Wanting to dump Comcast

[MillauFr]

Really going to look into this Omoo now. Do you know if they give you a new number or if you can keep your current one? Also, is there any kind of installation involved, or do you just plug it in? Any one else have good experiences with it?

You can keep your old number but I highly recommend getting a new one assigned by OOMA. I was tired of having 80% junk calls. We switched our number and all of the junk calls disappeared. Didn't get one political call this election season. NOT ONE!!!

If you already have a phone jack near your cable modem OOMA is very easy to install. I just plugged the phone cord into the OOMA device and disconnected the phone wires that come from outside.

 

[tina.tina]

We switched to Directv and kept Comcast for internet. We only have cell phones. We never had DVR until we got Directv and it is really handy. Comcast would NEVER give me a good deal.

My parents and sister call all the time and speak to "retention specialists" who give them a great deal as an incentive to stay. I told them I was thinking of leaving and asked if there were any discounts available. I was told several times that it was ridiculous for me to think I could have the same services and pay less for them than what I was paying now ($175 for cable and internet).

Then, as soon as I canceled cable, I got a message that I was eligible to bundle for $99 per month. It's too late for that. I'm very pleased with Directv.

 

[riatees]

Ok, we are going for it!! Bought an ooma today for phone service, an HD tv antennae, signed up for hulu plus and we already have netflix. My question is, if I keep my internet through Comcast, how fast of a download speed do I need to be able to stream through Netflix and Hulu Plus? Right now we have the Blast speed, but they want $80.00 per month for that speed with out it being bundled. Do I need that fast of a connection or could I get away with a slower, less expensive speed?


Maria

 

[MillauFr]

Ok, we are going for it!! Bought an ooma today for phone service, an HD tv antennae, signed up for hulu plus and we already have netflix. My question is, if I keep my internet through Comcast, how fast of a download speed do I need to be able to stream through Netflix and Hulu Plus? Right now we have the Blast speed, but they want $80.00 per month for that speed with out it being bundled. Do I need that fast of a connection or could I get away with a slower, less expensive speed?


Maria

I only pay Comcast $39.95 for internet. Do not lease a cable modem from Comcast. They are basically charging you $10 per month for a modem that you can buy for $50. I have used Netflix before and it worked fine using a "slower" speed from Comcast.

 

[DawnM]

We have been cable TV free for almost 4 years now!

We purchased 2 Tivos with lifetime (we just wanted HD, we didn't need the 100 hours + of recording time). We paid $300 for the first one on ebay. We paid $180 for the second one through a friend. We pay $0/mo from purchase on as they came with lifetime service for that price.

We have a rooftop antenna and I get about 28 channels.

We also have Hulu+ and Netflix.

You may have to purchase your HBO show on Amazon streaming or something to keep that,I have no idea as I have never heard of that show.

So, I paid $180+$300 upfront. I also bought a Roku ($65) and an antenna ($65). I spent a total of $610.

I was spending $100/mo for cable TV plus $16 for Hulu and Netflix, for a total of $116, but since I still have Hulu and Netflix, I will not count the $16.

$100x4 years is $4,800 I would have spent. But I spent $610. I saved $4,190 and will continue to save each year. I may even splurge on another Tivo!

I can't believe I used to spend so much on television!

Dawn

 

[riatees]

Wow Dawn, when you lay it out like that you really see the savings on the long run! I was looking into TiVo and other DVR options, but putting those on hold for right now til we get these other devices up and running. Now is the TiVo lifetime subscription good for just each specific box, or if one dies and you replace it, does it carry over?

Maria

 

[2boysnme]

We use nettalk for our home phone it is like ooma but cheaper and easier to set up. I originally bought the ooma but returned it for nettalk. I had them give me a number and I tried it for a month before porting my number in. The up front cost was less than 3 months of my phone bill for a year service and the box and then I renew yearly for about 30.
We then use comcast for basic cable and internet. Our bill is 58 a month. We have performance cable that they will give you for 29. You may have to ask for a promotion or threaten to cancel. We did have to cancel 2 years ago for a month and then resign up to get that price. Actually we downgraded all of our services when we were gone for a few weeks and then we got a discount when we upgraded a month later.

