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Cutting The Cable...

10K views 64 replies 19 participants last post by  gzblack2 
#1 ·
So, every month I look at my Verizon bill with a bit more contempt. They provide my phone, internet, and TV service.

What irritates me most, I supppose, is the $114/month package I signed up for ends up costing me around $170/month by the time I get my bill as the converter boxes (2) and taxes add up to another $50 a month.

My contract with them expires in November. So, I figure I have until then to do a little research.

Here is my question... has anybody eliminated cable (which includes cable, satellite, fiber optic, etc) completely?

If so, what, if anything, have you replaced it with... how much does it cost you (setup, any recurring fees, etc)... is there anything you'd like to watch but haven't been able to since dropping it... how happy are you that you dropped it?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.
 
#2 ·
hey,

I think I may be able to provide some insight as for the past 5 years I have not had cable....I even recently worked installing cable for 2 years hahaha :)

dropping cable was the best decision I ever made. Shows are so riddled with commercials its ridiculous. and of course the few programs you are actually interested in, are not in your "package" . Only $30 for the next package and the 1 channel you want is yours! lol

That being said there are plenty of alternatives to cable. I have an HDMI cord running from my PC to my 42 inch and I can watch just about anything at a click of a button. Another option is of course google chromecast, or if your an apple person, apple TV because you can air play any apple screen onto whatever the apple TV is plugged into.

I pm'd you with some additonal info as well

The biggest issue I have is with watching certain sports....alot of sports are now offered online, like an online MLB pass, or a online soccer pass, but say for instance the superbowl....yeah you could find someone streaming it online through some sketchy site....or just go to a friends superbowl party/ a bar/ there are plenty of other alternatives.

for TV shows n what not, check your PMS
 
#3 ·
Yeah, I went through the next package up thing with Verizon and DirectTV when it came to getting the science channels.

Sports was one of the things I meant to include in my question. We like hockey in this house. I can get the web package from the NHL, but they won't let you watch your home team.

I've wondered about some of those... redirect services that mask your location.

If I'm paying for the service, I fail to see why the NHL should care what team I'm watching or where. But, I guess it's part of whatever agreement they have with the TV networks.

I'll check the PM you sent later. Thanks for the reply.
 
#6 ·
When we moved I ditched the cable and went for a phone/internet combo from Comcast since it was cheaper than the same internet by itself. Once the deal was up I bailed on the phone part, too. We have Hulu and Netflix to keep us happy and haven't missed the cable at all, but neither of us are sports nuts so that helps.
 
#8 ·
Dropped Dish after 10 years of good service - we owned the equipment $950 initial investment, reasonable fees, they upgraded and had to trade in our own old equipment, basic service costs doubled due to the new equipment (while this was offered free to NEW customers). final straw was they came out installed a new receiver dish which had a "cold" solder joint and would not receive any signal if the temperature exceeded 95 F.. A service tech came out and swapped the defective part They cut off my service and wanted to charge me $500 for the defective dish and service call. I cancelled and they turned over to a collection agency.

Sent from Motorcycle.com Free App
 
#10 ·
We cut the cable two years ago and now have Hulu ($7.99) and NetFlix($8.99) and Amazon Prime which we were already paying for. $17 now vs $90 with DirecTV.

The TV is hooked up to a wireless Roku (one time purchase, no fees) which is cool since we can move it to any location in the house, just need an AC outlet. Can also watch TV anywhere in the house with just an iPad or laptop. I think some of the cable/satellite services now offer wireless casting too (certainly at a price...) but the new freedom to watch anywhere was new to us. We cut the cable in more ways than one!

The other difference is we no longer setup the DVR, just pick what we want to watch off the menus.

One downside is there are short commercials on Hulu (which have been getting longer, grrr...), used to be able to skip all that with the DVR. The commercials used to only be 15 or 30 seconds but lately have gone up to 30 or 60 seconds. After having a DVR and the ability to skip ads the past 10 years, it is hard going back. If the ads get any longer, may have to try using one of the new ad blockers. I wouldn't mind paying a bit more for ad free but Hulu does not give the option; NetFlix and Amazon are still OK.
 
#11 ·
Yeah, been noticing longer ads on youtube as well.

They need to give the option to download what you're watching, even if it meant downloading the commercials along with it. That way you could skip past them with your video player. It would be no different than recording it and fast forwarding through them that way.
 
