Since I moved to the US, I've had my television service provided by The Dish Network. It's been a reliable service, with a good range of channels and cheaper than any cable deal that includes BBC America.

Upon relocating DMfM to its new secret underground lair, I've ended up with AT&T digital cable.

Let's cut to the chase here, AT&T are a bunch of bastards, and their cable TV service sucks the big one.

It costs between $10 and $20 a month more than Dish, has only a handful of digital channels (all Dish channels are 100% digital), and the menu guide system is slow and crap.

Oh yes, and it's operated by those corporate bastards, AT&T.

Why do I hate AT&T? Well, let me tell you...

Back in the other house, in Washington Park, the long-distance phone service was supplied by MCI. My roommate and I were perfectly happy with it.

However, AT&T "slammed" us. We caught them out, when the phone bill included a $200 charge for one call to Ireland. We contested their charges, got them to remove them, and had MCI reinstated as our long-distance provider.

Then about a month later, they slammed us again. Unbelievable.

After another struggle all AT&T charges were removed, again.

Despite our asking for them to remove us from their call list (something they're required to do by law if we ask them), they still had the gall to keep calling us, and asking us to switch our long-distance service to AT&T.

On one occasion, my roommate went off on one with them, saying that there was no way she'd switch to AT&T after they'd slammed us twice.

The response from the AT&T sales guy, was a very patronising, "Oh doubt that happened. We'd never do that."

So effectively, he was calling her a liar, whilst trying to sell her a long-distance service, that was the cause of a so much grief in the past.

Guess how much more inclined to switch to AT&T she was after that?

Anyway, the happy conclusion to this story is that we've decided that we need the Dish Network back in our lives.

This means the following key channels are restored to us:

Bravo
Food Network
IFC
Tech TV
Nick-At-Nite
Nick-At-Nite2

Plus better reception, and best of all.... No AT&T in our lives.