Cutting the cord

[Molalla1]

Yep I used to do same with Dish. They would jack up the rate and I would call and complain. They would drop it again for 6 mo or a year. Then back up. This last time, no dice. There are no deals available to you sir. So too bad so sad they lost a customer. Been with them like 10 years. Not out of loyalty, but mainly they kept the bill at a place where I was ok with it and then do not have to deal with another company coming out, being home for when the installer comes, dealing with whatever they need to install etc. Pain in the.....

Since I already have internet.... now if I want to change from Youtube tv to something else, a couple mouse clicks and it is done.

We shall see . . . mine's coming up in March again . . . if they balk . . . I'm leaving the area. I've been with directv for around 18 years.

 

[GeneV]

An internet connection, amazon prime sub, firestick, a couple side-loaded steaming apps that show movies and tv shows....you're good to go.

 

[ededic]

Base cable for local channels and news $21 p/mo, Sling Blue for $30 p/mo, Sling HE for TCM $5 p/mo, AppleTV+ $5 p/mo, Amazon Prime $10 p/mo

10mb unlimited Internet from base cable provider $45 p/mo

$121 all in p/mo

Can drop sling and AppleTV at any time. No contract.

 

[whistlepig]

Not all rural internet connections are equal. And if one has satellite (like us) one is at the mercy (sometimes) of the weather. This includes cell phone. We have been through two internet providers and 6 cell phone providers. Just not going to get the performance of cable on a satellite connection.

 

[ruffdog]

The phone/DSL company says I live in the "dead zone". Unless there is development ($), they won't spend the money to upgrade internet service. The politicians threw money at the internet providers with the promise that better service will reach rural homes. The better service only reached the edge of a big corn field that is owned by a developer (doner?).

 

[whistlepig]

We were rural once and finally got cable internet. Once we had RoadRunner we were spoiled. Then we went back rural (no cable) thirteen years ago. TV, cell phones, and internet. Satellite simply just isn't going to match cable. Heck, just getting electric here after a storm outage is a major effort. Still I wouldn't trade back.

 

[ededic]

Check with the local university. They may have a student project that turns into a great service. It happened in the rural Upper Penninsula of Michigan.

 

[ultrarunner]

That's a better term for what's being discussed. Few really 'cut the cord' as I did several years ago when I simply turned the TV off and unplugged it.

Or simply have over the air so no cord or cable to cut

 

[EddieWalker]

I've been overwhelmed with all the options and trying to figure out what's out there and how to go about doing it. My wife bought a Roku last year that we slowly started to use. Think baby steps and being forced against your will to step outside your comfort zone type of thing. We still had Dish while trying the Roku, which we have sort of figured out. Then our Dish went out and they said they said it would be almost a week to get somebody out to look at it, so I went to Lowes, Home Depot and Best Buy to look at antennas. I bought one for $150 from Lowes. We get 13 channels on it, which include the big 4, ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX which allow us to watch local news, and some shows that we like in the evening. Then my wife added Direct Now from her AT&T bundle on her cell plan for $20 a month that allows us to get a bunch of cable channels that we sometimes watch.

What we have found that we like doing the most is finding a series and watching those episodes in order, or a tv show and watching episodes of that show from the first one on up. We've also found that we really enjoy watching British shows that are also on here, but different there. Britains Got Tallent is hillarious!!! We've watched 2019, 2018, 2017 and were watching 2016 now. We watch for an hour or two, then go to bed and start watching again when we want. We've sort of created our own show schedule where we can watch something we enjoy when we want.

In hind site, we should have done this sooner and not wasted so much money on Dish.

 

[ultrarunner]

It really adds up over the long run... maybe Dad had it right when he booted the cable guy out of the house back in 1973... See it was 7.95 a month and Dad said if he had an extra 100 to spare he wouldn't spend it on the idiot box... funny because the TV in Mom's house we bought Dad in 1980... to replace the set he bought in 1964... Zenith... The quality goes in before the name goes on.