Cable, internet and phone

[depressedgirl 3]

Help! Have been looking through providers and where we will be living there is only Spectrum or Frontier. It looks like Frontier doesn't actually provide any TV so it'd have to be Spectrum and it just looks so so so incredibly expensive. And all the equipment you get here for free in the UK like a wifi router or DVR box is an added monthly extra to rent! Is this normal? And are there any clever options around this? Could we just buy internet and then have a smart TV with some sort of online provider that would give us the same channels? Or will we just have to bite the bullet and pay? Does any one have any experience over this? My wife is unfortunately no help on this despite living in USA all her life and just pays out what money she is told to regardless of whether she is being conned or not but I'd rather find out!

[eagleowl 2]

Compared to the UK, internet and TV is more expensive and there is much less competition. Here in NJ we have Fios and Xfinity to choose from for internet and adding TV and phone just increases the prices, taxes and fees to silly levels. I just couldn't justify the expense. We ended up getting Fios 100mb internet and streaming live TV from Playstation Vue through an Amazon fire stick. $60 p/m for internet and $40 p/m for TV. That's still more than I used to pay for Virgin Media and Sky in the UK, but a pretty decent solution for here. The best benefit of Playstation Vue is being able to watch it on other TVs and tablets at no additional cost.

[Lemonslice 4,852]

Not sure where you live, but for TV, just buy an antenna. Pay once, save thousands. 

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01MY4HQ2F/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493487426&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=antenna&dpPl=1&dpID=41xxqsy9z5L&ref=plSrch

 

Phone, I went with Ooma, paying $3.79 per month...

 

Internet is the most expensive, but I bought the modem so I am saving the rental fees.

 

Took me awhile to figure out what was the best deal, but it's costing us less than $50 per month now, including Netflix.  I prefer to splurge on Caribbean vacations the winter than paying $200/month for nothing more than what I have now.

[Wuozopo 4,293]

You should be able provide your own modem and router to skip  the rental fee.  We don't bundle the phone in. We prefer Vonage. Bundling in phone does often require the provider's equipment that supports voice, but even those types of boxes are available at Best Buy.  You have options, but it depends on what your needs are and how much the various "cut the cord" service subscriptions cost you in the end. 

[geowrian 22,337]

Welcome to the USA.

 

Did you ever think about "cutting the cord" (not getting cable TV)? That seems to be a growing trend now that most services let you stream their shows over the Internet. There are other (non-cable) TV providers such as DirectTV as well.

 

As for phone, do you really need a landline nowadays? Most US carriers have unlimited phone plans for smartphones.

 

No choice on the Internet...you gotta pay what you gotta pay. You can see if you can buy the modem yourself to save on rental fees, but that's something that varies by provider. With my provider, they provide the equipment a with a rental charge, but you can't use your own modem (I use my own router, though).

[yuna628 9,676]

In my state there's only a few choices - Comcast, Verizon, and then of course satellite tv like Directv or Dish. Paying for the service and the fees for the boxes each month is standard procedure. For each box you have in the home there will be a fee. I use Directv, since they merged with ATT they do package deals, but I don't like bundling. If you aren't interested in cable tv, you can cut the cord and have an antenna and pay for a variety of streaming services. Personally I use satellite tv, and am sadly stuck with Verizon for internet. You're going to find with internet and tv services you have little choice but to pay what they ask or find unique ways to lower your costs as others have suggested, it is one of those things that are going to cost more than the UK for sure and you are going to find the internet speed is far slower than what you're probably used to. If you're in a rural area your chances of faster speeds are slim to none.

Edited April 29, 2017 by yuna628

[f f 725]

I got a tv tuner card for my computer and an antenna so now my computer acts as my dvr which I get for free each month. as other people have said you can get your own router and modem to save there too. I personally just use Skype for my land ish line. and get a skype number for people to call me and then get some credit for who you need to call.  so then it is 4 bucks a month for the skype number and 40 ish for Internet.

[Scandi 4,166]

Yeah America is crazy expensive and hasn't kept up with technology very well. In my little rural village in Sweden I had my 250mbps for $25 a month, here in a quite big city in the US I'm lucky if I can even find a provider who can deliver 100mbps! And it costs more than $40 a month... Same goes with daycare, car insurance, phone plans etc.

 

At least we don't give a ####### about TV so that's one cost less.

[indiana_sweetie 120]

We have Charter Spectrum for Internet only. We don't have a TV. We both have smartphones with Verizon. We are happy with the 60 mbps Internet speed. I agree, compared to Europe, the options here suck. In my hubby's country, all you need to do is buy a satellite dish and box (apparently cheap there), install it and point it in the right direction. All kinds of channels from all over Europe are free, movies, music, news, sports, you name it. I don't think you can pick up much with a dish for free here.

[Lemonslice 4,852]

5 minutes ago, indiana_sweetie said:

We have Charter Spectrum for Internet only. We don't have a TV. We both have smartphones with Verizon. We are happy with the 60 mbps Internet speed. I agree, compared to Europe, the options here suck. In my hubby's country, all you need to do is buy a satellite dish and box (apparently cheap there), install it and point it in the right direction. All kinds of channels from all over Europe are free, movies, music, news, sports, you name it. I don't think you can pick up much with a dish for free here.

I have over 80 channels over the air for free with an antenna.  You can do a search here to have an idea of what you can get from your location: https://www.tablotv.com/tools/

[Marc_us82 49]

Get a mxq pro and you have everything under the sun (movies, tv series, music). All you need is internet connection and the slowest speed will suffice. Your life will change forever the day you say good bye to commercials.

[geowrian 22,337]

2 hours ago, Lemonslice said:

I have over 80 channels over the air for free with an antenna.  You can do a search here to have an idea of what you can get from your location: https://www.tablotv.com/tools/

20 stations here (with varying quality)...of which only 4 have a show I would watch. =___= c'est' la vie

[yuna628 9,676]

5 hours ago, Lemonslice said:

I have over 80 channels over the air for free with an antenna.  You can do a search here to have an idea of what you can get from your location: https://www.tablotv.com/tools/

LOL! 1 station... well that's living out in the boonies for you.

[Lemonslice 4,852]

1 minute ago, yuna628 said:

LOL! 1 station... well that's living out in the boonies for you.

 

I am sure you are saving plenty on other things.  We didn't have a TV for the first... 5 years or so after I moved here.  Not really a need for us, so there was no way I was going to pay $200+ a month to get the channels might have wanted.  Antenna was a compromise, more TV than we'll ever watch for little price. Also, boonies can be pretty scenic!

[depressedgirl 3]

Thanks everyone, you've given me a lot to look into. I don't care about tv but my wife watches a large amount of trash tv so.... 

 

thanks for all the great advice