Monthly Cost for Cable/Internet

[rk911]

I posted on Cable Cutting thread. Seems the discussion there is regarding better streaming services, equipment, devices etc. I'm interested in total monthly cost for in home entertainment and internet. I feel like I'm being ripped off, then again I'm not sure. Cutting the cord can be complicated (we're not tech savvy) and I don't want to go through all that and realize huge mistake.
So our cost as of this date:


AT&T Uverse package:
Internet (Unlimited usage 11.18 MG speed) $20
Three TV's (all Uverse:all DVR:220 channels and Showtime/Starz)
$128 BUT they are giving $35 discount for CBS and Fox sports negotiations. So, for now $93
Netflix $12.99, gift sharing to niece
Prime $9 approx
As of today: $135/month We'll see what happens with CBS negotiations, but I have CBS through app for free/Prime. Somewhat inconvenient.

cbs and at&t reached agreement on new contract,.

we have comcast triple play...tv, internet and phone. ~$250 p/m plus netflix and amazon prime chew up another ~$20 p/m. may be adding cbs all access. we bundled comcast and dumped eartlink dsl and at&t copper landline and saved ~$1900 p/y.

 

[FreeBear]

Me too!!!!

This has been on my list of things to do, and I finally got to it, one year after retirement. Now it has become a driving mission.

When I'm done with my communications reshuffle, I'm going to post the results. It should be pretty dramatic cost wise. I wish I started earlier. Oh well, so it goes.

Don’t feel bad, I’ve been delaying for yearly 5 years, until I’ve got annoyed and motivated. I dreaded making all the phone calls and taking the chance of a screwup, especially with DW’s phone. Now all’s good. Now to get motivated to do some home repairs and legal paperwork. The “fun” never ends; just never had the energy to do this stuff right while w*rking.

 

[BeachOrCity]

I win I win I win!

$252 monthly gets me
1 dvr plus 4 more boxes
All basic channels
All premium channels
Fast internet.
Taxes and fees

I consider myself quite the skilled negotiator!

 

[mwetter]

Internet and TV costs

DTV $55 (neg) Expanded channels
Internet $59.95 summer place, $39 Winter place
Netflix $0 Use kids 2nd TV option


total of 104.95 summer to $94 winter. 2 DVR receiver types with DTV.



We were ready to stream with OTA full time but DTV cut price for us.

 

[gooddog]

This thread seems like a good place to post a related question. I have a condo in Cocoa Beach, FL that has bundled the TV and Internet services into the HOA. Apparently they got a great deal from Charter to do this, as the internet was recently added, and the HOA only went up $3/month per condo. My question is, has anybody else run into this type of situation where both internet and TV are bundled with the HOA fee? The company that did this with the condo is Charter/Spectrum. I have Charter for my house in California, and they are very expensive...thinking the condo association is getting set up for a bait and switch....?

 

[RockyMtn]

This thread seems like a good place to post a related question. I have a condo in Cocoa Beach, FL that has bundled the TV and Internet services into the HOA. Apparently they got a great deal from Charter to do this, as the internet was recently added, and the HOA only went up $3/month per condo. My question is, has anybody else run into this type of situation where both internet and TV are bundled with the HOA fee? The company that did this with the condo is Charter/Spectrum. I have Charter for my house in California, and they are very expensive...thinking the condo association is getting set up for a bait and switch....?

It's called a bulk rate in the cable biz. Quite common in condo complexes and other MDU type dwellings. They can charge less because 100% of the residents take the product!

 

[rk911]

I win I win I win!

$252 monthly gets me
1 dvr plus 4 more boxes
All basic channels
All premium channels
Fast internet.
Taxes and fees

I consider myself quite the skilled negotiator!

muy bueno. but i’ll see your hand and raise you 2 additional boxes plus phone for $250.

 

[gooddog]

It's called a bulk rate in the cable biz. Quite common in condo complexes and other MDU type dwellings. They can charge less because 100% of the residents take the product!

I understand the bulk rate, but only $3/month for high speed internet? Maybe the old cable package was up, and the internet was negotiated into the new package. Great deal if that is the case, and typically these types of deals for a complex the size of ours (240 units) are for a few years or more from what I hear. If anybody has other info on this...I'm all ears.

