Any Cable cord-cutters have Wifi Internet?

[Imzadi]

It's been way past time that I should have cut the cable cord. I have Spectrum Cable & Internet and am being charged close to $200/month. My cable OR Internet has gone down a few times each month since the pandemic ended. Lately, I talk to the Spectrum technicians more than I talk to family & friends. Usually, it's been one or the other that goes down, so it's been tolerable as I can still work or watch TV, or watch a downloaded movie I have saved for times like this. Last night, BOTH Internet AND Cable went down.

I get the usual, "There is an outage in my area but it will be back up in a few hours. . . then in several hours. . ." That turned into the whole night and still not working in the morning. Now they say it's my wiring or equipment that's the problem. And a tech can't come out until Saturday afternoon as that's the only time I will be home when they can come.

Tonight, I'm typing this at a local Starbucks, using their WiFi, as I need to work on my 17-inch laptop and keyboard since I have such bad vision. My cellphone is miserable to try to do any REAL, substantial work from.

I AM DONE with Spectrum.

If I have so many outages per month, it's past time to try something ELSE.

But, my building does not have FIOS. And there are really no other WIRED Internet service providers.

Anyone have WiFi Internet? Both for doing work documents & emails AND for streaming? Or what about using a MiFi tether with your cellphone's WiFi?

I know both of those are supposed to be high priced. But, I'm already paying $200/month for bad cable TV. I'm thinking of getting YouTube TV for streaming. So, it's a good WiFi connection I specifically need.

When my Internet went out in the past, I usually just used my cellphone. It's Verizon, and it's very reliable. More so than Spectrum has been. So, I'm looking at Verizon's WiFi Internet, no contract plan.

Or Straight Talk's Home Internet.
(Although some reviews are really bad. But their carrier here will be Verizon.)

Mint Mobile has a special for their Unlimited plan, half price for 3 months, and 10-15 devices can be on their free MiFi service at once. I only have 4 devices. But, their "unlimited" plan caps off at 40GB per month, then they throttle back on speed & streaming quality. I don't know how many GBs I will be going through per month.

I'm interested in everyone's actual experiences, short or long-term, not just reading the descriptive blurbs from the individual webpages.

 

[sam_gordon]

Never-ending. I didn't fully read the OP and didn't answer the question. Good Luck!

 

[NYCgrrl]

I so feel your pain just like it was yesterday.
I cut the cable cord (backatchoo and the broom you rode in on, Optimum!) and after trying to make a thoughtful decision went with Verizon. Decidedly cheaper but of course they are still idiots because they ALL are. Maybe you should speak to someone in your IT dept at work about the tech specs needed ( I made notes filled with jargon type questions when talking with salespeople even though I’m a complete technodope, LOL) as it’s my understanding that some of my thoughts on say, gigabytes, was just a series of misconception.

I was paying in the $200.00 realm and am now paying less than half of that. Go get ‘em!

ETA don’t bother with the Wi-Fi booster; just buy your own. Easy to set up and it pays for itself in a few months. I got a lot of info from WireCutter and think they are currently having a freebie week or so.

 

[tinkerbellandpeterpan]

We just recently cut cable. It's not super helpful to you but we do have Verizon wireless which I'm pretty sure is through FIOS. We have YouTube TV and are pretty happy with it. There are some growing pains and quirks with it but it is worth the cheaper price compared to what Xfinity was charging per month (well over $200). I think it weirdly helped that we switched during the writer's strike so we had some time make sure the shows we watch will record. I wish they had a few features that would simplify things and they don't seem that difficult to implement, but for the cheaper price I can live with it.

 

[Imzadi]

I was paying in the $200.00 realm and am now paying less than half of that. Go get ‘em!

I love this part. Even if the new Internet service is spotty at times, it will be similar to now, but I'm not paying close to $200 for it.

ETA don’t bother with the Wi-Fi booster; just buy your own. Easy to set up and it pays for itself in a few months. I got a lot of info from WireCutter and think they are currently having a freebie week or so.

Thanks for the tips. I'll do some research at Wirecutter.

 

[Imzadi]

We just recently cut cable. It's not super helpful to you but we do have Verizon wireless which I'm pretty sure is through FIOS.

Verizon has three wireless Internet plans: the FiOS you mentioned, a 5G version, and a 4G LTE. I think the last two are the same as the Internet one gets on their phone, but it's without the phone number part. I saw a picture it's just a square box that stays at home. I have Verizon for my cell phone and the Internet always works fine on that although I'm not on it constantly. So I'm really thinking of going with the Verizon 5G.

We have YouTube TV and are pretty happy with it. There are some growing pains and quirks with it but it is worth the cheaper price compared to what Xfinity was charging per month (well over $200).

