Cut the cable
Jan 21, 2013It’s been sixty days without cable television and so far no one in the house misses it. The TiVo had been recording a blank signal for a week after the last firmware update went out to the cable decoders so I knew it was time to cut the cord. As a family we just don’t watch, preferring to spend our time reading or fiddling with our portable devices. Netflix and Amazon Prime on the Roku are sufficient video entertainment.
It’s quite a savings. We didn’t have anything extravagant— expanded digital TV, two decoders, phone over cable, and internet service— but the bill was slowly creeping upward until it broke $200 per month when the provider expired the last discount and began charging a rental fee for their cable modem. New customers pay $99 and their customer service was not helpful. Enough. I set up a pay-as-you-go account with voip.ms and ported my existing number during a promotion for $10, so it runs me $10-$12 a month for usage including e911, CallerID, and a second DID. I replaced their modem with one I purchased and bumped the internet service up a tier and my monthly for internet is $55. I might spring for a HDTV antenna and ATSC receiver (my old LCD flat panel is strictly a monitor, no tuner) so I can get local channels but that’s not urgent.