Is the USA more advanced when it comes tomgafget technology than the UK. By this I mean things like High Def TV, 3D TV, ultra high speed broadband.

I am a big movie fan and US TV shows, not really a fan of home grown stuff so most of my TV watching comes of Sky and is stuff like House, Stargate, Bones and so on. How am I going to fair in the US for this stuff?

What sort of broadband speeds can I expect. Miami area.

Finally what is the cost of utilities as a norm? I can't even find what the cost of electric the Kw is at the moment!

Not really. My high speed broadband caps out at about 1.8mbs and costs me almost $40 a month, I could get 15mbs if I wanted to pay close to $90 a month though. It largely depends on where you are, how competitive the area is and how much you want from the provider.

You'll hate US TV after a while. You may like Bones, Stargate and House now but wait until you get the sporadic scheduling and the endless repeats. There is very little new stuff being put out that's decent and what is decent is generally canceled pretty quickly in favor of flogging the established stuff to death.

Then there is banking...

I live on a diet of regurgitated US shows. Mash, Frasier, two and a half men, kings of Queens, everyone loves Raymond! The list is endless! I shall probably 'sling' my Sky over the web as well hence the question about high speed Internet.

Is HD TV readily available now?

We are going to be in Florida, does anyone know what sort of speeds are available down there and the prices?

What do you mean about banking?

morally and ethically bankrupt.

You need to explain more!!! We are using the HSBC Private bank for investment and Premier for regular checking type services so they organise bank accounts etc. I only ever use a debit or chargecard as a rule, I don't like credit cards.

What more should I be expecting and what sort of issues should I expect?

However that is a sidetrack from my technology questions! I like my gadgets, writing this on an iPad at the moment as an example. I have a lot of HDTV stuff like blu ray and apple TV etc. That i will bring with me Looking at my wifes company web site in the US they seem to sell a lot of HD TV stuff.

it's all there if you want it.

crap tv is just becomes high definition crap IMO.

we do get a lot of footy though which is kinda cool.


as for banks, well. you are a number not a customer, fees are outrageous and arbitrary.
they've never heard of a standing order for example........

Ah! I see! Ones mans crap is another mans treasure though! I hate football with a passion!

It sounds like I may have luckd in with HSBC then, no fees at all as long as you maintain minimum balances and the offshore investment accounts.

No standing orders! How do you pay recurring bills?

checks.

they do have online bill pay for the most part, but unless it is a major corporation the bank will just turn around and mail them a check on your behalf.

Internet - I get around 4 mbps with ease (on an average). I pay around 40 a month....

Banking - fees for everything.

It all depends. You have to have the caveat, of course, that the US is a flipping huge country and what applies in one corner doesn't necessarily apply in the other. All of the UK could fit in the space of Oregon, one of the 50 US states, so speaking generally gets a bit tricky.

My broadband in the US was 130mbps simply because I couldn't get the higher tier of 300mbps. Even with that, if you are only pinging UK websites you might get annoyed as the signal has to travel across the ocean which adds a few miliseconds to your transaction.

There is a lot of HD TV content but rather limited 'HD Radio' (DAB) radio because radio in the US is pretty dull and there are the concept of a 'national' station is somewhat limited. You can have 300-500 channels of 'nothing on' but you'll have to pay for the privilege of endless movies and reality shows. Prices for the actual HDTVs and other items are a bit cheaper, though at first blush not as much so (factoring sales tax and shipping charges). Banks are still independent entities under both federal and state regulations when it comes to online transactions, so there is no unified system of paying bills or exchanging money, however, many entities have their own online pay systems (cable, phone, electric company) and you simply sign up with them directly and it comes out of your bank (all of my automatic payments are 'fee free'). GSM mobile phones are the norm in the UK and EU but are but one option here in the US (CDMA being the other). Because of the greater range of CDMA over GSM towers, and the expansive size in the US, it's made some headway here (Verizon). The concept of unlocked phones and swapping SIM cards is still relatively foreign here though.

So basically, from an end user perspective, it varies.

sirious is a good bet though if you drive enough to warrant it

We have internet through Comcast and get about 20mbps pretty consistently.And i'm out in the sticks.

I stream BBC iplayer, ITV, 4OD, etc with no problems, and on cable we get all those shows you mentioned... The scheduling is odd though - its so hard to follow what channels there are, whats on etc cos there simply is sooooo many and you have to filter through the dross.

Banking... well its true it isnt quite as up to date as the UK- cheques are still commonplace, and bill paying isnt exactly automated, but you can still do it online with many banks; we do. interest rates are poo, but HSBC and Lloyds do have great international accounts if you want to do that, otherwise, accept the rates suck and get a good checking account. I use Suntrust because they give me a good Delta skymiles card and i will be using that airline a LOT to fly ATL to UK and back again 5 times a year.

Our power bill this month was $241 for electricity - we dont have gas anything. It was pretty steep, because its been so cold, our insulation is so poo, and evidently,my Georgia Mountain man doesnt like the house to be less than 70 degrees personally i'm sweltering! just managed to persuade him to try 66 for a while and wear a sweater

hmmm what else... well obviously i've no idea about Florida, but i find customer service in restaurants to be awesome, and customer service for buying big things (car, windows, piano,health insurance) absolutely sucks!

okay, i'm done. Good luck

I have a HSBC international account and it is a constant PITA, I urge you to get the credit card with the account, it's the only way you can make any on line purchases (even then its hit and miss wether it works or is declined) the debit card will NOT work. I have spent endless hours of my life on the phone to HSBC what they sell you and what you actually get are two very different things.

They may not charge a monthly maintenance fee but you can be sure that there is a laundry list of fees for various other things.