#15 ·
I just use the Roku directly, never tried the Roku app. When I watch on the iPad or laptop, I use the Hulu, NetFlix, or Amazon apps direct.


About cutting Cable.....

Don't most people get their internet through a cable company?

And how do you think the billing is going to work out that way?
The choice is (cable internet plus cable TV) vs (just cable internet). For me the difference works out to about $70.
 
#13 ·
With Netflix and Amazon prime, you can legally use the service on 2 separate devices, so you can go in on it with someone and share the services to keep costs down even further. For sports, find a buddy with cable, give him a few bucks every month towards his outrageous cable bill and share his ESPNGO account.
 
#16 ·
About cutting Cable.....


Don't most people get their internet through a cable company?


And how do you think the billing is going to work out that way?
Depends. Some people have phone and internet through their TV cable. I have TV and internet through my fiber optic phone line.

In either case, you're more or less just paying for the signal you're using. So, even if you're internet is through your cable tv company, you do not need to have tv service to use it.
 
#17 ·
Wanted to follow up from the fellow cord cutters on this subject. Also had a few questions.

Any regrets since you've broken up with the cable company? What do you dislike the most of streaming services?

Which streaming services do you find yourself or your family using the most?

In regards to Hulu, how many devices can stream on the same account. Can they stream simultaneously?

I've finally got my family realizing how slaw our cable company is. Dish/Direct TV isn't an option at this time. We are currently paying $195(with tax). No contracts are done with this cable company and it's the only cable company in my town. I get pissed out of my mind when dealing with this provider. They've raised the rate twice in the last two years and recently did a mandatory "signal quality check." Which turned into some clown trying to show me how to tighten up coax cables to ensure they are connected properly and confirm the incoming signal is not up to par. They've also managed to lose seven channels in the last few months, four of which had shows I was watching. Rumor has it, they will be losing more channels in the coming months [/rant]
 
#22 ·
Wanted to follow up from the fellow cord cutters on this subject. Also had a few questions.

Any regrets since you've broken up with the cable company? What do you dislike the most of streaming services?
2 1/2 years now using just Hulu, Netflix, and Prime and love it. But, as TJin said, if you are a big sports fan you will still need a way to get ESPN, most of that content is exclusive to paid cable/satellite. I wanted to watch one of the World Cup matches but was only able to see it over the net in Spanish on Univision.com.
 
#18 ·
I cut cable out 6 years ago and haven't looked back. The only real regret is not being able to get current shows, but that hasn't really been enough for me to change my mind. I only use netflix. Hulu, while they do have some shows, they just don't seem to have enough of what I want to watch to be worth paying for. I might look at amazon and see if that is an option.
 
#19 ·
Thanks for the response. I've used Hulu a very long time ago and didn't commit to it. I spent some time researching if they have any of my shows today. Not only did I find most of them, they also linked me to cable channel websites that allow streaming directly from their site. I thought that was a nice feature.

I currently have Amazon Prime and am not really impressed with it. The "free" content is about the same as Netflix, while they do get new content quickly they want an additional charge for it. I was sold to cancel this service before my renewal date in January. Now where we will be cutting out cable, I'm on the fence to keep it. The rate is also jumping up for us if we renew. It was $79 a year and is now going to $99.

I called my cable company and to drop cable, provide my own modem my bill would be $57.xx per month tax included. So with Netflix/Hulu I'm estimating $75 a month(tax included). I'll be saving $136 per month moving forward.

Next debate, do I turn my PC which streams media anyway, into a DVR box to record over the air shows? Found a nice little article on how someone else did it.

http://www.channelpronetwork.com/story/how-build-budget-media-center-pc-and-hd-dvr?page=0,0
 
#20 ·
I cut cable about 4 years ago, a storm knocked out my service for 3 weeks and the cable company refused to adjust my bill accordingly, I was paying about $125/mo

for the next 3½ years, I had DirecTV, no problems or issues until suddenly on month my bill increased from $135 to $165. I called to question the increase, the service rep I spoke with insisted I had always been paying $164, even though she agreed that the records showed I was only paying $135. Then it took them another month and a half to understand that I asked them to discontinue service, and another month after that to send me the equipment recovery package. Then I was inundated with obnoxious phone calls trying to talk me out of disconnecting, in the meantime, I had already purchased a Roku box

Been happy with Roku, I have a subscription to Hulu + and because I was already an Amazon Prime member, I get Amazon, and my GF already had a Netflix account

Originally my cable provided TV & Internet, now, I get my internet wi-fi from my office where I have high speed internet for my business

I do plan getting some kind of wi-fi booster, occasionally I have had issues streaming with my old wireless router

Telephone: the local phone company is a small independent, cannot complain about $15 month for a land line for my residence and $40/month for a business line
 
#21 ·
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.
 
