Free Basic Cable if you have Cox Broadband in some areas

Jul 1, 2002
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I just got a call from Cox asking if I wanted cable and I almost hung up, until he said they are offering free basic cable until I cancel it or the high speed internet and free installation. He said they announced it today and are trying to keep subscribers over the holidays. It sounds too good to be true but they are supposed to call me back and setup a time to install it. Free cable forever, sounds to good to be true! Can anybody else confirm this?
 

Saulbadguy

Diamond Member
Jan 27, 2003
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Originally posted by: AllABoutTheDeals
I just got a call from Cox asking if I wanted cable and I almost hung up, until he said they are offering free basic cable until I cancel it or the high speed internet and free installation. He said they announced it today and are trying to keep subscribers over the holidays. It sounds too good to be true but they are supposed to call me back and setup a time to install it. Free cable forever, sounds to good to be true! Can anybody else confirm this?

;)
 
Jul 1, 2002
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Just called Cox and they confirmed so it is legit. He said you get channels 2-22. Wonder if they install a filter to limit channels?
 

fzj80

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Oct 3, 2003
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Very cool. I know around here (Denver, CO) if you had the internet through the cable company often you got free cable. Not by design I'm sure, but it just worked. We had it at 3 apartments always worked (over 2 years), never paid for it. A friend had the exact same experience up until a year ago, just stopped one day, so maybe someone was actually cleaning up the cables. We figured it just worked because the installer was being nice and figured he'd give out free cable. But your experience sounds legit, very cool...
 

AU Tiger

Diamond Member
Dec 26, 1999
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Never tried it since I have Directv, but I have heard that basic cable comes with RoadRunner simply because they have no way of turning it off.
 

cremefilled

Golden Member
Mar 25, 2000
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Just to clarify: I have had Cox broadband, and not a single cable TV channel came through by default. It really depends on your installer, I guess -- I'm sure that it is filters installed at the pole tap.
 

LiQiCE

Golden Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Personally, COX in the Fairfax County, VA area stinks ... and COX even admits its their worst area (and are "working to improve it") ... but if you have Broadband through Cox cable, its actually cheaper to sign up for and pay for basic cable and get Cox HSI than to get just Cox HSI ... Its $55/month for Cox HSI with no cable TV and $40/month for Cox HSI with basic cable TV which costs ~$10/month IIRC. Personally, I'd rather stick with my Directv and DSL :)
 
Jul 1, 2002
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They told me that I'll see a $15.95 charge for basic cable and then I'll get a $10 reduction for internet and a $5.95 credit each month which nets to free. Tax may be a little more though.
 

YoYoBabyYo

Senior member
Jul 1, 2003
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my family household actually got this deal a long time ago since we've gotten cox HSI. at first, we got premium cable which had all these wonderful channels, but then when they came to inspect some faults, i guess they discovered it and downgraded our service to basic cable. basic cable is horrible! you won't be able to catch something entertaining in the middle of the night since it is all infomercials.
 

VictorLazlo

Senior member
Jul 23, 2003
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Originally posted by: AU Tiger
Never tried it since I have Directv, but I have heard that basic cable comes with RoadRunner simply because they have no way of turning it off.

They "turn it off" with a trap. That is a thin metal cylander about 2 inches long that they connect inline with your cable. They have different traps to block different channels. One of them is RoadRunner only. If you are paying for roadrunner only, and you remove your trap, then all the blocked channels will come through.
 

weepul

Diamond Member
Nov 5, 2000
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www.hd-trailers.net
Originally posted by: cremefilled
Just to clarify: I have had Cox broadband, and not a single cable TV channel came through by default. It really depends on your installer, I guess -- I'm sure that it is filters installed at the pole tap.

that's because they installed a filter (extra work). cable tv and cable internet comes through the same line and w/o that filter you can get both.

//krunk (^_^x)
 

LiQiCE

Golden Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Originally posted by: AllABoutTheDeals
They told me that I'll see a $15.95 charge for basic cable and then I'll get a $10 reduction for internet and a $5.95 credit each month which nets to free. Tax may be a little more though.

Oh I see, this is more or less the same deal I was referring to then ... you don't save money in this case, you just break even. Maybe the pricing is slightly different in the NoVa area, or they've since changed the pricing from last year when I was a customer.

Only thing to watch out for though is Cable Internet IIRC carries no taxes, but basic cable DOES in fact carry taxes, and they're fairly significant (Again IIRC for Cox standard cable, 100+ channels the taxes were about $5-10/month). So you may end up spending more in taxes...

 

k1114

Golden Member
Nov 15, 2002
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In Tulsa its 10$ more for internet if you don't have basic cable, and basic cable is about $11. Naturally I just got the basic cable.
 

jrichrds

Platinum Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Originally posted by: AllABoutTheDeals
They told me that I'll see a $15.95 charge for basic cable and then I'll get a $10 reduction for internet and a $5.95 credit each month which nets to free. Tax may be a little more though.

Cox charges $40/month for Internet if you are a cable TV subscriber and $50/month if you aren't a cable TV subscriber. So it sounds like a $5.95 credit if you already subscribe to basic cable.
 

salfter

Senior member
Sep 11, 2001
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Originally posted by: AllABoutTheDeals
Just called Cox and they confirmed so it is legit. He said you get channels 2-22. Wonder if they install a filter to limit channels?

They'll almost definitely put a trap in the line. Back when basic cable was $2.something and I lived under the approach path for the local airport, that's what I used...it got me the local channels without ghosting every time an airplane passed overhead. All channels beyond a certain point on the dial (15, I think) were blocked.
 

mannydx

Senior member
Jun 6, 2002
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In arizona, if you just order the cox broadband, you can at least get the free basic. They can't turn it off. Now that they switched to cable boxes, we can only get the 22 basic channels. Before we could get the 75 channel extended basic which rocked. I am not complaining though, 22 channels has enough content for my computer pvr.
 

xoque

Junior Member
Feb 2, 2001
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Yeah, here in Tucson, AZ, we ordered Cox Broadband and Basic Cable, but we are getting Extended Basic for free. Been like that for at least 6 months, and it happened with my parents in Albuquerque, NM, as well (They had just ordered Broadband).
 

Endeffect

Member
Jul 29, 2001
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Yeah, I used to get extended cable for free with internet access with EarthLink here in Raleigh. Was great. Only worked on the cable line that had the cable modem. I just ran a splitter, one line to the modem, one to the TV, wahla. Moved into a new place in Raleigh, did the same thing, and nothing. Damn. I get zero channels even running a splitter with a booster. Oh well, no biggie.
 

Noirish

Diamond Member
May 2, 2000
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Originally posted by: mdcrab
I hope Comcast comes out with a similar offer.

mdcrab

They do.
Assuming you are paying month to month.
They have a promo right now.
About $5 for basic cable and $15 off your broadband monthly for 7-8 months.
After that, I think basic cable rises to about $12, but you still enjoy the $15 off broadband.
 

xobitx

Member
May 10, 2003
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[In arizona, if you just order the cox broadband, you can at least get the free basic. They can't turn it off. Now that they switched to cable boxes, we can only get the 22 basic channels. Before we could get the 75 channel extended basic which rocked. I am not complaining though, 22 channels has enough content for my computer pvr.]


I am here in Tucson and I have cox broadband with no cable service. I just tried moving the coax from my modem to the back of my cable ready tv and got nothing. I also made sure my TV was set to Cable. So it appears that they are able to block it on me. Can I call them and get it turned on free or hack it by removing a mentioned filter?