Cancel Cable or sign new contract

[utswimmer37]

I am coming up on the end of my service agreement for fios and have to resign in a few days if I resign of course it's much cheaper. I looked at some older forums and fios wasn't in pcola yet, anything changed? If it's there (pcola) I'll sign then move my services but if not plan is to cancel, thoughts from the experienced folks? Other alternative was just to hotspot my galaxy since I'll be jumping around and activate the 3G on the ipad.

 

[utswimmer37]

also, I leave for OCS in a month...wife will need comms

 

[Fronch]

I don't think you'll lose out by cancelling during OCS and then signing back up afterwards. They'll probably consider you a "new customer" and give you a good deal. I did this for an internship I did last summer; I was away from home for 2 months, so I cancelled my cable/internet, and when I got back, they gave me a much cheaper "new customer" rate.

 

[Swanee]

Go with an HD/Digital Antenna and a Roku instead of cable TV. Once you make the jump you won't miss cable TV.

 

[e6bflyer]

I ditched cable and upped my internet sub by $20 three years ago. I don't miss it one bit. I have a wife and four young kids. They were a bit miffed at first, but when I showed them all the options available to watch shows, they were all on board. I pay for Netflix, Hulu, and buy about $30-$40 in movies and shows a month from Apple, etc, and still come out way ahead. I also have the "family" HBO Go password, which helps. After all that I still come out about $120 or so ahead of what I was paying for cable.

I have an Apple TV for my primary TV and roku boxes on my others.

Cable subscriptions are a dying model. It is only a matter of time before it is all digital. Unfortunately, the cable companies are legal monopolies that control the system. There are plenty of companies working around it, but they face an uphill battle with litigation, etc. I predict that the TV landscape will be radically different in 10 years. The technology exists, but the cable companies won't adopt it because the model they have now is so profitable.

 

[PhrogLoop]

I pay for the highest tier of internet access through cox which comes with a land line phone for $60/month. I use an antenna for HDTV over the air and I pay for Netflix and Hulu Plus via Apple TV. I can honestly say it improved my life and it's saving us a ton of money. I don't miss the 500 channels I never watched. Ever.

 

[utswimmer37]

I ditched cable and upped my internet sub by $20 three years ago. I don't miss it one bit. I have a wife and four young kids. They were a bit miffed at first, but when I showed them all the options available to watch shows, they were all on board. I pay for Netflix, Hulu, and buy about $30-$40 in movies and shows a month from Apple, etc, and still come out way ahead. I also have the "family" HBO Go password, which helps. After all that I still come out about $120 or so ahead of what I was paying for cable.

I have an Apple TV for my primary TV and roku boxes on my others.

Cable subscriptions are a dying model. It is only a matter of time before it is all digital. Unfortunately, the cable companies are legal monopolies that control the system. There are plenty of companies working around it, but they face an uphill battle with litigation, etc. I predict that the TV landscape will be radically different in 10 years. The technology exists, but the cable companies won't adopt it because the model they have now is so profitable.

awesome stuff...and I will from now on use the word miffed, I thank you sir. There is no point to having 300 hd channels if I watch 4 of them and all of them are online. Appreciate the advice everyone.

 

[Spekkio]

Cable subscriptions are a dying model. It is only a matter of time before it is all digital. Unfortunately, the cable companies are legal monopolies that control the system. There are plenty of companies working around it, but they face an uphill battle with litigation, etc. I predict that the TV landscape will be radically different in 10 years. The technology exists, but the cable companies won't adopt it because the model they have now is so profitable.

On the flip side, because cable service is so inter-twined with the FCC, they can't adapt to what customers want if they even wanted to.

You know why you have 500 useless channels of crap? Because in order for them to get the mainstream channels that people actually want, they have to make deals with media conglomerates who bundle those stations as part of the agreeement. Foregoing a big network like Fox or NBC is far worse than having a bunch of extra stuff that people won't watch.

I'm kind of curious how much your cable bill was, though, if you're paying for $60 internet, $30 in movies, $20 in subscription services, and still coming out $130/mo ahead of what cable costs. Usually when my 'new customer deal' is about to end, a phone call expressing my desire to downgrade service gets me the deal price for another year or two, which comes to $130/mo after taxes/fees for both internet and cable, but I only have one box in the house. Despite my wife's objections to wanting a TV in the bedroom when we were newly married, I told her that the bedroom is for sleeping and sex. She has since stopped complaining .

 

[utswimmer37]

Just dropped TV service and went from 145 to 75 said and done. I'm sure once I move where they don't have fios it should drop even more. Already feeling better about it. I use apple TV as well so no real need for much else. Maybe $8 for Netflix, 1 rented new movie a week ×'s $5 a pop = $20 a month. So I'd be right at 100 if not under. 50 bucks a month savings × 12 = $600. I'll take an extra 6k in my pocket at the end of my an initial flight contract.

 

[e6bflyer]

I was at $225 a month for the bundle. That included the whole house deal where you could DVR 8 shows at once and watch them from any tv. I called cox and told them I was quitting to see what they would offer, the best they could do was free HBO for 3 months. No thanks. They still send me flyers, but the deals just aren't worth it to me. I get the networks over the air and other than some sports, I am not missing out on anything at all.
I use plex for any downloads that aren't strictly on the up and up and it works wonderful with both roku and Apple TV via airplay. I have a huge library of shows and movies that I have bought from iTunes (love it or hate it, I personally love it) that I can watch anywhere on any of my devices except the roku boxes. I may have to wait a day or two for new shows, but I don't really think about it.
I have thought about buying a DVR that records over the air...still in my future plans, but I don't know how well it would work with my current setup.

 

[Pags]

21st century digital boy here. The Pags' family cut the cord a few years ago and we haven't missed cable one bit. My kids have no clue what commercials are and get annoyed by them if they ever have to watch actual tv. My burgeoning collection of Pixar movies can be easily watched on our apple TVs or iPads for travel. The fact that my kids can watch all their movies on an iPad has made our lives much easier when it comes to travel. Mrs. Pags and I also use hulu and Netflix @ ~$16/mo to watch the few shows we enjoy and as a 21st century channel surfing substitute. I also like the ability to rent movies if I don't feel like buying them. When we were overseas it was a huge benefit as well; we barely had to dabble in the hell that is AFN. About the only thing missing is sports, but we've never been big enough sports fans for the loss to matter (Super Bowl was streamed on the internet so we could stream it to the Mac and then airplay on the Apple TV).

 

[utswimmer37]

Sports is where it hurts but I figure the money I save can be used toward a night out to watch the game a couple times a month; in the event I make friends along this journey could always hop over to their place. I have to think that sports will be subscription based in the next couple of years and by sports I mean football because all other sports already have streaming subscriptions. Plus, God willing, I become a pilot and have better things to worry about like my job and family.

 

[Spekkio]

Sports is where it hurts ...

Not really. Unless you happen to be stationed where your local teams are, you won't be able to catch your team(s) on cable most of the time. And if you are stationed where local teams are, you still get quite a few games on broadcast networks. The only time you're really SOL is if you're a hockey or soccer fan. If you're out of market and really want to catch some games, get the web sports package. Still cheaper than cable.

Truth be told, I want to get rid of cable, but that's a fight I'm still wearing down on the Mrs, but the fact that I have yet to pay for HBO after 4 years of having it and cable costs under $150/mo have prevented me from making a very convincing economical argument.