Review by mobbo 
UPDATED: 1.3 years ago
member for 3.4 years, 700 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Frisco,Denton,TX
 $90 per month
 about 3 days
 "Solid connection"
 "TV selection is terrible. Minimal HD, no push to add more"
 "Good internet. Bad TV."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
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****UPDATE (4/142007):****
Connection is still good. I am going to have to complain about their TV though. HD selection is awful, and I am getting the feeling Grande has NO ROOM (bandwidth wise) to expand when more HD national channels are released later this year.
They are also very stingy with MLB Extra Innings. I can see the games on my guide, but when you call to order, they say they are going to add the ability for us to order it within 30 days... that's almost 1/3 of the season OVER. The service rep told me they will offer it in our area (Dallas/Frisco) because they have a sponsorship of our minor league team here. WTF? Uh, minor league teams have nothing to do with MLB EI. So it's quite obvious they are dancing around the issue... something I'm noticing more and more. It seems like other cable providers and especially satellite providers are adding new channels left and right, but when Grande customers request a new channel, we get a form letter saying our request will be forwarded to the marketing group for further consideration (aka... No, we are too cheap to add new channels).
Internet is still great, but Grande will need to step it up NOW in the TV department if they plan on keeping up everyone else this year. National HD channels are about to skyrocket, and I feel that as a Grande customer, I will be left behind.
****UPDATE (1/25/2007):****
Internet is doing great still. No downtime or slow-downs to report. Still could use more upstream (currently at about 440Kbps). They offer a boost for $12/month to 768Kbps but that's not worth it at all.
My girlfriend just HAD to get HBO to watch this season of Rome... and Grande kicked in all the other premium channels for free for the next 3 months. This is BAD because I now never leave the house  ... I have WAY too many channels, LOL! Someone on here asked me about the DVR quality and I have to say, it's good (not great). It has a feature just like TIVO to record an entire season, though sometimes it will record re-runs (like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report... it records every one of them, not just the new ones) even if you tell it to record only first-run shows. I also wish Grande had a way to schedule recordings remotely over the internet for traveling people like me.
They also just added National Geographic HD and some music video channel in HD so I may consider getting that HD tier for $10/month if they add a few more like Fox Sports HD, Fox Soccer HD, NFL Channel HD, etc. Basically as many HD channels as possible would be great. Right now it's not worth $10/month, but good effort.
****UPDATE (12/6/2006):****
Grande came the day before yesterday to upgrade my DSL to Cable internet and to swap out my HD box for a DVR-HD box. The tech was on time, called in advance to confirm what was going to happen, very smart and a nice guy. He got everything installed quickly and even took the time to use my apartment's central unit to feed internet connectivity to all the wall ports. If anyone from Grande is reading this, the tech's name was Craig... give that guy a raise.
Immediately the 6Mbps internet was showing over 7Mbps downstream from the Dallas Speakeasy speed test location with about 450Kbps upstream. The NYC speed test was around 6Mbps. I've noticed that the farther away a location, the cap is about 4-5Mbps, but that is clearly not Grande's fault. I also saw a decrease in ping times to most Dallas game servers. I now ping about 16 - 22ms to CS:Source servers located at ThePlanet.com and LayeredTech.com. Videos buffer MUCH faster now as well... almost immediately.
The High Def DVR is a great service. I can record 2 HD/SD shows at once as well as choose to record an entire series (very TiVO-like). As I stated before, the price actually WENT DOWN after this upgrade to around $81/month for digital cable, cable internet, phone service, DVR, and HD.
So far it's all stable but if there are any changes I will be sure to update.
****UPDATE (11/16/2006):****
I was about to cancel my Grande phone service in favor of a 2nd line from Vonage (for fax purposes), but instead I got an INSANE deal. The guy on the phone told me that he could give me a bundle discount that took my services down to just $70/month! PLUS they are coming out here to swap my DSL for Cable internet which will bump my speed from 3000/256 up to 6000/512!!! With those savings I decided to get HD-DVR as well for another $10/month. So after all is said and done I have the following services for $81/month:
-Digital Cable
-DVR
-HD (not the HD package but the box, which gives me all broadcast HD channels at no extra cost. I'm still protesting their lack of good HD channels!)
