One year ago my monthly bill was $128 and apparently whatever contract I had expired and now I’m paying almost $170. I called and suggested I might switch to Comcast but they didn’t seem to care like they did years ago. Even had the nerve to offer me a $185 plan that locks in the price 2 years. No thanks. What alternatives are there? I have internet, router, mid level TV with 2 boxes and 2 phone lines.
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A $30 internet service, a roku, and a friend or family member with a cable subscription who will share their login with you (and even that part isnt essential, just more convenient).
I do really miss the days where the basic internet service package would also get you free basic cable since the signal was live on the line regardless of what you subscribed to.
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Your only alternatives for internet and cable TV are whatever is available in your area (plus satellite, I suppose, though that’s not for everyone). Check their websites or your mailbox for any new customer promotions. I would not be surprised if the alternatives have slower speeds than FiOS and have asymmetrical download/upload speeds, but you should also know how much speed/bandwidth you really need. Most people can’t use as much as is being provided by the cheapest fiber plans.
Also you can’t just “suggest you might switch”, that’s not gonna work. You have to talk to someone in retentions. Maybe mention “cancel service” in the voice prompts if that’s what they use. Usually only those reps could offer you a discount or competitive match, but it’s usually temporary, like 12-24 months.
Ooma for phone service if you need an IP-based phone. ISP-provided VOIP services cost more and have fewer features.
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I agree with glitch… We dropped cable/satellite years ago and went 100% roku. It’s been great and many years. First, we kept ATT service. I got tired of ATT monkeying with pricing every year or two. I found an ATT reseller that doesn’t change prices at all and we have been happy with them for years now.
In my part of the country, they offer ATT service basically. It is installed as a business service which includes unexpected perks like a better router and a static IP at no charge.
They also offer/reseller other ISPs in other parts of the country. Cable in some parts, as I recall.
You might want to check them out:
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Just checked and the taxes would be $8.64 a month and thats for just one line out of two.
What about T-Mobile wireless internet for $50 a month? Reliable 5G Home Internet service | T-Mobile 5G Home Internet Could I use those internet TV services with that?
That’s true for internet, but there’s a slew of IP-based television providers available, like youtubetv. But while they promote themselves asa solution for “cutting the cord”, they’re all essentially the same as any cable tv package, and the biggest benefit is that most modern TVs have built-in software that lets you use the service without a cable box or other external device.
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But the ISP is probably gonna charge you $29.95 plus taxes. And it won’t include free long distance 
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I haven’t tried it, but have a couple of neighbors who have been satisfied. They, like myself, are a bit older and probably don’t use a ton of data or need more speed than that necessary for two or three video streams.
As for your Ooma taxes comment, you may want to drop the land line and just go with your cell. If you can get a decent T-Mobile signal, I highly recommend Tello for phone service. Excellent pricing, knowledgeable and professional call center personnel with English as their native tongue. To boot, they don’t spam me to death.
Verizon in my area offers a $50/month plan that is plenty fast enough for streaming 4K content. I wouldn’t switch to a 5G wireless connection over a wired connection unless I knew for sure that the wired connection was too slow for my needs. 5G is fast, but still early enough that the speeds aren’t always as consistent as a wired connection.
It’s been at least a decade since I had a landline (and only had it because the “Triple Play” package was cheaper than the “Double Play” package). I never used it when I had it and haven’t missed it since I got rid of it.
We stopped paying for cable TV around 2016 and haven’t really missed that either since I don’t like the sports teams local to me anyway (I get my baseball from T-Mobile’s free MLB.tv benefit for subscribers).
In the place of cable we have Prime video that we pay for via an Amazon Prime sub that we would have even it if didn’t include video, so I don’t count that cost, even though I should. We also share a 4K Netflix account with my parents, a Disney+ account with my wife’s parents, a $0.99/mo Hulu sub with ads, 1 year of Paramount+ with our T-Mobile account, and YouTube premium at $11.99/mo. I’ve dabbled with buying accounts from ebay, but it’s quite hit or miss, so I wouldn’t recommend that unless you want to deal with hassles in order to save money. If we had to pay for Netflix and Disney+ ourselves, I would consider dropping something, but with little kids that like that content, I might just bite the bullet and keep it.
