USDTV

If you live in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, you may have seen an advertisement for USDTV. They advertise as "TV for People". Their advertised price of $19.95/month for digital TV got my attention, so I checked them out. Digital TV is a signal that is received through an antenna, run into a set top box to convert it into a digital signal and then sent to your TV. Since the signal is digital, the picture is as clear as cable or satellite. For $19.95/month I get 40 channels (all local channels, local high definition channels, a couple radar channels and ESPN 1 & 2, Fox News Channel, Disney, Disney Toons, Discovery Channel {my favorite}, The Learning Channel, Home and Garden TV, Food Channel and two other cable channels I don't remember right now).

The company is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah and has expanded into markets in Las Vegas, Albuquerque, and Dallas/Ft. Worth. In other markets they also offer high speed internet and internet phone (VoIP). I'm hoping these will soon expand to the DFW market.

The company is new and seems to be taking off like a rocket in DFW which has caused a few problems. It took a visit from two third-party installers and finally an "official" USDTV quality assurance supervisor to get my system installed and working properly, but every time I contacted the office in Salt Lake City, they were prompt in responding to me, asking what they could do to make up for my inconvenience and throwing in a few perks here and there for the hassle. They need to work on getting more people up to speed with the installation/technical support end of it, but they know it, are working on it and did a great job of taking care of me once I told them of the problems I was having. They claim that customer service is important to them, and they put action to their words in my case.

If you live in the DFW area and would like something similar to "cable lite", you might want to check out USDTV. I'm happy with them. If you decide to try it, contact me first. I'll help you get in touch with the local USDTV people instead of a third party installer. And to be totally honest, I could get a free month of programming for referring you and that would be nice, too.

- Rob