For a while we were paying $140 per month to Comcast for phone, cable and Internet. About two months ago, our bill adjusted up to $175 per month after the contract we were in expired. When I called to see about reducing it I was able to talk them down to $155 per month if we agreed to another 2 year contract. After taking stock of what we use and watch and what we don't need, my wife and I decided to shed some dead weight.
For starters only telemarketers called our house phone so it was easy to give that up. We both work a lot from home and require a reliable high speed connection. Of the few Internet options in Denver, it appeared through my wife's research that Comcast has the best and most reliable high speed service. We kept the Internet "performance package" through Comcast at $65 per month. There were very few cable TV shows we watched that weren't available elsewhere so we dropped cable tv.
Next we got our own modem. Previously, we were renting our modem from Comcast for$8.00 per month. A new modem cost us $115. We made sure to get the exact duplicate of the rental.
Then we ordered 2 HD digital antennas (one for each tv) at a price of $60 per antenna. The antennas are easy to hook up and hide behind the tv on the wall, tucked away from view. We live in the middle of the metro and the antennas allow us to get all the major networks ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and PBS as well as some other local broadcast channels in HiDef. The picture is excellent.
Next we got a Roku on sale for $70 and Amazon Prime for a little over $6.00 per month. Amazon Prime gets us some free movies, tv shows and shipping on some Amazon products. We may get Netflix later at $8.00 per month, but haven't exhausted Amazon's programming yet.
Lastly, I became addicted to the DVR we had previously. It's hard for me to watch anything with commercials anymore and my job as a Realtor means that I need to be working when something I want to watch (the Broncos) is on. We got a Tivo for $50 on sale and $15 per month subscription that allows me to record all my stories.
Altogether the new modem, antennas, Roku & Tivo cost $360 or so. We pay $87 for Internet, Amazon Prime and Tivo per month. The savings from cutting the cord will pay for the hardware in about 5 months.
A pitfall to avoid: The retention specialist with Comcast liedstretched the truth to me after I told her to stop phone and cable and keep Internet. She said the Internet connection's price had gone up an extra $20 from when we started investigating cutting the cord. She actually moved us from "performance" to "boost" a higher speed/higher priced connection package, something I didn't ask for or need. Gotta keep those #'s up!
Only Downfall: no more 4 letter network or Nuggets games. I had to watch the BCSChampionship with commercials at a bar.
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