Life without cable TV

[Cobra9777]

Actually this is a good form of continuing LBYM...

Uh oh!! We now have a deadbeat freeloader and an apologist.

 

[aja8888]

Uh oh!! We now have a deadbeat freeloader and an apologist.

There are also some closet Netflix freeloaders around here to. But they won't expose themselves!

 

[JustVisitingThisPlanet]

I don't have Netflix at the moment but it seems legit to share account because you are paying for the # of streams, not the # devices that are signed in with acct. Netflix in past has said they don't challenge password sharing because once max streams are met and someone can't use the service, someone in that group will likely create a new acct.

 

[mountainsoft]

I don't have Netflix at the moment but it seems legit to share account because you are paying for the # of streams, not the # devices that are signed in with acct.

Yep, that's what we do. We pay for our Netflix account and share it with my daughter and my mother, each at their own home. Netflix supports multiple profiles so we can each have our own lists and recommendations.

Between the two of them, they use our Netflix account more than we do!

 

[bclover]

Go to your provider's website, but I can't imagine you have to get cable with internet if you don't want it. You will lose any bundle discount so be sure to consider that.

You might think about ditching the land line as well if you get adequate cellular reception at home. Our cell service at home is not great but our phones have wifi capability so that's not an issue for us. I have a relative in her 80s who keeps her landline because she's had the same number since the early 1960s, but frankly she could do without it because I think most people are calling her cell phone anyway.

I'm a bit scared to lose the land line. I'm a single gal and a few months ago I lost my cell phone. gotta admit I was really stressed in the house without any way to make contact.

 

[pb4uski]

^^^ An inexpensive alternative to a landline would be Ooma. $5/month for us and a one-time $70-100 for the equipment. It operates on your internet connection. We plug out 5-phone cordless phone system into it and have "landlines" all over the house. In most cases, you can also port your current phone number to Ooma.

 

[REWahoo]

I'm a bit scared to lose the land line. I'm a single gal and a few months ago I lost my cell phone. gotta admit I was really stressed in the house without any way to make contact.

Another option is to buy a cheap cell phone with an inexpensive "pay as you go " plan and keep it as an emergency back up.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

I'm a bit scared to lose the land line. I'm a single gal and a few months ago I lost my cell phone. gotta admit I was really stressed in the house without any way to make contact.

Google Voice an OBI200 plugged into your router is free after OBI purchase, no 911 service but you can purchase as an extra service for a few dollars a month. You can also plug in as many phones to existing phone jacks as you wish or use a cordless phone system. I dumped my landline about ten years ago now and have saved tons of money.

 

[mountainsoft]

An inexpensive alternative to a landline would be Ooma. $5/month for us and a one-time $70-100 for the equipment. It operates on your internet connection. We plug out 5-phone cordless phone system into it and have "landlines" all over the house. In most cases, you can also port your current phone number to Ooma.

I set my mom up on Ooma, costs around $6/month, and works really well for her. But there's no call blocking or spam filtering at that price point, so she gets lots of junk calls despite being on the DoNotCall registry.

We wanted a few more features, so we've had 1-VOIP (https://www.1-voip.com/) for many years. It provides a variety of spam filtering, call blocking, white lists, voice mail, etc. With taxes and fees it works out to about $14 per month. Like you we have a 5-phone cordless phone system connected to have phones all over our house, including one out in the garage.

There are many other VOIP phone options out there.

Before we switched to internet phone service, our local phone company was charging us over $100 month for basic phone service. No long distance, no caller ID, no spam filtering or call blocking, no voice mail. That was a lot of money for something we rarely even use. That was back before the days of cell phones, but even today our cell signal is so unreliable here at home that we can't depend on them as our only phones.

 

[misanman]

Another option is to buy a cheap cell phone with an inexpensive "pay as you go " plan and keep it as an emergency back up.

That's what we did. Used DW's old iPhone and got a T-Mobile $15/month plan. Use bluetooth to connect to our in-house wireless phone system. We take the iPhone with us sometimes as well. Probably cheaper ways out there but this works well and we can afford $15/month.

 

[OldShooter]

I'm a bit scared to lose the land line. I'm a single gal and a few months ago I lost my cell phone. gotta admit I was really stressed in the house without any way to make contact.

+1 for a VoIP service like OOMA. Like @pb4, we ditched our wireline and ported the number to OOMA. The OOMA "Telo" boxes are selling in the $15-$50 range on eBay, so that is not an obstacle.

