Has anyone else experienced my problem with cutting off expensive cable service. I have a cable service that provides 1 GB internet, phone and TV service. The bill is app $200 per month. I purchased a MECOOL KM3 and it provides me everything I need, as long as I have a good internet connection.
I went to the cable provider and said I wanted to cut out the phone and TV part of my plan and only wanted to keep the 1 GB internet service. I ask what my new plan with the vastly reduced service would cost. I was told $200. I thought they were confused. I said not what I am paying now, but the new price after the reduction in service. They confirmed new $200 price.
There is no other internet provider in my neighborhood that provides reliable 1 GB service. I have gotten used to the high-speed internet service, and intend to keep it.
The bottom line is I thought I was ready and capable of “Cutting the Cord”, but it did not turn out that way.
@jpilson2
Cutting the cord means that, you don’t need 1g to stream or anything, you are paying for a high end service with unlimited data. That’s not really comparable.
If you are paying 200-500 a month with cable and internet, you cut the cable and save any money that’s cutting the cord. Savings you had after getting rid of cable television. It varies widely for people. I can tell you they aren’t charging just 200 for internet and then still be the same bill after getting rid of cable… Unless they where giving it for free. Call them, really look at what you pay for with a fine tooth comb. Understand your bill and make changes where you see fit.
I have 1g and pay 130 that’s with unlimited data and a hi speed wifi modem.
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TXRon
3
Who is your provider? $200 is crazy
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Dminor9
4
Typical rip off! My cable company will give me cable TV and internet for the same price as just internet. I chose to just take the internet. After a year they will raise the price of the package deal, so no. I expect once all the cable companies really start to hurt from people dropping cable, the price of the internet will increase across the board. That is what greedy companies do.
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Dminor9
5
In addition, I only pay $80 monthly for high-speed internet. $200 for internet is insane.
Comtech
6
i pay 60us for 200mps and get steady download speeds of 100mps w vpn on 175 w it off,i only need like 50mps to stream 4k video w no buffering,your getting ripped off,do you really need that much speed? i don’t know
Thanks for the quick responses, and I should apologize for being a little sloppy with the numbers. I use the internet for work activities other than streaming and really appreciate the high speed. I am aware I could do the streaming function with much lower speeds.
The cable company is Comcast in the Central coast of California. Their triple play option of Internet-TV Phone is only $140. Adding on other stuff runs it up to $200. I was told if I selected only 1 service, I would no longer receive the discount provided with the triple service. The resulting internet only service was not $200; but when you add in the router rental and a few other required odds and ends, it was back near enough to $200, and with some other cost associated with the phone service, that I decided not to bother switching.
I guess the intent of my post was to point out the cable companies are going to get their profits. If you cut out the TV, they will simply raise the internet price to compensate for some of their losses. Cable cutting is for me more than just saving money on a cable bill. The KM3 allows me to see what I want to see when I want to, and not when the cable company provides it. Not depending on the cable company’s schedule to fulfil my needs, is for me cable cutting.
Thanks for the inputs
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@jpilson2
It’s not just cable TV. It includes all streaming services, I saved like 40 bucks a month cutting out just Netflix Disney and something els.
Its a figure of speech ether way its setup to save you something.
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Comcast charges me $65 bucks a month for unlimited data and 900 mbps speed.
SWFL
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Quincy
10
I’ll add to the cord cutting discussion.
I am also limited to only AT&T Uverse in my neighborhood. Still waiting on Starlink availability.
I used to have the triple play package and would fight them each year as they would jack the price up. It started locked in for 2 years at $128 all inclusive. After that they would jack it throughout the year peaking once at about $230/mo.
Finally had enough last spring, educated myself with Troypoint’s excellent tutorials and now I pay $50/mo for 1Gb connection locked in for 6 more months. Regular price for 1 Gb is now $80 stand alone. With AT&T I learned you have to renegotiate each year with their “Loyalty Department”. Don’t waste your time calling any other number. They are always willing to do something for you, so I expect I won’t be paying full fare when it is time to renew.