Yes, it was the growing pains that I've been putting off. It was convenient having cable TV on just one remote to scroll through. But having my night and the next day's schedule thrown off because I couldn't connect to the Internet for work, then have to sit in Starbucks two nights in a row for their Internet, that makes the growing pains of learning YouTube TV seem incredibly simple in comparison.

And I think Spectrum did me a favor by going down now. I will get to record and save some of my favorite Hallmark Christmas movies to YouTube TV.

 

[tony67]

Not sure its quite there yet TBH, maybe if you are in a big city it will work well.

I've had several of the live TV Streaming services but they have turned into cable with fees and the cost continuing to go up. In the end I was saving a bit, but not enough to be worth it.
Playstation Vue was probable the best of them and Sony shut it down. Had they called it Sony TV I am sure it would have worked.

For the last few years I have had no live tv service at all - I dont miss it.
I do have most of the major streaming services for movies and I use free YouTube for the most part.

The big problem is my only option for internet is still the cable company, so that's $100 to start.
Most of the streaming services are around 70-75+ and then you start adding multiple streams and all the add ones and you are back to 200 a month pretty easy.

5g is spotty in my area and in the city its maybe 100mbs on my phone.
My phone on wifi can get 700mbs download on a 1440mbs connection.
700mbs for wifi is not bad at all but I also have a wifi 6e router.
Wired on a lap top I get like 1400mbs
On LTE the phone is 10mbs
This is using one of the latest phones.

So you will probably want to find someone in your area and see what the service is like for them.
Even if 5g worked well for me, it might not for you.

 

[_19disnA]

Still have cable which works well. I am not convinced the various other options will be less costly once their 'special introductory offer' expires. Most are cagey about what the real ongoing costs will be to get you to signup. Also depends where you live since there are usually only a few choices offered, it isn't like every option is available nationwide. Can also be a hassle to get the service installed. A neighbor switched to some other service and since the coax connection box is in my yard, they had to run the cable across my lawn to their house. No one ever followed up to get the cable buried and it took MANY calls/emails to the company providing that service to get it all resolved. While I can understand the cable tech doesn't bury the cable, it would have made sense for them to submit the work order (was never clear if they messed up or it always works this way) instead of having me to get involved when the change in service had NOTHING to do with me.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

We have Verizon 5G, and it's very reliable and fast. Our TVs work in every weather scenario imaginable and the phones and computers and iPads do, too. I highly recommend it. I can't help with the pricing part-I qualified for the Affordable Connectivity Program discount, and so we pay $50 per month.

 

[dizneegirl]

Can't help with WiFi, as we're in the middle of nowhere, but I can say that Starlink works like a charm. On the pricey side, but we were able to cut the cord with it.

 

[AustinTink]

We got rid of Spectrum cable but kept their internet service. We have the Spectrum streaming package for like 70 a month, which is a much better than the 200 a month we were paying.

 

[Praying Colonel]

We use YouTube TV for the programming we used to get via cable. $76/month all in, great DVR features, good channel selection. Very pleased.

Our internet is via Spectrum, but we're considering trying T Mobile 5G home internet as part of a general switch to T Mobile. We've been long-time AT&T customers and our Spectrum internet service has been fine, so I'm not rushing to make a change. But we could save about $30/month on internet going to T Mobile, so we're thinking about it.

 

[Imzadi]

5g is spotty in my area and in the city its maybe 100mbs on my phone.
My phone on wifi can get 700mbs download on a 1440mbs connection.
700mbs for wifi is not bad at all but I also have a wifi 6e router.
Wired on a lap top I get like 1400mbs
On LTE the phone is 10mbs
This is using one of the latest phones.

You just made me realize that I haven't done very much downloading on my 5G phone. I mostly save downloading for when I am connected to a wired Wi-Fi to save my data. Even then, it's mostly downloading a couple documents or some photos for work. Nothing like downloading movies.

The download and upload speeds may be quite different for larger stuff & the lack of speed quite noticeable. I am *supposed* to get 300 Mbps with my wired Spectrum Internet. But every time I ran a speed test with different companies it never came close to that. and I think the fine print says something like the speed is only that if I'm using the wired yellow ethernet cable for downloading. Which is something I never do.

Something to definitely research. Thanks.

 

[Imzadi]

Not sure its quite there yet TBH, maybe if you are in a big city it will work well.

Also depends where you live since there are usually only a few choices offered, it isn't like every option is available natioVerizon

I'm right in the middle of Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with a clear view to the Empire State Building out my window, which has most of the cell and radio towers. I have only a mid-level, decent, OTA rabbit ears TV antenna now, that's a good 5 ft inside, (not near the window,) and it's picking up 56 stations extremely clearly. So I'm hoping that a Verizon Wi-Fi Internet box will work just as well sitting next to the OTA antenna.

