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    Cable Alternatives - Ben checking the signal strength at the house-box. A single professionally installed antenna can connect to multiple TVs.

    Cable Alternatives

    (10 reviews)

    So I was intrigued by an article in my August 2017 Consumer Reports magazine. The front cover…read morefeatured cutting the cord. I was interested since my bill for satellite was now double from when I subscribed to it exactly four years ago. The providers entice you with introductory offers that only last for a year or so. I read the several page article which was very compelling. It even estimated what you would pay depending on different options. A gal in my book club just cut the cord and suggested I look into doing the same. My daugher was in town for the weekend and I discussed my thoughts on cutting the cord and getting an over the air (OTA) antenna. I already have wifi together with HULU, Netflix, Amazon etc. She told me that she only uses an antenna together with her streaming apps. Therefore I started investigating what my options were. I wanted to replace my satellite DVR with another that would that would record at least 4 stations at a time and had enough memory to handle my recordings. I wanted the DVR accessible to my other televisions and wanted a mobile app to set and view my recordings from anywhere. I wanted the ability to stream Netflix Hulu Amazon etc. and I wanted an OTA antenna that would provide me with all the local stations and then some and would not be obtrusive. I almost purchased an amplified indoor antenna but then decided to look into an outdoor antenna that would mount on the satellite mount. I researched an April 1, 2017 article in the Minneapolis Star and Tribune which also discussed the benefits of cutting the cord. The article featured an antenna distributor. I then went to Yelp to see if I could find reviews for antenna installers. There were at least two and I talked to both companies. After discussing my needs with John I decided to go with Cable Alternatives. John was extremely knowledgeable and could provide not only the antenna but the equipment and set it up for no additional charge and no additional cost to me as long as he provided the equipment. John was also very courteous and answered all my questions and concerns. He would make this very easy for me! He knew exactly what I wanted to accomplish and how to implement it. He thought the Tivo Bolt and Mini's were a great choice. I called my satellite TV provider and canceled the service a week out and scheduled John for the day that my service was terminated. John's installer Andrew is absolutely fabulous! He was at my house promptly at 9 o'clock in the morning on the day of termination. He installed all of the equipment helped me register for the Tivo service and equipment online and installed the antenna, TiVo Bolt DVR and my TiVo mini's for the additional televisions in the house. Everything was hooked up to my existing cable and linked to the wifi router. He got all the equipment working and showed me how to navigate the system. What a great guy! He is extremely personable and extremely knowledgeable! He indicated that he has done hundreds of these installations and he was very diligent in his endeavor. I have now enjoyed my first couple of days after cutting the cord and I love the equipment I love the installation I get great reception. I may miss a few cable channels but not the cost. I would highly recommend Cable Alternatives if you're thinking about cutting the cord with cable or satellite. Trust me since I have had one or the other for over thirty years and finally am not paying to watch my favorite shows on local TV.

    The business appears to be shut down. I lfet two messages last week and one this week. No call back.read more

    Consolidated Communications

    Consolidated Communications

    (15 reviews)