 

[MissMolly]

This thread seems like a good place to post a related question. I have a condo in Cocoa Beach, FL that has bundled the TV and Internet services into the HOA. Apparently they got a great deal from Charter to do this, as the internet was recently added, and the HOA only went up $3/month per condo. My question is, has anybody else run into this type of situation where both internet and TV are bundled with the HOA fee? The company that did this with the condo is Charter/Spectrum. I have Charter for my house in California, and they are very expensive...thinking the condo association is getting set up for a bait and switch....?

If this was me, I would cancel the cable (keep the internet) at my house in CA, get a ROKU, install the Spectrum app on the ROKU then use my login credentials from my FL home to watch everything on Spectrum via the ROKU when in CA.

 

[Janet H]

I win I win I win!

$252 monthly gets me...

maybe not....

We recently switched away from all cable when our rates went from $124 to $174 to $283 over a 12 month period and I was unable to negotiate a lower rate. Same service.....

Now:

cable internet: $117
PS Vue: $55
netflix: $13
Total = $185.00

We are seriously considering ditching ps vue but this will mean giving up network tv and news. There is no ota broadcast in my area.

The bottom line is that folks in remote or under-served areas pay a premium for connectivity.

 

[gooddog]

If this was me, I would cancel the cable (keep the internet) at my house in CA, get a ROKU, install the Spectrum app on the ROKU then use my login credentials from my FL home to watch everything on Spectrum via the ROKU when in CA.

That is a great idea. Thanks

 

[albundyz]

Internet $70 (had no problems with Spectrum)
Dish Network $72 for 2 TVs (very happy)

Dish also gives us the ability to record. At the moment, we have about 50 movies recorded (don't ask why). We found Dish Network to be really flexible and really easy to use. My wife watches the weirdest stuff on the weirdest channels. she's happy with Dish so I don't rock the boat. My only regret is that apparently, ESPN is a significant part of our monthly fee and I never watch ESPN.

 

[RockyMtn]

maybe not....

We recently switched away from all cable when our rates went from $124 to $174 to $283 over a 12 month period and I was unable to negotiate a lower rate. Same service.....

Now:

cable internet: $117
PS Vue: $55
netflix: $13
Total = $185.00

We are seriously considering ditching ps vue but this will mean giving up network tv and news. There is no ota broadcast in my area.

The bottom line is that folks in remote or under-served areas pay a premium for connectivity.

Apparently you missed my post:

CenturyLink DSL $45.00
Directv $85.80 for HD on 5 TV's Full house DVR with HBO

That puts me at $130.50

 

[RockyMtn]

I understand the bulk rate, but only $3/month for high speed internet? Maybe the old cable package was up, and the internet was negotiated into the new package. Great deal if that is the case, and typically these types of deals for a complex the size of ours (240 units) are for a few years or more from what I hear. If anybody has other info on this...I'm all ears.

Good point. That is dirt cheap for internet. Video has become a commodity which you can get from a variety of places. Cable companies will increasingly emphasize broadband over programming as the margins are much much higher. They don't really care too much if they lose you as a programming customer as long as you keep broadband.

Now when 5G comes out they may change their tune if that starts cutting into broadband subs.

 

[eba1225]

We had FIOS for TV and Internet for 3 tvs and it ran about 130/mo. We had an OTA antenna and a splitter for coax, so we dumped the cable and the bill lowered to 45. We have Netflix and Amazon Prime, so I guess you can say the bill is ~60 on the same number of tvs. We do not miss any of the cable and can get many good shows on Netflix and Amazon Prime. We purchased a Tablo which allows us to record OTA shows but we do not pay for any additional services so the recording is like with the old VCRs...at a certain time for a period of time.

 

[Dave J]

I have Spectrum Choice TV(10 channels of my choice plus locals) $29.99 for 24 months.
Locals on Spectrum $5 (mandatory)
Spectrum Internet $55.99 ($10 less due to having Spectrum TV, maybe for only 1st 2 years)
Taxes 1.97 (city franchise fee)
Total $92.95 may go up $5 in year 3.
I have an OTA Antenna and a Tablo DVR I use for locals.
Have ROKU's on all my TV's.
Watching less Tv as we get older. More internet and other things.
I also have Amazon Prime for free from piggybacking on my sons account.