#34 ·
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.

I didnt read the followup posts to see if anybody else commented on this yet, but you do NOT NEED 25Meg speeds to stream. I stream all the time on my 10k connection that half the time doesnt run faster than 5k.
 
#23 ·
Nice to get feedback from everyone and their experience.

I want to say I was a sports fan. I still like to follow results, however, in the past two years I've realized the 3 hours per football game is time I felt I'm wasting being more productive in many other things. It was a deal breaker for me to cut the cord in the past. It is to my understanding, as long as I have a paid broad band subscription I can still stream sports over ESPN3 aka espngo.com is that not correct?

Randy,

a good friend of mine has Direct TV, he has warned me of how badly they treat him. If the option for a satellite is in my future, I would give Dish a try over Direct TV for the horror stories my bud has shared.

On signal boosters, I run Asus routers in our home. I have an RT-53U router setup as a signal booster in my step sons bedroom. We have tons of electronics in his room, wifi printer, his laptop, phone, ipad, Playstation 3 and Playstation 4. Initially he complained his devices were performing slow or not at all. After the router/converted to signal booster he has not complained. The Asus RT-53U can be found very cheap these days if you are in the market for a router/signal booster.

TJ,

wish I could be in your situation. When I called yesterday I got a quote for $57.xx tax included for a 50 mbps package for internet. Compared to the $195 per month I'm paying now for just cable, internet, and dying channels, I'm content with that.

Talked it over with my family last night, everyone is ready to pull the trigger. I'm sourcing a quality modem today to not have the additional $12 a month charge for "renting" the company's product which I don't even care for. I disable and bypass their wifi to use my own routers.
 
#27 ·
On signal boosters, I run Asus routers in our home. I have an RT-53U router setup as a signal booster in my step sons bedroom. We have tons of electronics in his room, wifi printer, his laptop, phone, ipad, Playstation 3 and Playstation 4. Initially he complained his devices were performing slow or not at all. After the router/converted to signal booster he has not complained. The Asus RT-53U can be found very cheap these days if you are in the market for a router/signal booster.
I'm still up in the air about how to amplify my signal, I have had many suggestions

my office is in a separate building about 150 feet away from my house, I only get a signal now cause I made a tin foil dish that I use to make the signal directional toward my house. Before I did that, I had lousy signal, not good enuf to stream.

I can get a pair of wi fi boosters, one in the office and one in the house,

or, I actually have a 25pair CAT5 cable running between my office building and my house and currently only using 2 pair for an extension of my office phone to my home and vice versa (I do not own a cell phone and never plan to). So hardwiring a router is not out of the question and has the advantage of giving my a better transfer speed between my home computer and office server
 
#24 ·
Buying your own modem/router is definitely a worthwhile option if you are a new customer.

With Verizon, if you've had high speed internet for more than a year, you are no longer charged for the modem/router. So, that's helpful.

@ $197 a month, I'm guessing that you had some premium channels in the mix. I previously had the third tier "extreme" HD package but opted for the second tier "Preferred" HD package, which has SOME of everything, but not all of anything. It has a few ESPN channels as well as our local Fox Sports Pittsburgh (which carries our penguins games) and NBC Sports, but not the NHL network or most of the other sports channels. Which is fine.

It has most of the news channels, about half of the science channels. I've found a number of channels that I did periodically watch that I no longer have, but nothing I cannot live without.

As an existing customer, it would have cost me about $140 a month to keep my existing package with the Extreme HD and 50/50 internet and phone. By pressing them for a better deal and dropping to the Preferred and 25/25, I was able to get it down to $90 a month.

In retrospect, I'm guessing I'm paying about $40 a month for TV and phone over the top of the 25/25 internet for existing customers. Which gives me the things I wanted so I'm more or less happy with that.

I don't have any premium channels. You can get Netflix and watch all the movies you'd get on those, and the series that they have are usually available within a month or two of the end of the season. And, locking oneself into 52 weeks of paying for HBO and Showtime to watch a show that has about 13 episodes a season never made much sense to me anyway.

