<p>ComCast has essentially had a monopoly in our town for many years and they didn’t compete on price. Only a small number of homes in our town can get DSL. Some go with satellite for television but you have the dish to deal with (some don’t like the look on their home). People are starting to drop ComCast because their budget can’t reasonably handle it so ComCast is discounting more. I haven’t tried negotiating with ComCast but I was successful negotiating with my local phone company to get a really low rate on DSL.</p>
<p>After D left, we get what we get off air + Hulu. Don’t miss anything but the motorcycle racing.</p>
<p>I just dropped all the cable movie channels and signed up with Netflix. Love Netflix and they have a much better selection than HBO, Showtime, etc.</p>
<p>
A huge number of college students are doing this.</p>
<p>:It looks like I can spend well under $50 for DSL and vonage"</p>
<p>You don’t need even Vonage. sign up for google voice and make free calls.</p>
<p>“A huge number of college students are doing this.”</p>
<p>That’s what my son says. They love Netflix with movie downloads.</p>
<p>D is living solo in an apartment. She signed up for some special upgrade cable/internet product a month ago. She has already realized that it was a mistake and will be going back to internet, Hulu, and NetFlix when this contract runs out.</p>
<p>We’ve never had cable in our twenty years of marriage except for one 18-month period that ended 2 weeks ago - thank goodness! I got sick of paying for something that bugged me more than made me happy! I am so much happier without it! My kids grumbled for one day, but then got over it. Actually, we’re on one of our famous (in our house anyway!) TV hiatus’s. We do this a couple times a year - take anywhere from one to five months off of any TV. Life is better without it. Kids study, practice, argue, play board games, play euchre with us, go outside, etc. And in general - there is a happier vibe in the house! This hiatus is a little different - we decided we would still watch Colts games and a Netflix once in a while. I would still like to shop around for cheaper internet and phone than i have.</p>
<p>Go for it!</p>
<p>Google Voice free calling is only guaranteed for the rest of 2010. If they did charge for the service, I’d expect the price to be around 2 cents a minute.</p>
<p>My D moved off campus this year & wanted to skip cable, figuring she could watch whatever she wants on the internet (which she picks up free from the school wireless …). She is trying to cut costs. Unfortunately, her roommate is a tv junkie. D told her okay, but just the basic package - if she wants more than that, she will have to pay the difference.</p>
<p>I am tired of paying so much for my landline - but we live in an area that experiences power outages frequently enough that I hesitate to rely on the cell phone only. I have a phone/DSL combo that is more expensive than the offers they have sent me in the mail - but I am told I can’t get the less expensive price because I already have service. I think it’s time to tell them I am cancelling due to cost … I’m told ATT will negotiate a better price if I do that.</p>
<p>Can you get lifeline service for your phone line? It’s $6 in my area which turns into about $16 after the taxes and fees. </p>
<p>What I did is called them up to cancel my service and they apparently connected me to a negotiator. The price increase was $6/month for phone/dsl. I told the negotiator that I was going to switch to ComCast since they had an offer for four times faster internet and much better phone service for the same price as DSL/phone from the phone company. So the negotiator offered me a $11 discount from my old rate for both for a year and I immediately said yes. The higher speed from ComCast would be nice as sometimes someone in the home is doing something bandwidth-intensive that slows everyone else down but it doesn’t happen enough to bother me.</p>
<p>You basically have to convince these companies that you are serious about dropping their service.</p>
<p>The one thing that I learned is how much profit margin they have to work with. I’m sure that they are still making money on my service, even with a 34% discount.</p>
<p>I pulled the plug on cable earlier this year. I use Netflix, hulu, and the network websites. It has worked out fine.</p>
<p>I am waiting for Google TV to come out. Sony will sell a TV in the fall with the software already built into the TV. Or you can get a set top box for somewhere around $100. It is supposed to be amazing. I will be able to use the TV as my computer monitor and as a TV. I am sort of partial to YouTube videos for music.</p>
<p>If you have a Wii, you can watch YouTube and surf the net on your TV if you download their Opera browser. Wii can be connected to the Internet via wifi. I guess other game consoles have something similar built in.</p>