JediDefender.com Forums
Community => Watto's Junk Yard => Topic started by: R5Don4 on May 29, 2011, 06:08 PM
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I'm in my late 30's and have "had cable tv" all my life. I have a friend in his early twenties that says he doesn't have conventional cable tv service and no one of his generation does that anymore. Of course he has cable internet but he doesn't have a regular phone either... what he does have are tons of downloaded media on a bunch of external hard drives that would have powered a mid sized company ten years ago. Is this common where you live?
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Some people here are ditching it... I wouldn't call it "common" though. I know for me, ditching a landline's a virtual impossibility. Maybe it's the topography of Pittsburgh, not really sure, but I get bad signal at my girlfriend's house, as well as my own house. Neither is reliable, even through Verizon.
I don't honestly know anyone personally who has ditched their cable completely... Some have I guess, but nobody I'm friends with of any age. From what I've read, it's possible, but takes some work and you can't get HBO, etc. And I watch a lot of HBO's series.
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I don't have a cable company. I use Verizon's FIOS that gives me the land line, TV and internet. I wish I could turn off the land line but they won't allow that.
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I don't have a cable company. I use Verizon's FIOS that gives me the land line, TV and internet. I wish I could turn off the land line but they won't allow that.
Nope, but you can turn off the ringer like I do. Close enough!!
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We ditched the land line finally when we moved last month. It felt weird at first, especially having 2 small kids, but we really haven't missed it that much.
I'll never, ever ditch cable TV. Maybe it is a generational thing, but I can't stand watching TV or movies on a goddang computer.
First of all, I don't have a 50 inch computer monitor in HD surround sound. I don't see the thrill of giving myself a migraine trying to squint at my favorite shows while I strain to hear the sound through my crappy soundcard.
And I've yet to download any show that steamed smoothly, even on my top of the line work laptop on our T1 connection. You invariably get those annoying buffering delays or whatever. Even On-Demand works better than that.
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I'm college aged and nobody I know has a landline other than at their parents' houses. Everyone uses cell phones. Pretty much everyone I know has cable/satellite but I have heard of some people only using Hulu to watch TV. Personally I use cable as background noise while I surf the net and kinda hate watching shows on the computer screen.
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I have DirecTV for television and a cell phone. No landline. I use Road Runner for my internet connection.
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I have cable TV and internet, and two cell phones. A land line would be nice sometimes for better call quality on a conference call or when you want to hold up a traditional phone to your head... If I wasn't lazy I would bring my office phone home and use it - it's a Cisco VoIP phone where I'd plug it into my home network and it would connect back to work and it would have my extension on it, and I could use it for outgoing/incoming calls.
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We still have a land line though once my daughter has a cell phone there'll be little need. Other than the alarm company gives us a discount because they run through the phone lines.
Not sure what to do about a cable provider though. Internet's through that with few reliable other options so it probably stays.
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I know a couple people that no longer have land line telephone, they only use cell, but they still have cable tv/internet.
I have a land line telephone only because I use DSL instead of cable internet, it's a lot cheaper option here.
With Hulu and streaming Netflix, and ethernet capable HDTV units, I could easily see someone opting out of land line telephone and even getting away from cable, as far as you can, anyway, and still have cable Internet service. Cell phone and stream everything online, why not?
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We use DirecTv, Cable internet and a landline mainly for the alarm system to the house.
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I had Directv but ditched it and now just pick up local channels with a tiny antenna hooked up to the HDTV. I didn't watch enough shows to justify the $$. Everything I want to see comes in either over the internet or makes its way to DVd eventually.
I do have a land line and no cell.
I found having a cell was not for me. Found myself doing everything on it but actually useing it to take calls, so its gone. I may get a prepaid one just for emergencies and not give out the #.
hate cells.
cb
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I have a land line but only due to ADSL being the only option where I live. I could get satellite for TV but there isn't anything worth watching that justifies the money. Everything filters down to the free to air channels eventually or I download/stream them at my leisure. As for a mobile I bought a cheap pay as you go for £5 and only use it for text messaging. I'm 32 so I'm not sure where I fit in with this trend but it looks like I'm down with the kids on this one.
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I should clarify my post too, as I know a number of people who have ditched landline... Myself, I prefer having a home phone # to give out and one not to give out, so I do that with my landline/cell... It's another reason I won't completely ditch to cellular. That and like I said, even with a blackberry storm on Verizon, I get horrible signal at various points and right at my own home... I'm not going to do with the dropping calls and whatnot as my regular phone.
I'm with McMetal on watching TV on the puter too... My computers aren't great ones, and I have a 60" HD TV I'd rather gets superior quality through Comcast ultimately. They've been great for net, phone, and tv now for a while here.
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I don't know of anyone who exclusively watches TV/movies on their computer. We are doing it more often because we forget to record something and most of the shows we watch are popular enough to be available online for free within a few days. I am on board with not spending a ton for duplicate services though.