-Cable Internet (6mbps down, 512kbps upstream)
-Phone line for my home office fax
IF YOU LIVE IN FRISCO... GET GRANDE COMMUNICATIONS TODAY! I love these guys. The internet is fast, the cable TV is clear, and BEST OF ALL the customer service is THE BEST. It's the best feeling in the world when you call and a HUMAN from TEXAS answers the phone. Grande's customer support is the greatest! And if any Grande execs or managers are reading this, give Jose at the Dallas office a huge raise.
***Original Review***:
I was mad at first because my apartment signed a contract to allow Grande exclusive rights to provide service to my building. I didn't like this because I'd heard bad things from friends in the same boat, plus the top speed for "high-speed" DSL they offered was 1.5Mbps down 384Kbps up. I realized after I had it installed... 1.5Mbps is really all you need. I had Charter before this with 3Mbps and I really can't tell too much of a difference.
Price:
I pay around $29/month for the internet portion. Since I got the bundle of digital cable, telephone, and internet it comes with 20% off each service. In total I pay $84/month ($98 with taxes) for everything which I think is a great deal compared to other services in the area. Plus there is no contract like satellite.
Install:
The tech came out to install everything the next day after ordering. My apartment has a central control box that feeds coax cable and CAT5 to 6 outlets in my apartment... but the cable guy didn't use it for some reason. It was very easy to figure out so I just re-did the install after the tech left. I just put the DSL modem in there and fed it into a 6 port D-Link router, then into each node that fed CAT5 out to each wall outlet. Overall it was a smooth install and I entertained myself afterwards with some extra tinkering. A good time was had by all.
Tech Support:
This is the shining star of Grande. They do not outsource their 24/7 tech support. It is a real American, sometimes even a Texan on the phone. They also don't REQUIRE you to powercycle everything expecting that to fix the problems. They know that by the time you bother to pick up the phone you've already powercycled the hardware... unlike Charter/Time Warner's tech support (Step 1: unplug, Step 2: wait 30 seconds, Step 3: plug it back in, Step 4: wait while I pretend to type something and sound like I'm actually fixing something). It also isn't hard to get a human on the phone... it isn't a hidden feature in their phone bank.
Connection:
The internet is fine. 1.5Mbps is hardly "high-speed" these days but I really just browse the web, post on forums, send emails, IM, game, and other typical stuff. I really don't need to download files at 2MB/sec so 1.5Mbps is fine for now. I would like to see their upstream raised along with their soon-to-be raise downstreams. I lag often when using a VoIP (ventrilo or teamspeak) while gaming. I also want a Slingbox which needs a good upstream speed. I ping a solid 20 to most Dallas game servers for CS.
Other services:
I have digital cable which is a great service. The 20% discount puts it around $45/month INCLUDING an HD set-top box. The HD tier is an extra $10/month but I cancelled it after a month. The channels really suck (Universal HD... Knight Rider in HD... YAY and TNT HD should be renamed the Law & Order HD channel) but I've checked out the competition and they don't offer much more. I like ESPN HD but that was the only one worth watching. They've recently added ESPN2 HD but I am waiting for National Geographic HD before I shell out $10/month again. The regular broadcast channels come in HD free on the HD set-top box anyways.
One other thing I think is so under-rated that Grande does well is the on-screen guide. It doesn't look like a DOS program... it's nice and fast and looks like a program made this decade. With Charter, the on-screen guide was HIDEOUS and looked like my first Nintendo.
UPDATE... kind of:
While writing this review I did a speed test and my speed was bumped to 3.3Mbps down and 550Kbps up. I was told weeks ago there would be a speed increase so this must be it. I checked the website and I see that they are now offering 1.5/6/8Mbps options for internet and changing from DSL to cable internet in Frisco. They also have new bundles out for Frisco that (I'm told) go live Tuesday involving HD-DVR. Neat. I called and they are calling me back next Tuesday to schedule a new install of cable internet. I will update the review then!
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Grande Communications
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grande does not receive any kind of kickbacks, if u feel u need to get at&t for phone u are free to do so, but why when u can get a better deal on all three. i am a customer and have nothing but trouble with the at&t phone line. grande came in and at least ran new phone line and cable lines when they got control of this complex