Like I said, I'm ok with the deal I got, and it provides me with what I need. But, I still would have gone with internet only if I could have found access to the things I wanted without a TV package.

The monopolistic agreements that the TV providers have struck really make it tempting to do things one shouldn't.
 
#29 ·
Buying your own modem/router is definitely a worthwhile option if you are a new customer.

With Verizon, if you've had high speed internet for more than a year, you are no longer charged for the modem/router. So, that's helpful.
That's actually very nice for a provider to drop the rental fee. From the discussion it looks like you are being treated pretty fair. My provider on the other hand, wants every penny they can squeeze out of the customer.

@ $197 a month, I'm guessing that you had some premium channels in the mix.
I am embarrassed to admit, this is not the case. We initially received a few upgraded channels that were considered part of the package we were sold, IE Bravo and Encore. We did have most sports channels, no premium movie channels such as HBO and Cinemax. We never had the Speed channel or Velocity which I found odd as when selecting the channel the input would prompt, "you currently are not paying for this channel, call your provider to add it." As of August of 2014 we have lost several channels, granted 5 of the currently 7 lost we did not watch, however 2 of them we watched regularly. Those were two shows we enjoyed now gone. The price remains the same, and the online community is speculating more channels are to be cut in the not so distant future. I find the price of $195 now no longer embarrassing, but insulting.

The monopolistic agreements that the TV providers have struck really make it tempting to do things one shouldn't.
I couldn't agree more to this statement, and I'm just going to leave it at that ;-)

I can honestly say I never had a problem with my DirecTV service.
Honestly the issues my friend experienced were from the customer service end, he has never complained about signal quality. The customer service horror stories he has told me sound about on par with the customer service I'm getting from my current cable provider.

Amazon Prime is something I never would have joined, but last winter I bought an Otter sled and joining Amazon Prime for free shipping was cheaper than paying the shipping even from a lower priced vendor, I almost look at it as a freebee cause it saved me more than it cost the first time I used it.
We actually talked this over and we decided to keep Amazon Prime, so we will have three streaming services to choose from. Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime. I have taken advantage of the free 2 day shipping as well and it does come in handy. I tend to order items I cannot find locally as well, so I shop maybe 5 times a year on Amazon. I am also sharing the account with my parents whom use Amazon to stream to their TV and do their own online purchasing.

or, I actually have a 25pair CAT5 cable running between my office building and my house and currently only using 2 pair for an extension of my office phone to my home and vice versa (I do not own a cell phone and never plan to). So hardwiring a router is not out of the question and has the advantage of giving my a better transfer speed between my home computer and office server
Well if this is an option then I would recommend this. I always prefer hard wiring vs going wireless.


Edit: didn't see Randy's post quoting Orange's exact same text.

That is an important point. Good bandwidth from the internet provider (5Mbps min) and a solid WiFi signal in the house (or hardwired to the Roku) is a must for cutting the cable, nothing worse than a slow/weak signal.

Signal boosters (repeaters) help but if using a second router best to configure it as an Access Point (AP mode) if possible. Repeaters don't require running cable but you pay for it in being limited to 1/2 data rate max (the unit must simultaneously transmit and receive). Access Point mode is better as you get full bandwidth at all locations; extra important if there are multiple users in the house watching TV (high bandwidth). Downside to AP mode is you must run a cable between the routers.
.
Unfortunately, we are renting and our apartment is two story. The modem and primary router are downstairs, bedrooms upstairs. While we have never had an issue with electronics in our bedroom, my step son had a Unique situation. At one point, we all had iphones, and apple has a nice little messaging service that when enabled over rides text messages with imessages. From some unexplained reason his phone would not send imessages from his bedroom. So we used a the RT-53U as a range extender to help remedy the situation. Since he is now the only Apple product user in our home, so I feel the need to turn off the R.E. would probably help his devices choose better for one SSID vs the two being broadcast. He intermittently has problems with his playstation 3 and it becomes quite the fiasco getting the issues resolved. I feel the R.E. could be at fault, more troubleshooting on that tonight!

