Does Houshold Surge Protection Work?

I live in the Tampa Bay area. They claim to be the lightning capital of the world. I don't know if that's true, but we get a lot of lightning.



The local power company (Florida Power and Light -FPL) has been pitching whole house surge protection. I can see it protecting surges in electricity, but that is nominal compared to what could come in via my cable tv / internet connection.



I have UPS's on all my electronics.



Does anybody have any opinion on the service provided by the power company?