I get 18 mbps internet via AT&T Uverse, with my TV coming via Dish Network, and no home phone.
We get our internet and home phone through Charter. We have not had cable for about 2 years now. We still haven’t run out of things to watch on Netflix.
We actually had a very good bundle with our internet, home phone, and cable so dropping just the cable only saved us about $10 per month. So, we used that extra $10 to get the next level of Netflix. We just didn’t see the point in having something we never used and now we can get two disks at a time from Netflix.
It’s not even like you need much bandwidth to watch TV. You can watch two 1080p videos simultaneously (on different computers) on a 6Mbps connection, and, if you’re willing to make one of those not HD, you can even watch them on a 3Mbps connection.
Our 6Mbps connection is bundled with our phone, with the Internet being $25 a month. The phone is what’s expensive, being more like $50 when you throw in all the taxes and the now requisite “free” long distance.
But both are branded.
This will only be an option for people in a few cities but now that their legal issues are behind them (I think), they should be expanding. Check out Aereo. It’s designed mainly for mobile devices. You get all of the over the air channels plus other in HD and record to the cloud.
I’m in the States. I cannot get this, can I ?
I don’t think you can get this particular ISP. The conclusion I should have made clearer is that relying on major telecommunications companies can leave you with a raw deal because they know they’re major telecommunications companies, they know that most people only know about them and leverage that to give you little value for a high price. They also don’t seem to care much about customer service; Bell’s billing division seems to have hired Chinese firemen as consultants.
Researching smaller ISPs in your area involves some risk (which is why I made sure not to sign a long term contract) but can give you great value for money. Smaller ISPs know they can’t be lazy and that they cannot afford to provide a shitty overpriced product.
You have to seek and research them though; before deciding that I would try smaller ISPs, I didn’t even know that Electronic Box existed. I relied on info on its website, forums and ISP rating websites to determine if I should give it a try. Perhaps there are great small ISPs you don’t know about in your area.
I think Onomatopeia is right. What you’re talking about is people “cutting the cord” (pretty big thing now) because they don’t want to pay the high prices for tv service and can watch all their favorite shows on Netflix and online anyway.
They’ve not only stopped watching it, they’ve stopped getting (and paying for) cable TV service. Just to further clarify.