How To Cord Cutting 101 (1 Viewer)

[Robert Crawford]

Lets get back on topic, please.

 

[John Dirk]

Lets get back on topic, please.

Sure. To reset, I've done about as much cord-cutting as one can do. In my particular case I don't have to deal with Internet as I get that free, for now at least. I also get my home phone at a very cheap rate as described in a previous post but anyone can get this plan.

We all have different situations. For me OTA and Netflix work for now.

 

[Carlo_M]

I know I'm super late to the party, but I just cut the cord to start out the New Year. My old cable bill bundled 300mbps internet and cable and my Pac 12 channels for sports. But with all the device fees (whole house DVR with 3 sets) and then those nebulous "fees" that Spectrum likes to put on, my monthly bill slowly crept up from $240 to $260 a month (admittedly I also had their tier that had premium channels like HBO, Showtime, etc.). It was fine when I was splitting the bill 3 ways, but recently my flatmates moved out to be closer to their aging parents and I wasn't about to absorb the full $260 for a bunch of channels I never watch.

So my first step was to just rely on AppleTV where I have several streaming services. Ironically Spectrum no longer offers a 300mbps tier so just to be safe I went up to 400mbps which is a flat $95 a month. No added fees which I think was related to channel programming. So that's $165 savings a month right there. Out of curiosity I dug out an old unpowered indoor HD antenna (RCA...I think I bought it from Radio Shack, it has two extendable antennas in addition to a circle dish)...and to my shock the local HD OTA channels come in pretty darned clear.

I am considering Sling + Pac 12 Network for a few months to finish out NCAA BB and March Madness, which will add $60 (so my net savings will still be over $100) and from what I understand it's relatively easy to stop/suspend Sling so as soon as my school is eliminated from the tournament, so will Sling lol.

Now I'm a bit miffed at all the money I've thrown at Spectrum this whole time. And ultimately I'd love to have gone fiber but there's just no service in my area. Spectrum is the only provider of high speed internet in my area (which still surprises me).

 

[Josh Steinberg]

It’s amazing what competition does. I moved out of a Spectrum only area (formerly serviced by Time Warner) and paid similar exorbitant rates, and they even said they’d raise the internet rate if we canceled cable.

Now I’m in an area that has both Cablevision/Optimum and Verizon Fios, and for $40 a month, I get 500mbps from Verizon. It’s not part of a bundle, it’s not connected to any other service, and it’s not a promotional rate - that’s just the price. Every month I get a flyer in the mail from Optimum asking me to switch, and their offer is a one year promotional rate of $50 a month for 250mbps, doubling after a year, and it’s like, who do they think is gonna switch on those terms? (And that’s them with competition.)

 

[Carlo_M]

Yeah trust me if I could go fiber I would. There’s just no option right now and I live in a high density part of Los Angeles. You’d think we’d have competition but somehow…nope.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Yeah, that was the same with me - I would have figured more options in NYC than outside it, but nope. I get why some people think streaming doesn’t work or doesn’t look good. I paid more than double in the city and was lucky to get 50 mbps out of the 150 or whatever I was promised. Here in the burbs I’m paying nearly a third of that, they’re promising speeds of 500 and I’m getting above that at times. My mom used to have a house in this same neighborhood over a decade ago, and she was getting the same quality and pricing then.

It’s absurd that this isn’t available to everyone and at these prices.

 

[Todd Erwin]

I was just notified that my internet and phone bill with Spectrum will be going up by $40 next month as my 3-year free 400 Mbps upgrade promo comes to an end. I called and there were no promos available at this time. Spectrum does not have any real competition other than T-Mobile's 5G internet service, which is nowhere near as fast as Spectrum's 100 Mbps plan, but they are the second fastest provider in town.