 

[Planogirl]

I like DirecTV but I'd love to save some money. We do have HBO and I get a lot of fuss if I threaten to cancel it. We also have DVR and 3 boxes.

My worst expense is phones though. We have cell phones through AT&T and the prices keep creeping up. I need to find a better deal.

 

[karenbaco]

I like DirecTV but I'd love to save some money. We do have HBO and I get a lot of fuss if I threaten to cancel it. We also have DVR and 3 boxes.

My worst expense is phones though. We have cell phones through AT&T and the prices keep creeping up. I need to find a better deal.

We pay $90 ( $30 each phone) a month for 3 iphones. Each phone has 300 talk minutes, and unlimited text and data with Virgin Mobile. Been with them for 4 years with no contract. It's month to month. Love them!

 

[karenbaco]

We have been cable TV free for almost 4 years now!

We purchased 2 Tivos with lifetime (we just wanted HD, we didn't need the 100 hours + of recording time). We paid $300 for the first one on ebay. We paid $180 for the second one through a friend. We pay $0/mo from purchase on as they came with lifetime service for that price.

We have a rooftop antenna and I get about 28 channels.

We also have Hulu+ and Netflix.

You may have to purchase your HBO show on Amazon streaming or something to keep that,I have no idea as I have never heard of that show.

So, I paid $180+$300 upfront. I also bought a Roku ($65) and an antenna ($65). I spent a total of $610.

I was spending $100/mo for cable TV plus $16 for Hulu and Netflix, for a total of $116, but since I still have Hulu and Netflix, I will not count the $16.

$100x4 years is $4,800 I would have spent. But I spent $610. I saved $4,190 and will continue to save each year. I may even splurge on another Tivo!

I can't believe I used to spend so much on television!

Dawn

Thanks but can you give me more details about Tivo's lifetime subscription? What does that mean? Also do you have to subscribe to basic cable in order to get the channels? I don't know a thing about Tivo......

 

[Clbemrich]

We don't have a home phone, but we do have cable internet. We have an xbox and pay for netflix. You can also use a smart tv or a roku player instead of an xbox. We pay for amazon prime and also get free amazon tv. We have not had cable tv in years. I could never go back to paying for it. We sometimes cancel netflix and switch to hulu if we get bored with it, which isn't often. Cable tv is a dinosaur. That being said my MIL can't deal with technology and therefore needs cable to watch tv.

 

[MillauFr]

We pay $90 ( $30 each phone) a month for 3 iphones. Each phone has 300 talk minutes, and unlimited text and data with Virgin Mobile. Been with them for 4 years with no contract. It's month to month. Love them!

Ditto. My daughter uses Virgin Mobile and it $33 per month inclusive of all of the taxes for unlimited texting and data. It is a great deal.

 

[Planogirl]

We pay $90 ( $30 each phone) a month for 3 iphones. Each phone has 300 talk minutes, and unlimited text and data with Virgin Mobile. Been with them for 4 years with no contract. It's month to month. Love them!

I need to look into that. We only have one iphone and one ordinary phone and we pay more than that. We currently have AT&T and they keep on going up and up too.

 

[Abbeys_mom]

We got a killer deal with Comcast this summer when we moved. Blast, basic (and I mean BASIC) cable, and HBO (random...) for $35 a month. We already had Amazon, and added Netflix. With HBO, we get HBO Go. We also get streaming Comcast, which is very similar to having a DVR in that all the shows are there, you just select on demand.

A few years ago we were only doing Roku, but we added all the channels for the Olympics. We found that once again, we were watching only the same few shows for $150 a month. Cutting the cord again was easy, especially now that Netflix has a lot of the home repair and cooking shows.

We have a $99 Apple TV and a used Xbox. Dawn laid out the savings nicely, it really is nice to not have a fat cable bill.

 

[ericstac]

I was clueless to cutting the cord and internet streaming when I finally got fed up with the expensive costs associated with phone and TV..

first dumped the phone service and kept the internet service along with an emergency line which allows you to call 911 out.. this saved me $1100.00 a year. I'm about to cut the emergency line and upgrade the internet to a faster speed.

then we cut off satellite saving over $3000.00 a year. Bought a $100 antenna and mounted where the dish was lol.. its good for the most part, I still need to tweak it some..

but the real kicker is the DVR addiction. I didn't think I could hang and fundamentally didn't understand how life would work without it..

let me just say, it is 100% better!! now instead of getting on the DVR to see what is recorded we simply decide what we feel like watching and go online and watch it. The only kicker is if you stream it is typically 24 hours after it is shown on TV before you can stream.. big whoops... so we watch Big Bang one night later than everyone else.. lol.. and thats only if we didn't catch it on the antenna.

