Now, even though my apt.'s already wired for cable TV, I’ve never gotten cable modem internet access b/c I’d always been told that you had to FIRST buy basic cable TV service which = $too much.
But, looking at EarthLink’s web site (they’re my current ISP, and I’d like to stay w/ them), it seems that you can, in fact, get Internet w/o cable TV!
My wife called Time Warner (before I read the above), and they told her the old story: buy basic cable first ($40+), then buy Internet access (another $40+).
Does anyone here actually have cable modem access w/o cable TV?
I have Time Warner Road Runner internet access here Tampa but don’t subscribe to cable. They seem to be giving you the run around just to get you to spend more money.
Like the others have said, you do not have to subscribe to cable TV in order to have cable internet access. However, it seems to be the norm to chrage more if you do not subscribe to the TV part. (Usually about the amount of their least expensive package.) When I was with RoadRunner, we subscribed to the cheapy $9.99/month cable package instead of paying Time-Warner the extra $10/month for not having a TV subscription, so we would at least see something for our money.
It cost$10 extra if you don’t get TV serice, the lowest level of TV service is $15, so you might as well get that. It’s worth the extra $5 for TLC, TBS, FX, CNN and clear reception for yoyr local channels.
There was an article on Slashdot about this subject: it seems that some providers weren’t charging for basic cable if you only wanted internet access: they just didn’t give you a cablebox or splicing parts. The basic cable television signal was still transmitted on the wire however, because there is no way for them to easily and cheaply prevent it. -So the scam was, you could pay for internet access, then use your own cable tuner and get basic cable television without paying for the television part of it.
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The cable companies say it’s against their rules and can check this outside of your house: they have a way to detect how many devices the signal is feeding to. How often they bother I don’t know. Also as mentioned, some assume a certain number of people will do this anyway, and charge everybody accordingly.
Well, you use a cable box if you got an ancient TV… but the point is, if you only are paying for one service, they only give you one line to physically connect anything to. You can buy splitters and cable-making parts, but a lot of people don’t know that I guess. Or that’s what they hoped, anyway.
By the by, the parental unit recently went to digital cable television, and they brought a huge ugly tuner that’s crap; it has its own $5 remote control that isn’t a universal, so now (because of the way it works) we have three remote controls instead of two (for cable, tv and vcr). Also, the VCR has no way to turn the cable box on or off or select channels itself, so you can’t set the VCR to record as normal. This doesn’t bother me much really, but she is wondering… -are there any 19"+ or so televisions available in the US that include a digital-signal cable tuner built-in? [Please Note: not a digital tuner, a tuner for digital cable television.] - DougC
Actually, there is - since the cable modem and analog TV signals are on different frequencies, a simple bandpass filter will allow the modem to be used while preventing anything else from going through. However, sometimes the installation techs forget to install the filter.
I have this setup at my house. We were having trouble with our cable modem, so our cable company installed a dedicated drop just for the modem. Just for the hell of it I connected a TV and confirmed that there were no TV signals.
I have Time Warner Roadrunner cable internet access without their cable TV service.
As other’s have said, this is a little more expensive because they give you a discount for buying both.
I used to have both, but when I bought my widescreen high definition television I switched to satellite, and canceled my cable.
Of course, they accidently turned off my Roadrunner access when they turned off my cable TV signal, but a simple phone call solved that relatively quickly.