Another thing I did was drop their outrageous landline charges. It was running about $50/mo as part of the triple play. My wife can’t live without it and our cell phone coverage is unreliable at our house.
Basically I established Google Voice as my VOIP provider, bought an ObiTalk device ($50) that plugs into my gateway ethernet connection, ported my old phone number to Google Voice and signed up for e911 service ($12/yr). My landline is now free and works great throughout the house. Just as good as AT&Ts VOIP $50/mo ripoff phone service.
I now can watch anything I want, surf the 'Net at max speed, and talk on the landline all day if I like for about $80/mo with all my cord cutting tools.
The best part is I am not held hostage every year sweating out renegotiating. And an added benefit is I don’t fret over all the content wars between the various Streaming Services. Now I just watch then go after each other with amusement. 
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Well stated @Quincy That’s exactly the way to cut that ole cord…excellent roadmap for those still under their ISP’s thumbs. 
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I remember when I used Majic Jack. It worked great as my landline. Now I don’t even have any landlines in the house. In fact, when I remodeled my kitchen, I cut the landline wires and drywalled the hole.
My next phone will be a simple $50 dollar phone with a pay as you go plan. I pay about $65 a month to verizon right now, and I hardly ever use a phone except to order a pizza! lol
You start to add up all these little costs here and there and you start to realize what a big expense they are for what little you get.
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TXRon
13
I have the xfinity by the GB plan…I think its about $20 a month maybe less 
Its not easy to stay under a gig but I do and the xfinity guys say im one of the very few that does. Its simple. Lock down the phone and stop it from talking behind your back 
. I use netguard to lock it down and after lotsa tweaking staying under a gig is easy.
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For phone, net, or both? I just up’d my data plan with Concrap to unlimited from a TB. I was running close to going over and they charge about an extra $10 bucks for 50 G if you go over. I was running about 900-1000 gigs a monthe I think a TB is 1024, or 1124?
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TXRon
15
my internet is 900gb unlimited data. My phone is from xfinity(you get a discount for both) and on the phone I use the pay by the gig plan. I selected the 1 gb plan. They will tell you that its hard to stay under 1gb and thats true. But I am in areas most of the time I can use a trusted wifi and my phone is setup wifi 1st and apps I really need on are allowed data when wifi is not avail. I do this with netguard. You can allow/disallow based on conditions etc. It also blocks ads which eats up lots of data. Never use netguard from the playstore because google loves ads and doesnt allow ad blockers in the store.
Netguard(full version with ad blocking)
GitHub - M66B/NetGuard: A simple way to block access to the internet per app
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Quincy
16
I’ve been using Google Fi for 5-8 years. Damn it is hell when you can’t remember the years anymore. 
I don’t use that much data and they charge prorata $10/GB. I use about 300MB/mo and my wife uses anywhere from 500MB to 1.5GB. So our base rate is about $45/mo for 2 phone numbers and our extra cost is about $8 to $18. So our monthly bill ranges from $53 to $63. Not bad.
I’ve looked at Verizon’s prepaid plan and it looks interesting. It would be maybe a tad more but it has about 5GB of data each built into the price. Plus I’m under the impression Verizon is better than Google Fi (T-Mobile) coverage wise.
Another to do project sometimes in the future. 
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Very nice to read, I too am paying $230+/- ea month. I am w/suddenlink. I am not very up on how-to monitor my internet speeds. I do run the speed test from time to time but, very unsure if its good, bad, maybe? To gain a bill of $130 or less per month would be delightful. And, while speaking here, do you really need 1gb speeds to receive 4k viewing. I too, have a mecool km2 device. Are there any serious users out there with this device? TIA!
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Miki
18
It is my opinion, after years using streaming devices, that you need 30-35 Mbs down in order to get good streaming of 4K, although as my TV upscales I stream only 720 as they are smaller files and rarely buffer or lockup, and as the TV upscales to 1080 the picture is great on my small 50" Samsung.
TXRon
19
The mecool km2 is only capable of 100mb down and thats the top end. So gb speed is of no use to you. Also with gb speed you need a gb router and modem.
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NO! 100 Mbps is more than enough! Unless you plan on piloting a shuttle to Mars!
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