BUCKEYE CABLE
ABOUT BUCKEYE CABLE
If you live in northwest Ohio, in Sandusky or Erie County in northern Ohio, or in southeast Michigan, you may be able to obtain cable TV, internet, phone, or home automation service from Buckeye Cable.
The Buckeye Cable System was founded by with Paul Block, a German immigrant who came to the United States in 1885. Fifteen years later, he founded Block Communications, an advertising representation firm for newspapers. Block’s business empire grew rapidly through the 1920s, including, at its peak, more than a dozen newspapers, most of them on the east coast. With the Great Depression, though, his business interests were devastated, and he lost all of his commercial properties except for the ad representation business and two newspapers, the Toledo Blade and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Block died in 1941, and his sons took over the company. A few decades later, Paul Block’s grandchildren took over. One of them, Allan Block, is currently the company’s CEO.
The Buckeye Cable System, a division of Block Communications, is headquartered in Toledo. Buckeye Cable is a full service cable operator providing cable TV, home telephone, and broadband internet services in northwest Ohio and parts of southeast Michigan, and Buckeye operates the cable system in Sandusky and Erie Counties in north central Ohio.
Buckeyes has exclusive rights to carry the Buckeye Cable Sports Network, which covers Bowling Green State University and University of Toledo sports, some high school sports, and a minor league baseball team, the Toledo Mud Hens. Buckeye also has rights to broadcast Cleveland Indians games.
Buckeye Cable is a full service cable provider, offering a full suite of bundled services including TV, internet, phone, and home automation.
Buckeye’s TV service is still fairly primitive compared to what most cable and satellite operators offer. Buckeye is now in the process of upgrading its system to provide all-digital channels, a task almost all other cable systems completed years ago. In most other respects, though, Buckeye seems to be up-to-date. Buckeye Cable offers video-on-demand, streaming to mobile devices, HD DVRs, and other features you’d expect from a pay TV provider.
Buckeye Cable’s internet service, though generally reliable, is relatively slow compared to the internet services offered by other cable operators. Its entry-level internet service, with a top download speed of 800 kilobits per second, is too slow for all but the most basic web usage. Its mid-grade service, at 9 megabits per second, is good enough for most applications, but may be a bit slow for downloading movies or for multiplayer interactive games. Its best internet service, at 26 megabits per second, is fast enough for almost any purpose, except for households with multiple devices connected to the internet at once. Even the fastest Buckeye internet service, though, is about half the typical speed of top tier internet services offered by other cable operators.
For choosing your home services, we recommend considering all providers that serve your area. What works well for one customer might not suit another. If you live in northwest Ohio, and you want the most complete coverage of local and regional sports, then Buckeye will be your best choice for TV. If you’re not very interested in local or regional sports, and you want the widest channel variety or the most advanced equipment available, then Dish Network or DirecTV will be a better choice.
In choosing an internet service, consider not only what’s available at what price, but how you use the internet.
(Editor’s Note: For Buckeye Cable, Dish Network, DirecTV, or for any other cable TV, internet, phone, or home automation service, visit Bundle Deals. Compare all providers and plans available in your neighborhood, then order any service with just one phone call.)