Nice to see another fellow Asus product supporter. Three years ago I initially was in search of a Buffalo router, sorry can't recall the model number. The reason being, Buffalo started using DD-WRT firmware. I was beyond excited to find this router, however, disappointed every time my local Fry's electronics was sold out when I would visit. I was engaged into a lengthy conversation with the sales guy about the current routers sold. To my surprise he was very knowledgeable and also a product tester that would write online reviews. He turned me on to the Asus RT-56U and said he loved it when he tested it. He then said, "take it home, and if you don't like it come find me and tell me what features you were disappointed in." This of course ignited my passion find a fail point or feature I would dislike. I found myself later going back and thanking him for his opinion and told him more sales people should be as knowledgeable and helpful as he is.

And switching back to cutting the cord topic. I am finding some insanely cool stuff and getting excited. Anyone see this? http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.2093410
 
#25 ·
As an aside, when I bought my house about 10 years ago, Verizon did not yet offer FiOS in my neighborhood. Internet was DSL. They did, however, have a deal with DirecTV, to provide TV service at a discount off of their regular rate.

I can honestly say I never had a problem with my DirecTV service. In the two years I had them, I think I can count on one hand the number of times I lost signal due to weather. So, I never had to deal with extended periods without it.

Truth be told, the picture quality was better than I get with FiOS. But, to get FiOS for internet and still keep DirecTV would have been cost prohibitive.

I've never had Dish. But, if customer service is an issue, I've heard more horror stories about them than DirecTV. YMMV.
 
#32 ·
I can honestly say I never had a problem with my DirecTV service. In the two years I had them, I think I can count on one hand the number of times I lost signal due to weather. So, I never had to deal with extended periods without it.

Truth be told, the picture quality was better than I get with FiOS. But, to get FiOS for internet and still keep DirecTV would have been cost prohibitive.

I've never had Dish. But, if customer service is an issue, I've heard more horror stories about them than DirecTV. YMMV.
same here with actual TV reception, pixelated or complete loss of signal a handful of times but only during the severest of thunderstorms or snowstorms

I did have an issue during installation that I nipped in the bud, the installers do the quickest and dirtiest job they can do, while the installer was running coax underneath the floor in my basement, she began stretching the coax diagonally shortest distance tacking it to the bottom of the flood joists when I had a nice electrical chase running along the sill, then a 90° turn along a single joist for a nice neat job

I should have known better than sign up for DirecTV to begin with, they only advertise their promotional introductory rates and it's like pulling teeth getting out of them what the cost will be after the introductory period of reduced rates. Bait & switch may work to get customers, it doesn't work to retain them

One thing I did that keep me from getting screwed completely was only by coincidence. Even though they require a credit card to sign up, I used paper billing and a check rather than automatic billing to my credit card. Shortly after I signed up, my credit card became compromised and I closed the account and reopened a new one, DirecTV had my old invalid account number so they were unable get money from me unless I give it to them, I still have an ongoing dispute with them over $230 in charges, I also only gave them my office phone number as well, no home phone, so I was able to stop the obnoxious phone calls at my place of work
 
#38 ·
switching from Comcast to DirecTV tomorrow. Only sucky part is I am dropping from 50MB to 3MB internet speed by moving to Verizon for the ISP.
 
#41 ·
It's been over a week and I have to say everyone seems much happier. My step son went insane with joy when he found comedy central shows on Hulu, he stayed in his room for about two days over the holiday break and only came out to eat. I was disappointed to find that Big Bang Theory is not on Hulu and CBS wants a $6 per month subscription to stream their shows. Glad we kept Amazon as we ended up ordering about 10 different things in the last week so the prime account came in handy. I'm setting up my tablet now is a remote to run Amazon prime video over the chromecast as Amazon did not want to partner with Google to have a chromecast app due to their Fire Stick. The Motorola SB6141 was very easy to install and took the signal quick once I called in and gave them the serial number. Turned all my equipment in shortly after the billing cycle restarted so we only paid $90 for the month of January. That was another surprise to me as I forgot we were paying a prorated rate. Still on the fence if I want to upgrade the wireless router to handle our own VPN. For now, everyone seems very happy. I'm glad we cut the cord!
 
#42 ·
I'd just gut an HD antenna. A number of videos on youtube about how to set that up so that you can get dozens (or more) stations, from the big 5 networks to ION, shopping channels, and a lot of the new retro stations.

I'd be interested in finding out how to set up your own VPN and what the real advantages are with it vs. just going with a provider for it since they aren't that expensive.
 
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