    As a Spectrum customer, I was delighted when Consolidated fiber came to my neighborhood. Finally a…read moresynchronous data transmission system that could handle today's household and work-from-home needs. Then it started going sour... First: Fiber cable installation. Nobody told me I'd have fiber cable strewn around my yard for two months before a third-party contractor showed up and started digging. Without contacting me. But it went okay, and I had few/no other issues with the fiber system for the low-cost first year. Then prices went to normal, and my billing got messed up. I started receiving threatening cut-off letters two days after the payment had been pulled from bank. Never did receive any reason for that other than I needed to set my auto-payments for at least 10 days before the due date. They don't mention that anywhere, and no other company who I allow to automatically get paid has ever had similar issues. That's a pretty basic thing to fix, Consolidated. Forward to a warm summer day, thunderstorms roll through and power is cut. Three hours later, power is returned, but the internet service doesn't come back on. Five days later a tech finally comes by and replaces the fiber modem. No word about why the device needed replacing after the power outage, but it did. Forward to vacation time. I decided I don't need my internet or wifi turned on while there's nobody home for ten days, so I turn all the equipment off (power buttons on the back to off, and then unplug them.) Return from vacation, start up the equipment one piece at a time with no success. It's a long wait on hold to be told it would be 3-5 days before I have the same fiber modem replaced again, this time by a third-party contractor. He mentioned that he spends most of his days replacing those fiber modems, because their firmware can't take a power cycling. You'd think that they would use equipment that can sustain being powered down. That's also a pretty basic thing to fix, Consolidated. Forward to recently, when I discover that Consolidated will happily over-charge you for their service, when their advertised regular rate (been a customer for over a year) is $10/month less than what I've been paying. Their rate may have dropped, but they damn sure didn't tell existing customers. If it were the other way, I guarantee they'd be making customers aware of a rate hike. So after waiting on hold for almost two hours (the first hour a guy from a call-center in India answered, said my phone number was incorrect, and hung up on me.) After another hour on hold, I finally got a person who was helpful, and even called back twice over the next couple days to ensure that my desire to change from Consolidated to their fiber subsidiary Fidium was on track. Very nice! Today, my Fidium install appointment was a window from 1pm-3pm. I gave up my entire Monday afternoon to be available. At about 3:45pm (45 minutes AFTER my window closed) I got a call from Consolidated Customer Service saying the tech was in town, and headed my way. At 5:15pm I still hadn't seen anyone, and called to re-schedule. Now I have to wait another week to give up another Monday afternoon for the HOPE that the Fidium tech will show up on time. Suddenly TMobile or Verizon home hot-spot solutions are looking pretty freaking good. Until Spectrum gets their service to be fully synchronous, I won't be using them. And with Consolidated/Fidium customer service continuing to be woefully inadequate, I can't say how long I'll stay with them. When the fiber works, it works great. But the mayhem dealing with CCI is seriously off-putting.

    If I could put a zero I would Too much money a month for…read morecrappy service rude people, don't use hdtv it just blanks out your tv. Internet was terrible and full days with no service And noooo restitution. Don't do it.

    Mediacom

    Mediacom

    (2 reviews)

    Worst experience I've ever had with any business. They failed to remedy the same problem over and…read moreover again, and they had over 90 days to remedy it! The technical aspect of their service was fabulous, far superior to their completion. However, they refused to bury my line, and when i lost service due to the line having not been buried in excess of 48 hours, they failed to restore my service in a timely fashion. They sent a tech to my home to run a new temporary line, he knocked on my door verified the address, put into his system the work order was complete and left without actually doing anything! I canceled my service that day, best move I made!

    Dealing with MediaCom has hands down been the worst experience I have ever had with a company. I…read moresigned up for internet and phone service, paid a big installation fee and bought my moden to avoid rental fees. The phone never ever worked properly. It would drop my side of the call in every single outgoing call. Sometimes it was within minutes, and sometimes it would be 15 minutes into the call, but it would always drop my side of the call. The person I was talking to could hear me but I could not hear them. Three technician service calls later they just gave up. I found a site online that will test your line for VoIP compatibility, and I had too much jitter and dropped data packages to support a VoIP system on the MediaCom internet line. My complaint was referred to to their technical repair department, "Tier 2" for problem resolution and told DO NOT CALL AGAIN. It would be fixed eventually I was promised, "maybe tomorrow, maybe in three months" were the exact words that were used. But that is not the worst of it. Calling Customer Support was ALWAYS a horrible experience. The staff was rude, lied to me every single call, as in "Someone will call you on Monday". I would confirm the day several times, and never get a call back. Never ever. And again, rude and borderline nasty attitudes were the norm. At one point I was complaining that they were charging me for a service that did not work, and telling me that it would be fixed sometime in my lifetime was not a good response, and the MediaCom representative told me to "Stop talking". She actually used that phrase three times in the conversation. So I cancelled the service after three months and signed up with AT&T. When the AT&T technician was at my house he told me that MediaCom only had one line coming into my area and everyone shared it, so I was sharing broadband with an unknown number of people. So that explained everything, and "Tier 2" was never going to fix that. Yet another lie. So I wasted money on the installation, am stuck with a very expensive modem I can't use and am still getting outrageous bills from MediaCom every month. I call, get a rude customer service rep who impatiently tells me to just ignore it. I feel I let the boogey man into my life and now can't get it out!

    HickoryTech - televisionserviceproviders - Updated May 2026

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