A few years back, I was paying $160/mo. for Comcast triple play (digital phone, cable box, HS internet). We still have the land line and the internet, but I cut the channels back to extreme basic, which is basically network shows, Bravo, and a couple of cable access shows. Now we pay just $90/mo., which feels pretty cheap compared to $110 for two cell phones. :P
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I'm 36 and have cable and internet from the same provider. I ditched the landline several years ago and just use my cell. The only people who ever called the landline were telemarketers anyways. The only downside is an additional fee for my security system. However, the fee was less than what I paid for the landline.
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Why not ditch the security system and go with a self monitoring system over the internet? A system like that could send updates to your cell phone. You could even add cameras that can be accessed from the web.
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Why not ditch the security system and go with a self monitoring system over the internet? A system like that could send updates to your cell phone. You could even add cameras that can be accessed from the web.
It is much easier for the company to call me to tell me an alarm has gone off and should they send the police then getting a text at 2AM where I have to get up and get to a computer to see if someone is breaking in. Plus I have a panic button that automatically summons the police if someone is breaking in while I'm at home and the alarm isn't armed.
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Is the panic button on the cell phone?
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I've still got cable, but I haven't had a land line in several years. Although, the AT&T reception is so terrible in my area that I'm probably going to go back to having one pretty soon.
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I've still got cable, but I haven't had a land line in several years. Although, the AT&T reception is so terrible in my area that I'm probably going to go back to having one pretty soon.
Why not get a mobile wireless hotspot? It's akin to having your own personal cell tower in your home.
As for cable & phone services? Right now I have a serious lack of choices. And that's because of where I live. There is one cable carrier in my part of town, or a service like Direct TV or Dish Network. Pricewise, for the services I have with the cable company it does not make sense to make any kind of change. And considering that both of those satellite services are subject to weather outages, why bother?
Slowly, Verizon is making inroads in my area. And when they get to my development I'm going to switch over to them from my current cable carrier. Their service has gotten significantly better reviews than my current provider, and they have a much more modern network with significantly better bandwidth capabilities.
For the time being I am keeping the landline phone. My cable provider bundles the services so that you can get cable tv, broadband and telephone service for a reasonable price. The phone service cost is negligible. But by having the phone service on the same line as the cable it does not present itself as any kind of reliable emergency contact method line a conventional phone line would. Old phone lines run on their own independent power systems and will operate in the event of most power failures. Phone via cable service won't work when the power is out, and cell phone battery life is finite.
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When Verizon installs FIOS, they install a battery back up in the house if the power dies. However the problem with FIOS is when they install it, they cut your POTS copper line. No going back to regular land lines.
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Why would they do that, rather than running a new line into the house?
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Is the panic button on the cell phone?
No, a panic button on the control pads for the alarm system.
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Why would they do that, rather than running a new line into the house?
Because it's Verizon? Thieving bastards.
I'm sure in their opinion that once fiber goes in there's no need for copper, but it's also a way for them to make more money and squeeze out CLECs and smaller, regional telecom carriers.
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Your exactly right. They think it is their copper and they can do what ever they want with it which is untrue. Infact, they do run a new line into the house. They just cut the coppper to keep you locked into their fiber.
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I've still got cable, but I haven't had a land line in several years. Although, the AT&T reception is so terrible in my area that I'm probably going to go back to having one pretty soon.
Why not get a mobile wireless hotspot? It's akin to having your own personal cell tower in your home.
I did. I paid $150 + Tax for the M-Cell, and it only works about a third of the time. My phone constantly fails to connect to it... it needs constant restarting, and it is supposed to have a 50 foot radius but barely works 20 feet from the device.
The whole thing is a joke.
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I think I'd have to oversee that instillation and let them know if they cut the copper they'll be paying for a bit more than the gas out to the house. Verizon is/was a turd to me... My gf got Verizon a while back, and it was such dismal service she dropped them on my recommendation of going to Comcast, and Comcast is fantastic. My only gripe with them, at her house, has been the DVR is acting up like crazy and locking up constantly. At my place the DVR's perfect.
Very annoying. I think the DVR is maybe a tad old and she needs a newer one.
BTW ROb, I've heard the same BS about "mobile hotspots". Not worth the price at all. I'll stick with my landline through Comcast... It's reliable. My phone works, generally, when I'm out. I would like to ditch the BB Storm though, but upgrading just seems like a waste right now.
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We have a mobile hotspot installed in one of our libraries as a test because it's cheaper than the frame relay we had and they don't have DSL or cable in the area. We had some problems with it but a few weeks ago we pulled it back in, upgraded the firmware and reprogrammed it, along with the computer in the library that connects to it, and redeployed.
I don't know if that ironed out the problems or not, I haven't heard back from them yet.
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