Time for Verizon FIOS and ATT Wireless Renewal

[kannon]

Good Morning -

Time for smartphone and Internet/TV contract renewals. I am overwhelmed by options.

Current:

Family Shared 20 GB plan from ATT.

Verizon - provides landline (which may be ok to give up), decent TV selection (no premium stuff) for 2 TVs, and home wifi via provided router.

I want to continue having internet and TV and smartphones but not pleased with over $350 monthly costs between the two plans.

Appreciate what others might be doing. Considering DirectTV, Sling, T-Mobile, eliminate wifi and go with just unlimited smartphone data, look into expanded ATT and drop Verizon or vice versa.

As you can see a lot of options. Was wondering if someone on FIRE has developed the ultimate cost saving, high utility plan.

Thanks

Kannon

 

[REWahoo]

There are far too many variables and local options to come up with a "this is the ultimate" for all situations. However, I do agree $350/mo is far more than I would be comfortable paying for those services.

We have a low-tier Dish contract ($75/mo), use Cricket (unlimited, $60/mo) for our phones (no land line) and a separate internet provider ($80/mo). That's $215/mo and if I can ever get reliable, fast internet service, I'll drop Dish and lower my cost more.

 

[Cobra9777]

I agree with REWahoo. I'll describe our approach FWIW. We're quite happy with the balance of cost and service.

- Internet: Frontier FiOS 50/50 ($54/mo)
- TV: Playstation Vue (Access tier) + Netflix ($57/mo)
- Home Phone: Google Voice + Obi200 VoIP device (Free)
- Cell Phones: Ting pay-as-you-go, using T-Mobile network (avg $38/mo for 2 phones)

Total = $149/mo

We also subscribe to Amazon Prime ($10/mo) and PBS Passport ($5/mo), but I don't include those in the TV section because we would purchase those services even without the streaming video offering.

 

[savory]

T-Mobile - 4 phones about $110 per month (long time plan so costs might be lower for our loyalty)

Comcast - Internet & TV (we only have one TV but I think the cost would be the same for more TVs but really don't know/remember the original deal) $100 per month. No special channels. Our costs went down a lot after we moved. So, where you live (i.e. competition) impacts this price. We also use Comcast since it satisfies SIL internet speed needs since he works from home. If we could use slower speeds, we would use another internet provider and dish. I know this would reduce our costs but do not know how much since internet speed can't be compromised.

I have also reviewed Sling etc but it does not have some of the programming, mostly sports, that I want.

 

[Another Reader]

Don't watch TV here.

Comcast internet and fake land line: $80, including taxes. Had to sign up for a two year extension to get that price. Internet speed is in the middle I think. Out here on the edge, that does not mean much.

Verizon for my cell phone. $75, including around $10 to pay off the phone. Verizon is the only provider that works consistently where I live.

Now if I could only get rid of PG&E...

 

[OldShooter]

Zero TV watching here, but there are internet options that are much cheaper than cable. There is a "cord cutting" thread running here that might be worth reviewing.

• CenturyLink 5gb internet at home/$35 month

• CenturyLink wireline at home about $15/month but in the process of replacing it with Ooma Telo which, with deluxe service, will be $10/month. Zero monthly cost if you just want a vanilla phone. Telo box, factory refurb on eBay $42.
• Google Fi cell phone service, $35 for two phones, unlimited talk and text, plus $10/gb for any data used. Some months our data charge is under $1. Excellent international features, too.
• Lake home $45/month for 20gb fiber to the house + wireline & taxes & fees about $25.

 

[kannon]

Ok - here's one option that I am looking at based on some of the responses:

T-Mobile 4 lines unlimted data $160
Xfinity 60 MBPS Wifi $40
Magic jack basically $0
Sling 25 $40

So be about $1300 a year savings. More important though is a feeling that I don't have to take what Verizon or ATT shove us.

 

[Fedup]

I’ve reduced my cell phone from Verizon $78 to Consumer Cellular for $35 for two person. I went to Target to do. I read it here. So simple. But I wouldn’t have found the inertia to do it until Verizon pissed me off.
I’m still waiting to replace Cox for cable, internet, and land line. But I’m paying $160 here. Not cheap.

 

[REWahoo]

T-Mobile 4 lines unlimted data $160

You can do better. Check out the options shown in this Clarke Howard link: Best prepaid unlimited plans: Metro by T-Mobile vs. Cricket vs. Boost Mobile

 

[W2R]

$350/month? I'd be upset, too!

I spend less than a third that much. For me:

$30 Cell phone, Cricket Wireless, unlimited talk and text plus 2 GB data
$0 landline (dropped it and don't miss it one bit)
$80 Internet, Cox cable
$0 TV (use a homemade indoor antenna, rarely want to watch TV anyway)

TOTAL: $110/month

 

[aja8888]

We have 4 phones on Cricket (AT&T towers) with unlimited talk, text and data for $100 month including taxes. (phones for DW, me, DD, and DSIL). Package deal.

Comcast Xfiniti with 100 MB/S internet, one DVR, two other boxes, VIOP landline (never used) and three TV's for $180/month. It would be better if I could get DW to compromise on TV stuff.

 

[braumeister]

If you happen to be a veteran, T-Mobile will give you 4 lines for $100/month.
Unlimited everything throughout North America (well, LTE is 5 GB before it's reduced in speed), no additional taxes or fees. Also free texting and data almost everywhere else in the world.

https://www.t-mobile.com/offers/military-phone-plans?icid=WMM_TM_FIDELIS_N6788L7BYP513115

 

[brucethebroker]

You can do better. Check out the options shown in this Clarke Howard link: Best prepaid unlimited plans: Metro by T-Mobile vs. Cricket vs. Boost Mobile

We had Cricket for 3 years and recently went to Verizon because of a coverage issue (very, very rare with Cricket). Would go back to Cricket in a heartbeat, if possible.

Many do not know that Cricket is owned by ATT and uses that network. Great customer service plus great pricing.

 

[pb4uski]

Ok - here's one option that I am looking at based on some of the responses:

T-Mobile 4 lines unlimted data $160
Xfinity 60 MBPS Wifi $40
Magic jack basically $0
Sling 25 $40

So be about $1300 a year savings. More important though is a feeling that I don't have to take what Verizon or ATT shove us.

We have Ooma for our home phone and really like it. $4/month after an initial ~$120 up-front cost for an Ooma Telo that plugs into your internet modem or router. We actually use the upgraded premier service that is a ~$120 charge once a year... so our total cost is ~$14/month with unlimited US calls. We ported our landline POTS number so that was attractive since so many friends and family had that phone number for us.

For TV streaming, check out https://www.suppose.tv/tv Input your locale and your "must-have" channels and it will show a variety of packages that meet your criteria.

That $40 for 60 MBPS Xfinity internet... is that the regular price or the price after promotional credits?

As others have posted, you can do better on cellphone... we use airvoicewireless... $30/month/line for unlimited talk, unlimited text and 1GB of data but it looks like there are better deals out there now so I'll have to check them out.

 

[pb4uski]

I just noticed that airvoicewireless has REDUCED prices and INCREASED benefits for their plans.

My $30 unlimited talk and text and 1GB data plan is now $27 with autopay and 4GB of data. The previous $20 unlimited talk and text and 100 MB data plan is now $18 with autopay and 2GB of data.

I'll probably switch to the $18/month plan, get twice the data that I had before and save $12/month per phone.

https://www.airvoicewireless.com/unlimited