My location, of course, happens to be a "best case scenario" dream situation. But as we know, real life usually does not really come close. I could be 10 ft from a tower and get crappy service if the technology isn't really there yet. This is why I'm interested in people's real life experiences with this technology.

I am not convinced the various other options will be less costly once their 'special introductory offer' expires. Most are cagey about what the real ongoing costs will be to get you to signup.

Yes, I am concerned about that too. As well as with the quality of the technology. It's one of the reasons why I want to go with a no-contract service right now, even if it's more expensive off the bat. If the quality sucks, I do not want to be stuck in a 3-5 year contract.

Spectrum has a monopoly here on wired Internet, unless I was able to get FiOS in my building. I had never even heard of Wi-Fi Internet. I was doing research on getting a MiFi box and seeing if that would work. Then I came across a YouTube video that says Wi-Fi Internet almost seems to be the same thing without the data caps. So it may be that Wi-Fi Internet is just a MiFi box, but the technology now has removed the need to beam the signal to a cell phone first then into a MiFi box.

 

[Imzadi]

We have Verizon 5G, and it's very reliable and fast. Our TVs work in every weather scenario imaginable and the phones and computers and iPads do, too. I highly recommend it. I can't help with the pricing part-I qualified for the Affordable Connectivity Program discount, and so we pay $50 per month.

Thanks! I know you are in South Philly, a big city, too. So you may have great cell and radio towers in place, the way we are supposed to have. So I'm hoping to get similar results as you.

 

[GAN]

It's been way past time that I should have cut the cable cord. I have Spectrum Cable & Internet and am being charged close to $200/month. My cable OR Internet has gone down a few times each month since the pandemic ended. Lately, I talk to the Spectrum technicians more than I talk to family & friends. Usually, it's been one or the other that goes down, so it's been tolerable as I can still work or watch TV, or watch a downloaded movie I have saved for times like this. Last night, BOTH Internet AND Cable went down.

I get the usual, "There is an outage in my area but it will be back up in a few hours. . . then in several hours. . ." That turned into the whole night and still not working in the morning. Now they say it's my wiring or equipment that's the problem. And a tech can't come out until Saturday afternoon as that's the only time I will be home when they can come.

Tonight, I'm typing this at a local Starbucks, using their WiFi, as I need to work on my 17-inch laptop and keyboard since I have such bad vision. My cellphone is miserable to try to do any REAL, substantial work from.

I AM DONE with Spectrum.

If I have so many outages per month, it's past time to try something ELSE.

But, my building does not have FIOS. And there are really no other WIRED Internet service providers.

Anyone have WiFi Internet? Both for doing work documents & emails AND for streaming? Or what about using a MiFi tether with your cellphone's WiFi?

I know both of those are supposed to be high priced. But, I'm already paying $200/month for bad cable TV. I'm thinking of getting YouTube TV for streaming. So, it's a good WiFi connection I specifically need.

When my Internet went out in the past, I usually just used my cellphone. It's Verizon, and it's very reliable. More so than Spectrum has been. So, I'm looking at Verizon's WiFi Internet, no contract plan.

Or Straight Talk's Home Internet.
(Although some reviews are really bad. But their carrier here will be Verizon.)

Mint Mobile has a special for their Unlimited plan, half price for 3 months, and 10-15 devices can be on their free MiFi service at once. I only have 4 devices. But, their "unlimited" plan caps off at 40GB per month, then they throttle back on speed & streaming quality. I don't know how many GBs I will be going through per month.

I'm interested in everyone's actual experiences, short or long-term, not just reading the descriptive blurbs from the individual webpages.

I was an initial adopter of YouTube TV, which used to get me a discount but not anymore . So I can definitely recommend their service, even at the current price levels -it just works and is extremely intuitive. In my area of the northeast we either have Verizon FIOS or Cox Communications for internet service ..I had been using FIOS for the last 5-years but had been getting annoyed with their increases every so often and started looking elsewhere. For cell service I have T-mobile on one phone and Verizon on the other(work) and had gotten a notice that T-Mobile 5G internet was available in my area so figured I’d give it a try. It has worked flawlessly the last 2-weeks so I’m making the switch …went from $80/month to $45/month with no commitment and NO future price increases

 

[BlueStarryHat]

Thanks! I know you are in South Philly, a big city, too. So you may have great cell and radio towers in place, the way we are supposed to have. So I'm hoping to get similar results as you.

I'm not actually in South Philly anymore. I live in the sticks of South Jersey, in a small town. So if the wifi is great here in Nowheresville, it should be *really* good elsewhere.