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My contract with Verizon ended last month. I did a lot of thinking about how I wanted to handle it between the time I started this thread and then.
Unfortunately, a few things came into play for me.
First, there are only two high speed internet providers in the Pittsburgh area. Verizon and Comcast. The ONLY other options are cell phones or satellite. The latter, of which, is prohibitively expensive.
Getting any internet package with speeds high enough to stream video (25 Mbs or higher) puts you in a price bracket where there is little advantage to completely eliminating cable. With Verizon, the difference between a package consisting of a mid-level TV package, nationwide phone and 25/25 internet and just having high speed internet alone was about $30 a month.
At least, that's what it was once I spent an hour on the phone with a retention specialist and convinced them that giving me, as an existing customer, a better deal to keep me was better than trying to gain a new one. They finally agreed.
Two things really came into play that continues to be a problem with respect to eliminating paid TV.
1) Hockey. It costs about $180 a year for the regular season NHL package to watch games online, and it DOESN'T allow you to watch your home team! I'd need to go to a bar to watch them. Which would probably end up costing me far more.
2) The science channels. I can watch pretty much everything else I watch online. There aren't many options when it comes to watching the shows on the various science channels like Through the Wormhole, etc. Amazon seemed to be about the only real option, at something like $100 a year.
While I expect it to change in the future, for now, the monopoly on certain things has my household by the short and curlies.
Unfortunately, a few things came into play for me.
First, there are only two high speed internet providers in the Pittsburgh area. Verizon and Comcast. The ONLY other options are cell phones or satellite. The latter, of which, is prohibitively expensive.
Getting any internet package with speeds high enough to stream video (25 Mbs or higher) puts you in a price bracket where there is little advantage to completely eliminating cable. With Verizon, the difference between a package consisting of a mid-level TV package, nationwide phone and 25/25 internet and just having high speed internet alone was about $30 a month.
At least, that's what it was once I spent an hour on the phone with a retention specialist and convinced them that giving me, as an existing customer, a better deal to keep me was better than trying to gain a new one. They finally agreed.
Two things really came into play that continues to be a problem with respect to eliminating paid TV.
1) Hockey. It costs about $180 a year for the regular season NHL package to watch games online, and it DOESN'T allow you to watch your home team! I'd need to go to a bar to watch them. Which would probably end up costing me far more.
2) The science channels. I can watch pretty much everything else I watch online. There aren't many options when it comes to watching the shows on the various science channels like Through the Wormhole, etc. Amazon seemed to be about the only real option, at something like $100 a year.
While I expect it to change in the future, for now, the monopoly on certain things has my household by the short and curlies.