We consider our cell phones to be backup to the VoIP, but if you want more solid VoIP you could add a small Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) to support your internet box, the OOMA box, and the local phones against local power failures. (Somethng like this: https://www.amazon.com/APC-Battery-Protector-Back-UPS-BE600M1/dp/B01FWAZEIU/ref=sr_1_3)

Even with a UPS, though, a VoIP solution will be marginally less reliable than a true wired land line, because the power for the wireline comes from the backed-up power in the central office. But there's still the possiblity of a tree falling on the wire.

I don't recall that it has ever happened but if the OOMA box is dead for some reason, OOMA rolls the calls to voice mail and sends us emails notifying us of the new voice mails. So then we can access and listen on the cell phones sans OOMA.

 

[Cobra9777]

+1 for GV + Obi-200. Totally free, great features, very few spam calls.

 

[Chuckanut]

^^^ An inexpensive alternative to a landline would be Ooma. $5/month for us and a one-time $70-100 for the equipment. It operates on your internet connection. We plug out 5-phone cordless phone system into it and have "landlines" all over the house. In most cases, you can also port your current phone number to Ooma.

+1 on the Ooma.

I have the same setup as above. I wanted a phone nearby in each part of my home in case of an emergency. So far that has happened only once. It is worth the $60+ dollars a year to know that I can crawl to a phone if I have to.

 

[JustVisitingThisPlanet]

+1 for GV + Obi-200. Totally free, great features, very few spam calls.

Agree, have switched from Ooma several years ago. Was getting delayed voice on Ooma and costs more. Obi with Google Voice so much better, but may be a bit more involved to setup for those not technically inclined (tying GV service to Obi).

 

[OldShooter]

Agree, have switched from Ooma several years ago. Was getting delayed voice on Ooma and costs more. Obi with Google Voice so much better, but may be a bit more involved to setup for those not technically inclined (tying GV service to Obi).

Yeah. Probably not for non-nerds. I have used some GV features, but Google has a bad habit of randomly discontinuing things. I don't know if they get bored or what, but I don't consider them to be a reliable vendor for things that are peripheral to their "Google Office" products. I also don't expect "free" to be forever. I'm in a minority I know.

 

[JustVisitingThisPlanet]

^What I like most about GV is the free call director service. Can have it ring other phones.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

Yep I use that feature as well.

I really like the 7-digit dialing to numbers in my area code. I remember the days when that was the norm.

The other thing is I just never get a Spam call to my GV number any more, it's been months. Yesterday I got 17 calls to my cellphone number that never left a message.

 

[Cobra9777]

...The other thing is I just never get a Spam call to my GV number any more, it's been months. Yesterday I got 17 calls to my cellphone number that never left a message.

For that reason, I also use GV for my cell number. I use it with the Hangouts app. My cellphone has an actual phone number that came with the SIM card. But I don't even know what it is. I use a call-blocking app to block all incoming voice calls and texts to that number so I don't have to deal with spam. The GV number is the one I give to people. It rarely gets any spam... maybe 1 or 2 per month.

 

[bloom2708]

Try PlutoTV. Free. If you just want to flip channels. Some decent content. Price is right.

 

[statsman]

Just found out today that AT&T Uverse is raising our monthly costs for the second time since we renewed a 12-month contract back in November 2019. For some reason, the extra receiver, which was free on a 12-month promotion, is out of sync with the main service and expired. Another $10/mo plus fees/taxes. Truly envious of the cable cutters here.

 

[ocean view]

Try PlutoTV. Free. If you just want to flip channels. Some decent content. Price is right.

We watch Pluto occasionally, but recently found that not only can you flip through their program lineup being aired like cable, but you can also get their content on demand. So if you see they are showing The Godfather, for example, but it started 45 minutes ago, you can switch to the on demand side and start it at your leisure.

 

[Ginny]

Spectrum tv went up to $250 per month. We finally cut the cord. You tubetv works great, with prime. now $100 per month

 

[ocean view]

We canceled our TV subscription about 10 years ago. Whenever we stay in a hotel I always think the cable access will be great. But I’m always disappointed. Not only is there nothing that I’m missing, but the picture quality over cable is awful! We get such a beautiful and crisp picture from our OTA antenna on our 8 year old, nothing fancy TV that I’d be hard pressed to go back.

 

[JustVisitingThisPlanet]

Just found out today that AT&T Uverse is raising our monthly costs for the second time since we renewed a 12-month contract back in November 2019. For some reason, the extra receiver, which was free on a 12-month promotion, is out of sync with the main service and expired. Another $10/mo plus fees/taxes. Truly envious of the cable cutters here.

What's holding you back from 'cutting cord'?

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

I love Pluto, I watch that more than any other free service, really enjoy the British channel on demand.

The ad supported NBC Peacock Free service begins July15th as well which I'm looking forward to. I have no problem with ads on a free service, that's the time to run upstairs to get something, hit the restroom or catch up on texts.