Spectrum - up to 940 Mbps available
T-Mobile - up to 50 Mbps available (that is what neighbors are telling me)
AT&T - up to 18 Mbps available
Choice - up to 9 Mbps (and the most expensive)

 

[JohnRice]

It’s amazing what competition does. I moved out of a Spectrum only area (formerly serviced by Time Warner) and paid similar exorbitant rates, and they even said they’d raise the internet rate if we canceled cable.

That's the truth! My internet (Comcast, the only game in town) was $80/month for 75Mb/s. Then we passed municipal internet, which is taking a while to get built throughout town. Still, once that was passed, I suddenly was able to get 500Mb/s for $60. Now it's 600Mb/s for $50. From $80/month for 75Mb/s down to $50 for 600Mb/s. Or I can have 400Mb/s for $40/month. Of course, that's still with the wonderful Comcast data limits, but I never reach that at least.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I was just notified that my internet and phone bill with Spectrum will be going up by $40 next month as my 3-year free 400 Mbps upgrade promo comes to an end. I called and there were no promos available at this time. Spectrum does not have any real competition other than T-Mobile's 5G internet service, which is nowhere near as fast as Spectrum's 100 Mbps plan, but they are the second fastest provider in town.

Spectrum - up to 940 Mbps available
T-Mobile - up to 50 Mbps available (that is what neighbors are telling me)
AT&T - up to 18 Mbps available
Choice - up to 9 Mbps (and the most expensive)

I am in the middle of an unpleasant experience with T-Mobile's Home Internet offering. I tried it back in October, and the service did not work well at all at our home (couldn't even stream an single HDX film). I canceled the line within a few days and returned the equipment to the local T-Mobile store that ordered it for me.

Fast forward to mid-December, and I receive a message from T-Mobile stating I had not returned the equipment and would be charged if it was not returned. I called customer service, and they supposedly took care of the issue. However, a week ago my credit card gets charged over $400 for the missing equipment (I have auto pay setup on our account). So I call again, and after 1.5 hours on the phone supposedly have it taken care of... yet again. Well, this week I receive another message stating the refund request has been denied. I just got off the phone with them one more time, and they once again assure me the refund will go through (supposedly they missed some documentation on their end). If it doesn't go through this time, I will be calling the my credit card bank to dispute the charge.

The short version is that I wouldn't recommend T-Mobile's Home Internet product at this time.

That's the truth! My internet (Comcast, the only game in town) was $80/month for 75Mb/s. Then we passed municipal internet, which is taking a while to get built throughout town. Still, once that was passed, I suddenly was able to get 500Mb/s for $60. Now it's 600Mb/s for $50. From $80/month for 75Mb/s down to $50 for 600Mb/s. Or I can have 400Mb/s for $40/month. Of course, that's still with the wonderful Comcast data limits, but I never reach that at least.

Local co-operatives can have some great pricing. I get 200Mbps for $43, including cable modem & router, at our South Carolina condo through a co-op called HTC.

 

[JohnRice]

Local co-operatives can have some great pricing. I get 200Mbps for $43, including cable modem & router, at our South Carolina condo through a co-op called HTC.

This might be treading the lines of HTF rules, but I genuinely believe that internet has become a utility. It's as necessary as electricity and water. That's what we did here. We voted it to be a utility. A subtle difference is that you typically have to get utilities from the municipal provider, which won't be the case with us and internet. Comcast still has their network and people can buy from them. It's just that the city will have fiber installed throughout town and anyone can get 1Gb/s for $60/month with no data caps. In our case, phone and TV will eventually be available as well, and with them the end of $300/month phone/cable/internet bills.

FWIW, my city is about 150K people. The big problem is with the tiny farm towns to the East of us which have no usable speed internet. In most cases, cell based of low single digit speeds. One of them in particular, Nunn, CO. (pop 589) a tiny little, zero light town I believe is also getting municipal fiber internet.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I genuinely believe that internet has become a utility. It's as necessary as electricity and water.

