Cutting the cords

[atgcpaul]

Now they want to "provide you" with a box, which shortly, they get to start charging you for.

This was the main reason why I dropped cable TV. Cable company gave me a big FU so I did it right back. I didn't have a HDTV set yet, but my setup was perfect. On my main TV I could record a cable show on one channel on my DVR (my own, not a TIVO) and watch a cable show on my TV. We could also watch TV in the basement on the other set.

Then they introduced the boxes--you only got one free per account so no more TV in the basement unless I wanted to pay extra. The box wasn't programmable so I couldn't have it automatically switch TV channels for me like my DVR could. I'd have to manually set the channel to record. I also couldn't watch a different channel from what I was recording.

Of course, if I went to their DVR service I could do all this. Anyway, these cable people really POed me. I know you don't get something for nothing but this is just plain greedy.

[tommyt654]

Maybe its just where I live or the fact I've been know to be a bit of a wheelerndeeler,We pay $73.83 including all federal ,state and local taxes for internet,dsl and a regular phone(no long distance) we have a $10 a month cell phone for that with 250 minutes a month and rollover minutes + we get free HBO and Cinemax thru Comcast and AT&T, the DSL's only 100 mbps but thats fine for me,must be my charming phone personality and I find if you tell them you want to drop or cancel your service the retention depts always come up with better deals. I can live with that,but cannot live with sunspots,driving winds and heavy rains disrupting my service which I haven't had so far with the aforementioned service co's so I'll stay where I'm at for now.

[Cochese]

Maybe its just where I live or the fact I've been know to be a bit of a wheelerndeeler,We pay $73.83 including all federal ,state and local taxes for internet,dsl and a regular phone(no long distance) we have a $10 a month cell phone for that with 250 minutes a month and rollover minutes + we get free HBO and Cinemax thru Comcast and AT&T, the DSL's only 100 mbps but thats fine for me,must be my charming phone personality and I find if you tell them you want to drop or cancel your service the retention depts always come up with better deals. I can live with that,but cannot live with sunspots,driving winds and heavy rains disrupting my service which I haven't had so far with the aforementioned service co's so I'll stay where I'm at for now.

One of the more persistent myths. A good installation with adequate line of sight doesn't net that, at least with DirecTV. I've had perhaps 8 hours of downtime over four years, and it has to be a gullywasher. Winds aren't a factor unless trees are in your way. I have very little problem with DTV aside from what I pay - if it were $50 a month, I'd consider a lower tier.

I don't mind what I pay for internet. I pay for 25Mbps (check your numbers there, 1Mbps is more probable), and get 28. If I had to drop down to DSL I'd have to start going into work again. It's just too slow for me. I'm making money on that proposition, saving about $50 a week in gas. I consider that a win.

[BigguyZ]

I agree with CocheseUSA. Very little downtime with directv. The few times the weather has been bad enough to affect it, I probably shouldn't have been watching tv! My parents have Comcast, and my brother had it for a short time as well. Their signal would get garbled all the time for no reason.

[Charlie R]

Dropped the land line and went to Tracphone years ago. Used to work fine except for voice mail that they never could make work. This year I can't use it from inside the house, only one bar & drops calls. Have to go outside. Suggest if you consider going to a cell phone ask the neighbors about their reception before investing.

[radhak]

I'm a bean-counter when it comes to bills, so I keep track of the cents too!

Some years ago when I switched to TMobile they offered a VOIP service called @Home, at $10 per month including taxes, with unlimited minutes. It proved better than the other VOIP I'd experimented with once (called SunRocket, I think), and compared to AT&T it saved me $35 per month after I factored in taxes, so I jumped on it. The only mistake I did was in declining their offer of a second VOIP line using that same box for $5 more a month. I was planning to add that line once the quality checked out, but they discontinued the @Home very soon, and I only got to keep mine because of grandfathering.

As far as VOIP vs regular landline goes, I've no complaints. Of course, the $400 yearly savings makes it sorta impossible for me to consider changing cellphone providers despite TMobile's spotty reception at times, but we'll survive.

Coming to TV : my internet is from Comcast, and the monthly bill is $67 including the $7 modem lease. I know I should buy a modem and save on that, and I also know that overall that's an expensive package, but I don't see an alternative - a neighbor's DSL speeds are something I'd not be happy with. But when I cut their TV part and took with DirecTV I saved around $30 a month.

The thought of cutting that monthly $45 to even less is tempting, but am unsure what all I would miss. We are not a sports watching family other than the super bowl and the occasional Heat's game - will I get those with rabbit-ears? There should be a cheat-sheet somewhere to look that up...?

About 911 - YMMV, but when I called them after a break-in last year, the operator reeled off my address right away, so I know I'm well covered with VOIP. Even with cell phones, I believe you could do a 'test' 911 call - check for procedures in your area; that'd put your mind at rest, and also sorta re-register your number/address in their database for any future emergencies.