 

[ychuck46]

Vue and Charter

We have Vue for streaming TV at an all-in price of ~$54/mth. Five simultaneous devices can be up at any one time, and it comes with online DVR.

We pay ~$70/mth for 136Mbps internet from Charter Communications. We live in a more rural area so that is the best we can get.

We also have Amazon Prime, which we would have regardless, so no additional cost added.

 

[pb4uski]

This thread seems like a good place to post a related question. I have a condo in Cocoa Beach, FL that has bundled the TV and Internet services into the HOA. Apparently they got a great deal from Charter to do this, as the internet was recently added, and the HOA only went up $3/month per condo. My question is, has anybody else run into this type of situation where both internet and TV are bundled with the HOA fee? The company that did this with the condo is Charter/Spectrum. I have Charter for my house in California, and they are very expensive...thinking the condo association is getting set up for a bait and switch....?

Our HOA fee includes Xfinity "basic" cable. I'm happy with the service.

I'm told that the cost included in our HOA is ~$33/month. Good deal if you are there year round, but 2/3 of the units are seasonal so our cost is really ~$66/month since we pay $396/year and are only there to use the service for 6 months.

It seems to me like the seasonal folks are subsidizing a good deal for the year-round folks. We don't include insurance, interior pest control, and the like in the HOA fee.... so why basic cable?

Our contract is up in a year... I'd like to see them ditch the contract and let people do what they want. There is decent OTA available in that location so I might just go with OTA with a DVR and a little streaming.

 

[bolt]

If this was me, I would cancel the cable (keep the internet) at my house in CA, get a ROKU, install the Spectrum app on the ROKU then use my login credentials from my FL home to watch everything on Spectrum via the ROKU when in CA.

outstanding!

 

[Old Microbiologist]

We retired to Hungary. Our cable with internet is roughly $47 a month which includes a landline, 140 channels of cable TV and 500 MBps internet. Our cable company is the Dutch company UPC which merged with Vodafone and will be bringing 1,000 MBps internet using 5G (Huawei) on both Phones and households with free roaming throughout Europe sometime around Christmas. The cost will not go up. Our current cell service is T-Mobile at $15 a month and includes 2GB internet using 4G so we will wrap that under Vodafone's service when the 5G service starts. However, we don't have any phones with 5G modems so that will have to be figured out. I assume we will have to have small personal 5G receivers with hotspots.

 

[Rianne]

Geography has a lot to do with this. Competition and what's offered in your area. There are parts of Southern Illinois that do not have good internet connections which hurt the farmers.

 

[rk911]

Geography has a lot to do with this. Competition and what's offered in your area. There are parts of Southern Illinois that do not have good internet connections which hurt the farmers.

serious question....how does lack of internet access hurt farmers?

 

[candrew]

serious question....how does lack of internet access hurt farmers?

https://www.benton.org/blog/want-next-generation-precision-agriculture-youll-need-rural-broadband

The report details how unreliable broadband service undermines scaling adoption of precision agriculture:

Some farmers dedicate significant time and effort to find workarounds to insufficient Internet service, which takes time away from managing their businesses and serving their customers.

Some precision agriculture technologies function with basic Internet connections, so even slow speeds are better than no connections at all. But many require a more reliable and high-speed Internet connection as a minimum requirement.

Without access to online learning and peer sharing platforms, farmers are less likely to succeed with technology implementation, having wasted money, time, and effort without realizing complete benefits.

 

[NanaW]

Internet 65
Sling. 40
Prime 20
Total 120

Before
Internet. 65
Spectrum 100
Netflix 10
Hulu 10
Prime 20
Total 200

I’m good

 

[pc95]

Spectrum Internet: $14.99 grandfathered service 3.5 Mb/s DL, They have no mid-tier service level, so will keep this rate until they do.

No cable -- OTA Channel Master Recorder bought all HW in 2015 for ~$380. Still using today. Technically then $380/49 months ~ $7.75/month and decreasing monthly.

Puts us at $23.00/month and decreasing