I fully agree. I think that’s been the case for quite some time but it’s even more obvious in the context of the pandemic resulting in more people working from home and more people relying on internet from everything from communication to entertainment. It’s not a luxury good or service anymore and it’s not really optional for most people. Given that, it should be made available to all who want it at reasonable prices.

If Verizon Fios can provide me with 500mpbs service for $40/month and has been making the same offer for people in this neighborhood for well over a decade, it’s long past time for everyone to have that kind of option.

 

[JohnRice]

I fully agree. I think that’s been the case for quite some time but it’s even more obvious in the context of the pandemic resulting in more people working from home and more people relying on internet from everything from communication to entertainment. It’s not a luxury good or service anymore and it’s not really optional for most people. Given that, it should be made available to all who want it at reasonable prices.

If Verizon Fios can provide me with 500mpbs service for $40/month and has been making the same offer for people in this neighborhood for well over a decade, it’s long past time for everyone to have that kind of option.

The one thing our municipal internet hasn't offered yet is something like 50-100Mb/s for less than $20/month. 50Mb/s with a reasonable data cap for $10/month is something that simply should exist.

 

[DaveF]

I was going to “cord cut” this year: cut the cable TV from my FIOS package to save a few dollars a year, since we’re 95% streaming now and the TiVO Roamio is long since paid for and paid for itself.

But I pay $95/mo for FIOS + Cable + Cablecard.
Current new package is $90/mo for FIOS.

Unless I want to drop from 1000 Mbps to 400 Mbps, which I don’t, I’ll keep cable since it’s now free to me.

I guess for the first time I’ll look at cancelling Netflix to save a few dollars for a while.

Netflix raises prices on all plans in US

4K Netflix now costs $20 per month.

www.theverge.com

 

[Carlo_M]

AT&T Fiber is expanding it's Gig (and higher) service and "Los Angeles" is listed as one of the cities...of course my neighborhood isn't on the site as one that has access to the service.

I just purchased a $29 indoor powered HDTV antenna from Amazon that has like a gajillion reviews averaging 4.5 stars. I hope it's good. I'm currently using an old a#$ RCA...yes you read that brand name correctly...indoor unpowered antenna that has some circular type part, a ring around that circle, and two extendable antenna that look like what used to stick out of cars in the 1980s...except without the powered extending feature...so maybe more like the 1970s. It actually does a decent job picking up a lot of OTA channels...but for some reason won't pick up the local ABC channel even though they do broadcast. So I'm hoping this new powered antenna gives me a bit of a signal boost. We'll see, it's only a $29 risk and honestly I think I bought this RCA antenna when I got my first HDTV in...probably the early 2000s.

 

[Carlo_M]

Here it is, just for a laugh. And yes, the totally terrible placement is a limitation of the 6' coaxial cable it comes with. And no I wasn't going to try and find an electronic store for a coax cable + extender adapter.


Fortunately I haven't hosted many people (due to CoVID obviously) during the short time I've employed this. Otherwise I'm sure I would have received no shortage of "rabbit ears" jokes.

"Oh, do you have to have a child hold on to the antenna to get the best reception?"
"Let me get you some tin foil..."

 

[Todd Erwin]

Over the holidays, I managed to talk my Dad into cancelling Dish Network and switch to an antenna and DVR, the same setup I have (except he went with the 2-tuner 500Gb Recast). His contract ended in November, and the monthly fee increased to just over $100, and all he watched on Dish was Jeopardy (which he would record and watch later that evening) and local news. He had signed up 2 years ago and was paying around $50 per month. I chastised him for wasting that money after he had been using Dish for about a month. Unfortunately, his new billing cycle had just started at the end of December, and Amazon wasn’t able to deliver the external antenna, FireStick, and Recast until after I would arrive back home. He hired a handyman to install the antenna, and then I had to walk him through setting everything else up over the phone.

Everything appears to be working for him, and he’s quickly overcoming the learning curve of using the FireStick to watch OTA programming. Not bad for a guy in his 80s!