[tommyt654]

Ya,Chris you were right about the speed its only 1mbps, enough for me tho as I don't work for a living anymore except stuff I make for craft shows,but when we had DTV we constantly had issues with wind and rain problems, we dropped them and went back to Comcast and haven't looked back, might have been a bad installation (though doubtful) as we complained about the dropped services and we had no trees or anything to see as a reference of the abilty to gather in a signal. Then there were billing issues above what our agreement was and we finally said come and get your junk outta the house, they sent us a coupla boxes to mail it back to them and we still have the satellite dish on the side of the house(not for much longer,I have been lazy about digging it out,but the rains have lately really softened the ground).We had Dish TV but not Direct,perhaps that was the issue,but made me weary of any devices used other than a direct buried cable into the house. All in all we can't find lower cost and the cell phone has never failed us even when traveling, $1000 pr. yr. even with a slow dsl speed is inexpensive in these times.The idea of having to pay for higher internet speeds are what keep me from trying to cut the cords so to speak as they go up incrementally over what we would have to pay Comcast for essentially less service and options.Plus I am a big sports fan and love racing as well, can't find that anywhere nowadays w/regards to motosports other than Nascar and most college ball are on ESPN and others

[vaking]

My home has very bad reception for cell signals and TV antennas. Using cell phone instead of land line is not an option. I work from home so I need good voice line and fast Internet. I have Verizon tripple play which provides TV service, phone "land line" and FIOS Internet - all for approximately $120 a month. Land line includes unlimited local and long distance, Internet is over 50 Mbit/sec download and there are some premium channels on TV. To be honest - I don't watch much TV so I don't care about HBO and showtime that I have but they come nearly for free with the package. I have some sports channels which I am more than willing to donate to charity - I don't watch any sport.
The so called "land line" provided by Verizon is not really a land line. It actually is a VOIP circuit not much different from Vonage, except it is provided by Verizon. True land line works even if you lose power at home (presuming you have basic phone that does not have power plug), line that I have from Verizon have 8 hour battery backup, so in case of power loss it will work for 8 hours on battery, then dies. When I was switching to this plan I did research - true land line is much more expensive and nearly unavailable now. Internet for me is the most important and FIOS is great. If you need FIOS - tripple play is the way to go. The most reasonable approach is to pick the popular package and use what you need - cutting cords will not save you much if anythingh at all.

[Cochese]

I would have signed up for the higher tier DSL a long time ago if AT&T would get off their duffs and run the required fiber/copper in our neighborhood. Unfortunately, they have no care to. The Comcast switch is only about a quarter mile away, so I never have any complaints about the speed or the uptime. So there's a positive.

I'm contacting the phone company now to see if they'd do a QDT instead of me dropping them completely. However my cell plan is by them as well, so I'm sure they don't care.

[dkerfoot]

My home has very bad reception for cell signals and TV antennas. Using cell phone instead of land line is not an option. I work from home so I need good voice line and fast Internet.

Most cell phone companies now offer some form of cell extender. They use your internet connection to bring a direct cell connection and then act as a sort of mini tower in you home. Both my wife and I work out of our basement and our Sprint AirRave works great. I have been using my cell phone as my only business phone for nearly eight years and never could have without the AirRave.

[Cochese]

Picked up a Roku HD last night from Target. Seriously cool device, wish I had done it sooner. Flawless s streaming off Amazon, I'm going to sign up for a trial of Hulu next week.

Sent from my cm_tenderloin using Tapatalk HD

[Cochese]

Revisiting this thread nearly six months later.

We went on a little vacation last week and stayed in a couple of rentals. The first place didn't have any TV but had Roku with a Netflix subscription. The second place had TV but no internet. The first place was a much nicer place to stay, for many reasons, but we found out the kids were just fine finding things on the various Roku channels to watch. It's on this basis that things have quickly escalated in the past few days.

Thanks to a trade-in promotion from my new phone, I got $100 and used it on a second Roku for the living room. I unhooked the DirecTV box out there for the time being to truly evaluate for a week or two how much we would miss it without vacation distractions. I'm out of contract so I can cancel at any time. I'll miss the live sports, but at least I'll have 3-5 NFL games available on local channels and I'll still get a decent amount of college ball. Baseball will be the hardest. Thanks to my tier of internet from Comcast, I get little converter boxes that allow for the basic cable services: local channels, etc. Unfortunately, thanks to the liars at Comcast I had to order my own modem, after the one they told me was mine they decided I should be paying a rental fee. Annoying, but can't do anything about. Never trust any rep that states they'll make a note on your account. Get everything in writing.

As for home phone, I've finally found a solution to dropping that. I'll be purchasing an Ooma in a couple of months and porting our number over. What's nice about Ooma is that you register your 911 address so we don't have to worry about that. It's a VOIP box that can send the signal to all of your house jacks if you physically disconnect the landline outside your house.

So, what's left now is to come up with a small little something where the modem, router, Ooma and UPS will sit to make it either look nice or disguise it. It's going in a tiny little nook in our bedroom that isn't useful for much else aside from old PC chassis. I thought about a built-in cabinet but don't want to obscure the wifi signal too much. What I may do is a hanging shelf on a french cleat that would obscure the wiring and the wall jack. Too bad the power outlet isn't in the same place.

[Denco]

We got rid of the satellite a couple of years ago and we don't miss it at all. We have Netflix streaming and it serves our needs well. If you are in a decent area, you might still pick up quite a bit of sports with an antenna.

Also, you'd be surprised how much TV is available from the networks and cable channels via online the day after it airs. My wife and I are avid NCIS fans and we watch it the day after and it's just as good. (We live in the country surrounded by tall hills. Can't get anything via antenna).

[capncarl]

I picked up a Roku this weekend with full intentions of telling dish that I have had it with their 100's of channels of better bras, grow hair faster and other crap, come get your stuff. My dsl speed (1.2) with ATT doesn't appear to be fast enough to support the Roku streaming without a lot of buffering. Ill have to have time to watch movies on it to see if it is worth the change to Roku full time. The Woodright show on PBS buffered for 30 seconds every 2 minutes.
capncarl

[Cochese]

Good down speeds are really a requirement. If your Roku has an ethernet port, you could try that but you're really limited by your incoming speed. I had to stick with Comcast just because that's the best I could get with DSL.

I'm getting 32d/8u, but I'm also paying $75/mo.