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Thats what you have.
What do you NEED ?
What do you actually watch on TV that you want to keep?
You have 2 land lines? You need them?
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For a land line replacement I’ve got an OBI200 with Google Voice.
Its free after you buy the box. Works perfectly for me as a land line replacement.
This site is good to find which OOT TV options would meet your needs :
You can type in the channels TV channels or sports teams that you watch and it will tell you which services carry what you want.
For the over the air networks I’ve got a decent antenea and a Tablo box
Also when your shopping for the internet don’t assume you can use or benefit from the faster packages. I’ve been just fine with 75mbps and save money by not paying extra for the higher speeds. Thats enough to support streaming video on 2-3 TVs simultaneously. (though not necessarily all 4k)
You can also usually buy your own router / modem and save $10-20 on your monthly bill too.
Oh last point if you ahven’t done any cord cutting for the TV, you can get free trials on all the majors one afte the other and try them all out. Sling, Google TV, Hulu Live, Fubo, DirectTV stream will all have trials and added together thatts over a month of free TV while you check out the different providers.
One more last last point, if you look at Comcast see what deals they have with Xfinity mobile. i got a deal for $30 off my internet if I get a Xfinity mobile line. The mobile line costs me $18/mo.
Of course their deals are YMMV based on region etc.
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According to the notice it (on this and all other similar devices they make) only has 16 months left until End of Service date. It may continue to work after that, but who knows for how long, and you won’t be able to add another device to GV. Do they have a replacement? I don’t see one on the site.
ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC
A&E
Comedy Central
Discovery channel
Magnolia
Food Network
HGTV
History channel
IFC
Motor Trend channel
Science channel
TruTV
I’ve had the same landline number since 1970 with my parents and a second one since the 90’s. Cellphone sound isn’t very good. It sounds like the person talking has their head in a bucket. If it’s a cell to cell call it’s even worse and I can barely carry on a conversation. Repeatedly have to ask them to say that again. And I give my landline numbers out to people I don’t know so they don’t call my cell.
This problem can be solved with Google Voice. Port your 2nd number to GV, then forward all calls to the 1st number. Viola – you only need to pay for one line. Or with 2 GV accounts you can port both numbers to GV and forward both to the same cell (or at least I think that’s possible).
I think there’s something wrong with your cellphone 
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For your TV channels you’d get most of those cable channels with Sling TV blue pack for $35.
Magnolia and Science would be in addon extra packs for $6 ea.
ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC networks with an antenea. If you don’t get great antenea reception then try putting one on the roof or in an attic.
Best option for price. To get ALL that in one single package only way I see is DirectTV stream for $90 Which is probably more than you pay now for just TV.
Or also you can look at Discover+ service and see what they have vs what you watch on cable channels. They may cover some of the TV content well enough/
And rather than looking at the networks you watch, look at what specific shows you watch and how much. It can be more practical to just buy individual seasons vs a $6/mo addon for a single thing…
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A single cell number can only receive forwarded calls from one GV number. If you try to add it to a second GV number, it’ll steal it from the first.
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I think you’re right, I had it backwards in my mind – a single non-cell number can receive forwarded calls from multiple GV numbers.
No, a single GV number can have multiple numbers linked to it (I think, I haven’t tried). But any non-GV number can only be linked to one GV number.
I had trouble setting up wifi phone with GV for each of my nephews and nieces, because I ran out of numbers to link to them. That’s where I found using a number with a second GV number would cause it to be removed from the first GV number.
That’s definitely not correct. I have two GV numbers set up to forward calls to the same Ooma number. They don’t allow forwarding to the same cell number, but they do allow for the same “landline”.
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