As of right now, my cable connection (both TV and Internet) has been down for 12 hours; the telephone-support types say "there are issues in your area" and have no idea when it will be fixed. I wonder just how big my "area" is.

isnt this in the wrong thread?

Not that I know of. Where else should it be? Fortunately, my cable TV is still working fine. I don't have Cox internet.

I thought it should be in a more miscellaneous thread or general talk. This thread seems to be more development and progress of the city oriented

Well, should the moderators decide that it should be moved, let it be moved. So long as I can find it again, I'm not going to complain.

I have no problem with the location. I placed the Robert Blake thread in entertainment (television) and got negativity over that. So, I guess some people will not be happy no matter where you put it.

My cable? Only too expensive. I wish they had ala carte where you could pay for the channels you really use instead of having to pay for a bunch you do not watch. More like cutomized cable. I have 300 channels and maybe watch between 30 and 50 of them. (not including the premiums) With phone and internet, Cox whacks me to the tune of $150 per month. Ala Carte could bring that down to about 100. The phone is reasonable, but the internet is really expensive. I would like to see it cut in half.

However, what can you do? Except for Dish and the other sattelite service providers, the cable companies are a legal monpoly. They can charge almost anything they want.

Satellite and DSL are viable options for many. That's how cable is not a monopoly.

But I do consider my cable to actually be a decent value considering what I get.

I think this thread is okay here...it's more of a regional/OKC question, not really a tech question.

Anyways, I also have Cox internet. I've had it for 2 years. In that 2 years, my service has only been down once, for about a 12 hour period. Not sure why...I got the same recorded message you did! 12 hours in 2 years isn't too bad though....no complaints on my part. Sometimes they do have to work on the lines, so maybe they were just performing some upgrades or something. I will admit...Cox maintains their lines better than SBC does.

I can't afford to pay $150 for tv/internet. I just have bunny ears but I have an HDTV tuner, so I get all the local channels in HD broadcasts. Also, my landlord (in the apartment below me) has wireless internet. I pay them $5 a month for accessing it.

how is the HDTV tuner? how much did it run you? do you have a High-Def TV?

I don't have a hi-def TV. However, watching a hi-def program on a regular TV is like watching a DVD on it. So, it's a noticable difference between regular TV and hi-def even on a regular TV. I got my HDTV tuner at Wal-Mart. It was $200. The brand is called USDTV (the only one they sell, I believe). USDTV will eventually have a pay service here in OKC that is digital and piggybacks off of the local hi-def digital signals. At $20 a month it'll be the cheapest option and with Fox News and ESPN part of their programming, I'm set. I look forward to them getting here.

http://www.usdtv.com to find out more.