Is Allconnect a trend setter?  Perhaps. For a while now, Allconnect has offered you a way to bundle and save with the choices you want^SM .  That simply means you can choose your providers and services based on your needs, not the available bundles, and it looks like we were on to something.

A recent Nielsen study shows consumers are in favor making their own bundles.  While cable TV providers are still the majority in paid TV subscriptions, satellite TV providers are closing the gap.  One reason satellite TV subscriptions are on the rise is the recent trend in creating your own bundle.  With services like Allconnect, consumers can choose a satellite TV package and pair it with cable Internet service.  It offers choice and, in some cases, the best of both worlds.

Let’s say you prefer your local satellite TV package over your local cable TV package, but you would rather have the higher speed of a cable Internet connection.  Well, now you can.  With Allconnect, you can create your own bundle.

Enter your address in the “Find Savings” widget to see what’s available in your area.

In recent years, we have seen a slow, but steady increase in available broadband Internet speeds.  It wasn’t that long ago that dial-up Internet access was all the rage.  Now, we’re talking about Internet download speeds of 50mbps or more.

A lot has changed with the ever increasing capability of high speed Internet.  Businesses have been made and businesses have been scuttled, all on the power of the Internet.  The latest make or break market appears to be online TV, or “TV Everywhere” as it is known.  While companies like Netflix are busy streaming thousands of movies and TV shows from multiple sources, networks like HBO are using broadband Internet to deliver their own shows to their subscribers.  It seems slow at times, but all of this happening at a rather rapid pace.

The latest company to attempt the TV Everywhere model appears to be You Tube.  According to an article on CNBC, You Tube will begin renting newer, big budget movie titles.  You Tube has been renting for a while now, but the selection has been slim and dated.  While Google has not turned You Tube into the money maker we all thought it would become,  this new online renting plan aims to add money to the bank.  CNBC claims “Google sees a problem with the fact that people spend an average of just 15 minutes on YouTube each day and five hours watching TV. So, it’s populating its movie rentals with behind-the-scenes movie extras and links to reviews, so its users don’t click away to IMDB.com or Rotten Tomatoes.com.”  The plan is to keep visitors on You Tube, increasing exposure to valuable advertising dollars.

Competition seems to offer the best products for consumers, so expect online movies and TV shows to only get better as the competition increases.

Suddenlink cable TV and high speed Internet has made a couple of big announcements over recent days.  While it certainly doesn’t affect a far reaching audience, it is good news to the local communities and a glimmer of hope for other rural areas.

First, according to Victor Godinez on the Dallas News Tech Blog, Suddenlink announced plans to roll out faster broadband Internet to a few rural communities outside Dallas, Texas.  The new areas could see speeds up to 50mbps in the next month or so with cheaper Internet plans in the 20, 10 and 15mbps range.  While the new speed doesn’t cover the nation, or even all of Texas, it is good to see a cable Internet provider reaching out to the more rural areas.  Perhaps we will see braodband Internet nationwide in the near future.

In other news, A post from Todd Spangler at Broadcast & Cable reports Suddenlink has also announced plans to offer HBO GO, the TV everywhere service from HBO, to all of its HBO subscribing customers.   Even better, the HBO GO service is free for current HBO subscribers on any high speed Internet connection.

In an effort to break into one of the fastest growing entertainment sectors in recent history, Amazon has launched its own online video service.  It’s an obvious attempt to try and capture some of the revenue and traffic associated with a service that has been largely dominated by Netflix at this point, but competition seems to bring about the best in innovation.

A letter addressed to customers has been posted on Amazon.  The letter, from Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos,  says Amazon Prime members will have unlimited access to the 5,000 movies and TV shows in the Amazon library.  Amazon Prime membership currently requires a $79 annual fee and allows members to use “free” 2 day shipping on most Amazon products.  The letter also states that Amazon’s online video service will not be an additional fee, so if you’re an Amazon Prime member check it out.

Of course, there are a couple of side notes.  First, if you’re not an Amazon Prime member you can always join.  Second, you’ll need the technology.

In order to stream video through Amazon Prime, you’ll need a high speed Internet connection and a compatible viewing device.  you can see the rather exhaustive list of acceptable devices over at Amazon’s video page.

If you watch movies online using NetFlix you’ll be interested in what they have to say about speed and delivery.  The movie rental company recently released a chart showing cable Internet providers and phone companies and where they rank in terms of delivering HD titles using NetFlix online.  While it may seem like a risky move, it may be just the type of prodding our cable Internet providers and phone companies need to pick up the pace.

The chart illustrates online performance in kilobits per second over the last few months, since October 2010.  It looks like Charter, Comcast cable TV, Cox and Time Warner Cable are the consistent top performers.  So what does that tell you?  Well, it looks like cable Internet providers are consistently providing faster service to NetFlix online customers.  However, none of the US cable Internet providers can top the Canadian providers.  It looks like our neighbors to the North are delivering faster Internet speeds.

Ken Floreance, Director of Content Delivery at NetFlix, does a good job of putting the speeds into perspective.  Ken says the “top HD streams are about 4800 kilobits per second. Clients may switch through a number of bitrates as they ramp up to the highest stream, or shift down from the highest stream if they cannot sustain play at that rate due to throughput constraints. No client would sustain a 4800 [kbps] stream from start to finish (there would at least be a few smaller streams averaged in for startup) but the higher the sustained average, the greater the throughput the client can achieve, and the greater the image quality over the duration of the play.”

