish; the TV is fine and only ever goes out when it is coming a complete monsoon; as soon as the monsoon slacks off, service is immediately backup; Dish internet is also fine SO LONG AS WE haven't exceeded our monthly allotment (cap) of 10GB; once we use up that 10GB, service slows to a crawl.
When our Dish month begins, and our allotment 10GB bar shows full, we are very careful to conserve our hi-speed usage as much as possible; as careful as we are, in about five to nine days, our 10GB will be gone and we are on slow speed for the rest of the month, at which point the horse is already out of the barn and it matters not what we do from that point on.
That being said, however, even when our 10GB is gone, once the clock reaches 2:AM American(Central), internet speeds go in road-gear, click on something and it happens so fast the monitor actually jumps across the desk; this goes away at exactly 8:AM; this "off-peak" hi-speed usage must not be monitored, as I have never seen our 10GB off-peak graph/bar to drop a bit regardless of amount of usage.
To answer inspeqtor: Our Dish internet receiver is bolted solidly onto a concrete wall about seven feet above ground on the West windward side of the house where the weather hits hardest, pointing almost due South-West; a horrific downpour will cause signal loss only while it lasts; when the downpour slacks, the signal is right back up there.
Our Dish TV receiver points at a different satellite and therefore could not be mounted in the same location as the internet receiver; due to some trees, it is on a post driven in the ground.
A few months ago, it got to where the slightest bit of weather would knock the TV signal and it wasn't the best even in clear weather; come to find out, the steel post had loosened in the ground to the point that it nearly root-wadded when I gave it a shake; we laid the post/dish aside, dug a post-hole, stuck the post in the hole, and concreted it in = problem solved.
At least for us, the TV will lose signal before the internet does; and, it has to really be pouring it down for either to lose signal.
Regarding satellite versus cable internet, if you are movie streaming or Facebooking, you will use up your allotment very quickly with satellite.
For normal internet usage, not streaming movies or gaming, I prefer the satellite.
A very important point to consider if you live in an area with lots of trees and subject to ice storms and the like, whereas a cable is subject to get torn down and not be repaired for weeks, satellite service is immune from storm damage; if you have electricity/generator, you will always have the satellite connection.
Thanks for reading.
On EDIT: Concerning satellite TV, it is a bit unfair to say that the satellite receiver loses signal in a hard rain, as it is rare to lose all channels. The local channels are usually the first to go. We have found that, when the channel we are watching loses signal, there are other channels that are coming in loud and clear; so, according to that, other factors rather that the satellite receiver are causing signal loss and probably would be down regardless.
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