I do have netflix and another recent movie listing site that we use to watch a lot of things.. I'm now watching Breaking Bad and Sons of Anarchy which I would have never watched having stayed in my past TV rut..

 

[riatees]

Are you watching all of those shows on line and if so, what site? We are canceling our cable this week and my husband is worrying he won't get to see all of his shows. Big Bang and Sons of Anarchy are 2 of them. We have Hulu plus and Netflix, but they don't carry current seasons of those shows and a few more that we watch. We ordered an antennae, but we won't get all the channels that our shows are on. The DVR is going to be the tough one for me, I watch very few shows live, glad to hear you don't miss it!

 

[brymolmom]

We got rid of cable 4 plus years ago. Have honestly only missed it twice in that timeframe - During the Olympics (miss a lot of the 'extras' on the extra channels) and the World Cup games. But for the thousands of dollars in savings - I could always go to my sister's house.

We bought a computer to hook to the TV, Roku and a nice antenna. We get about 10 channels on the TV. We have a card that hooks into the computer - and can "DVR" up to two shows at a time. So you don't have to give that up!

After our 'start up' costs...We pay $7.99 for Netflix and about $4 a month for OOMA phone service. Our internet is paid from work so we don't have to worry about that one.

 

[hsmamato2]

Tivo is a great option for recording shows from an antenna....you need to google and research your best options for what you want- in my case,I have an attic antenna. Not every tivo box works with my setup,so I had to figure out which one did.(some are cable only) next I asked lots of questions, then started scouring ebay for what I wanted. (I wanted 2nd hand, with a lifetime subscription attached) I found a seller with excellent rating,and paid 310.00 for the box. Lifetime subscription means it is a service attached to THAT BOX ONLY. The original purchaser had bought it along with the gear. It works great,and is just what I need.
You can also look right on the Tivo site for new boxes and service options. (My BiL bought a new box to go with his antenna,and pays 15/mo. for Tivo service)
I wanted something with no further strings,he wanted ease of use. Along with a roku (30.00) a chromecast(25.00) and netflix,or amazon prime I haven't missed a thing. initial outlay was in the 350-400 range, and it's paid itself back within months, now it's just no cost (except netflix,which is optional)

 

[riatees]

Ok, sorry if I'm driving anyone crazy with all these questions, but I'm getting a little confused with all the new devices I'm buying! For the Ooma telephone system, do we need a certain type of modem for our internet? We are keeping internet through Comcast but want to buy a modem so we don't have to rent one. I looked on comcasts website for modems that are compatible with their service, but I can't find any info on what modems are compatible with the Ooma. I found a Motorola modem at Best Buy that is only $69.00 and is compatible with Comcast, but don't want to buy it if it won't work with the Ooma. Anyone have any info that will help? Thanks again!

Maria

 

[3princes+1princess]

Wow! I didn't realize how much cable did cost as we haven't had it in years.

We have internet (which now limits data, ugh) for $50 a month and our sony DVD/BluRay player does netflix, which we have for $8 a month. Our home phone is through our cell phone company which is an additional $10 a month. Total $68...wow. We also have an antenna so we get some basic channels, but all we ever watch is PBS.

My kids have no idea that there are commercials...well, almost. It is amazing....they rarely get advertising so they are never beggin for new toys, or going to the movies. I never know what movies are coming out...and have to ask someone what may be good to go to. We just wait until things are out on netflix to watch...and they are ok with just rewatching some shows. They really don't know any different now...so it works for us. But, when they get the disney channel during a hotel visit...watch out. They are sucked in!!

ETA: we only have 2 tvs in the house (with 4 kids). One is the main one we watch TV on, the other is the gaming TV which is rarely used. We do have the Play station, so netflix can be watched through that...but it just isn't for some reason. My kids would rather watch you tube while someone else plays mindcrack (oh, I mean minecraft). Why they can sit through that I will never ever know.