Sp you likely wouldn’t experience blistering speeds from start to finish, but the US could certainly stand to see a higher average throughout the industry.  Ken plans on updating monthly, so hopefully we’ll see a steady increase from sea to shining sea.

Time Warner Cable Internet packages have expereinced some upgrades in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina.  The end result is an upgraded experience with speeds up to 50 mbps downloads and up to 5 mbps for uploads.  Of course, the upgraded speeds will require a new cable modem.  However, these new modems do come with built-in wireless connectivity.

One source, DSL Reports, claims a $25 fee increase over Time Warner’s current Internet rates with a max of $99, while another, the LocalTechWire, had no pricing data as of yet.  Regardless, the increased speeds should be well received in the tech hot spots of Research Triangle Park.

It seems as tough there is no shortage of controversy in the world of cable TV providers and online movies, TV episodes and bandwidth.  This time around, we’re discussing Comcast cable TV and a company called Level 3.  Most of you, if not all, are familiar with Comcast cable TV.  Comcast provides cable TV and high speed Internet services all over the country.  Level 3, on the other hand, is a lot less well known.

That’s because Level 3 is an “Internet backbone”.  They provide the bandwidth to get your online movies from Netflix or Hulu over to your Comcast high speed Internet and eventually to your house.  Of course, it takes only a few seconds for that to transpire.  The problem stems from the popularity of online movies services like Netflix and Hulu.  It takes bandwidth to stream these to your computer and TV and the amount of data changing hands has increased greatly due to the popularity of online movies.

According to American Public Media, Netflix online movies account for roughly 20 percent of high speed Internet traffic in the US.  That’s a hefty sum – 20 percent . . . of the Internet.  To help offset the load, Level 3 claims Comcast cable TV is charging increased fees.  Of course, as American Public Media states, “Steve Schultz, associate director at the center for information technology policy at Princeton, . . . says no one’s going to block Netflix. But the way it’s going to ultimately shake out is with you and me paying more for all these movies. It’s just a question of whether we’ll pay higher Comcast rates, higher Netflix rates, or both. And how much more we’ll pay.”

Continuing our closer look at our providers, today’s focus is on Mediacom.

While they may not be as well known as some of the larger cable companies, Mediacom is proud to focus its efforts on the smaller towns and cities across the country.  According to their own website, Mediacom has invested millions of dollars building a nationwide fiber optic network to deliver the Mediacom VIP pak to communities all over the country.  Areas typically viewed as “smaller” by some of the larger cable companies benefit from Medicaom’s efforts by enjoying the savings associated with phone, TV, Internet bundles.

Medicaom’s cable TV bundle is known as the VIP pak and, like most bundles, it offers phone, TV and Internet with savings for combined services and a single bill.  The draw is the combination of monthly savings and convenience.  Of course, you also get Mediacom cable TV, home phone and high speed Internet.

One of the highlights of Mediacom cable TV is known as “Family Cable”.  Family Cable, as the name implies, offers something for every member of the family. From educational TV for the kids, to a variety of sports, food and news channels Mediacom Family Cable even offers your favorite local shows.

In addition to Family Cable, Mediacom cable TV also offers up to 28 commercial free channels from Starz, Encore, Showtime and TMC, as well as Starz & Showtime On Demand.  You also get an interactive on-screen program guide and over 4,000 On Demand shows and movies every month.

If you sign up for the Mediacom VIP Pak  you could get an automatic upgrade to VIP Online with 15Mbps as well as Web Boost, which delivers short bursts of web browsing speed to load web pages at up to 30 Mbps.

Mediacom home phone service offers a variety of features, including unlimited local and long distance, three way calling, call waiting, call forwarding and more.  If you’re switching existing phone service from another phone or cable company, you can also keep your current phone number.  Plus, you know you’ll pay the same price each and every month.

Mediacom’s high speed Internet, known as Mediacom Online, is built for speed.  Mediacom Online users can see speeds up to 12 mbps.   That’s more than enough to stream online movies and TV episodes.  Uploading pictures to share with your family is a breeze.

Continuing our provider spotlight, we visit one of the Southeast’s prominent cable TV providers - Knology.

Recognizing the need for a balance between everyday communication and common budgets, Knology offers cable TV service starting as low as $20 a month.  You won’t get the bells and whistles that come with the Knology Digital Preferred Plus, but you will get your local channels, news, weather and sports.  However, if you are looking for more from your cable TV, the the Knology Digital Preferred Plus package is only $20 more than their basic cable package.   Those are reasonable prices for any budget.

Knology high speed Internet is available in similar varieties.  Offering various speeds, Knology is actually in the process of upgrading its entire network with a “significant technological advancement in speed, security, reliability and performance.”  When the upgrade is complete, the Knology Edge network will reach speeds up to 25 mbps while varying speeds will still be available in the Knology Intronet, high Speed, Edge and Edge Plus packages.

Of course, you can also bundle your services with the Knology Digital Trio.  The Digital Trio combines the Knology High Speed Internet, Digital Preferred Plus and SmartChoice Phone with unlimited long distance.

See which Knology bundle or stand alone services are available in your area by entering your address in the “Savings Widget” above.