Cutting Comcast, Hasta la Vista Vonage, See you later Sirius, Half WoW, Leavo Tivo?
Yesterday I took the first step toward ridding myself of that plague known as Comcast, I ordered an HD antenna. I went big, choosing to get a big antenna with long range instead of some of the more compact but shorter range models since I am 35 miles away from the towers.
Since the weekend I have been on the warpath with companies that I give money to that I really don’t want to. Comcast is number one on my hit list. I am disgusted with what we are charged for internet and basic digital cable with HD service, $140+ a month.
I did a little research and found that OTA HD signals are actually the best quality HD you can get, better than cable or satellite. After looking at my season pass list on the main Tivo I saw that almost everything is on the major networks, all of which I can grab off an antenna. So the plan is to drop Comcast for cable tv and get our feed for free, over the airways.
Next up is addressing internet access. Sure you can use Comcast just for internet access but if you DON’T use them for tv as well they charge you an extra $10, f that. So part two of my plan is to grab 10 megabit Century Link DSL so I can completely eliminate Comcast from my life. I can get the high speed DSL service for $40 a month.
That brings us to Vonage. Ali and I discussed the need to even have a land line anymore, even the VOIP variety as Vonage. Originally we needed a land line for both our security system and DirecTV. It is no longer needed for either. Our land line is mostly used by telemarketers and incessant political robocalls more than anyone else.
We have the option to include land line service with Century Link for an extra $15 a month (plus taxes, fees) I also have set up a Google Voice account which will allow calls to a central number to ring on both of our cell phones although that would involve letting everyone know the new number since you can’t port numbers to Google voice, YET. The third option is just say to hell with land line and just exclusively use our cell phones.
Personally I am leaning towards just using Google Voice. Zero cost with the features Vonage charges us for.
The trimming was not yet complete. Yesterday I cancelled one of my two WoW accounts. With the expansion due out in December I will have plenty to keep me busy using just one account. If I ever need to get to the second account I can reactivate it but until then it saves us another $13-$14 a month.
There are other cost saving possibilities out there. As I mentioned last week, if Stern doesn’t resign with Sirius I am dumping them like a hot potato which would save another $25-$30 a month.
Once the HD antenna is in place I may decide to retire the Tivo in the bedroom, saving me another $10 or so in monthly subscription charges. I figure if I go the playon route I can watch most of my non-network shows on demand anyway via the Iphone or Ipad.
If it all pans out it could add up to a lot of savings monthly, maybe $200 or more. That $200 plus what we currently allocate to the Camry payment should allow me to absorb a Camaro payment with minimal impact to the bottom line. You see, there is always a method to my madness.