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General Discussion => Share Your Badassity => Topic started by: MoneyCat on August 24, 2016, 02:12:38 PM

Title: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: MoneyCat on August 24, 2016, 02:12:38 PM
Finally got around to downgrading our internet service from 150 mbps to 25 mbps. Cut my bill by about $30/mo. In addition, I had been stupidly paying $10/mo to rent a cable modem/router box from Comcast. Got rid of that and got a used cable modem and separate router for free off Amazon with some gift cards I had lying around. Yearly savings of $480. Every bit helps us reach our goals.
Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: johnny847 on August 24, 2016, 02:26:04 PM
Don't get me wrong, $30/no isn't nothing, but if you only got that much cut from your bill for a reduction in speed from 150 to 25 Mbps, you were either getting a fantastic deal on 150 Mbps (not that anybody needs 150 Mbps) or you're still getting gouged for Internet.
Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: MoneyCat on August 24, 2016, 02:49:17 PM
Unfortunately, there is only one broadband internet service provider where I live so my choice is to either pay what they demand or only use the internet at the library.
Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: johnny847 on August 24, 2016, 03:36:57 PM
MoneyCat IIRC you're married right?

You should check what the rate is for new customers. Oftentimes these rates are much better than rates for current customers. If this is the case and you are married, then one easy trick is for the current account holder to cancel service and for the other spouse to sign up as a new customer.
Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: CheapskateWife on August 24, 2016, 04:16:13 PM
MoneyCat IIRC you're married right?

You should check what the rate is for new customers. Oftentimes these rates are much better than rates for current customers. If this is the case and you are married, then one easy trick is for the current account holder to cancel service and for the other spouse to sign up as a new customer.
I love this idea!  DH and I do this with our CC accounts to churn points, don't see why it wouldn't work for Internet service as well.
Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: Travis on August 24, 2016, 05:26:38 PM
My comcast Internet bill jumped from $45 to $67 last month. I looked into basic cable for the month and they said they could give it to me at the same rate. In hindsight I should have bought an antenna since we only wanted to watch the Olympics this month. I called to cancel the cable and renegotiate the Internet and the best they could offer was $50 so I told them to cancel. I wanted to schedule the outage for next weekend so I could line up a replacement service first, but the rep cut my service on the spot while we were still talking. I was calling on WiFi so the call was cut too. By the time I called back the account was completely closed and that was that. I'm now without Internet until Monday while I wait for my new service provider. I'll be getting the same speed for $30 and if I can find a cheaper modem I can send theirs back to them for a refund. The call with them went dead towards the end of the setup process and also at the end of their work day so I had to start over this afternoon which means they may have submitted two credit checks.
Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: redjag on August 24, 2016, 06:41:22 PM
Until recently our cable internet provider (Mediacom) had effectively a monopoly because other providers just couldn't provide reasonable speeds.  Now CenturyLink offers "up to 40 Mbps" fiber in our neighborhood and I really need to get moved over to that.  Self face punch for procrastinating.
Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: MoneyCat on August 24, 2016, 07:25:10 PM
MoneyCat IIRC you're married right?

You should check what the rate is for new customers. Oftentimes these rates are much better than rates for current customers. If this is the case and you are married, then one easy trick is for the current account holder to cancel service and for the other spouse to sign up as a new customer.

That's a good suggestion. I'll research what they are charging for new accounts. If they won't bust us for getting new service to the same address, it might work for us.
Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: gggggg on August 27, 2016, 05:09:03 AM
I dumped my rental equipment also, trying save a little money; well it worked for one month, as they raised my rate by as much as it had dropped after ditching the equipment. Ugh. I despise time warner, I hope google fiber puts them out of business.
Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: MilesTeg on August 27, 2016, 09:51:38 AM
Sorry for possible hijack, but anyone know what CenturyLink's non-promotional prices are for their fiber offerings? We are moving into a neighborhood that offers both Comcast and CenturyLink (whoa! competition!) and CLs 1 year prices are very good ($30/mo for up to 40Mbps) but before we go to the expense of buying fiber equipment I want to know what it will cost after that first year.

Stunningly, this information was easy to find for Comcast, but so far I have not found it for CL. Comcast's most comparable offer in our new place is 25Mbps for $40/mo then a ridiculous $70/month after that.

At this point our plan is to switch between Comcast and CL every 12 months to get the "new customer" cost indefinitely. A pain in the ass, but hard to not take @ $4-500 savings a year.
Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: Travis on August 27, 2016, 10:39:56 AM
Miles, that's the exact situation I'm in right now. We have CL fiber, but other than the $100 modem we don't have to buy any equipment for it. CL stopped by yesterday and put a box on the side of my house in preparation for my Monday install. They said if I can find my own compatible modem I can return theirs for a refund. I'm going to get 40Mb/$29 mo. I'm keeping my comcast equipment to bounce between them in 12 months if I need to. The modem and installation fee amortizes to around $40/mo - less if I can find a cheaper modem. Two days after I cancelled comcast they called back and offered me $40/mo (they were only negotiating down to $50 earlier). If I wasn't still so pissed off at them I might have gone back at that price.
Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: Victor on August 28, 2016, 07:44:48 AM
I always feel bad when people remind me how bad they gouge the military for internet.  Internet on base on Okinawa is  only available from one company and I think its owned by Comcast, we pay $80 a month for 20mbs which realistically is more in the 2mbs  range (although they've been better recently).  I've considered dropping to the 2mbs plan, but if I'm getting 1/10th of what I'm supposedly paying for now...

If I could live off base there's Japanese companies and options, such as fiber 100mbs for $50 a month, but contracts and all make them unavailable to us on base.
Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: cashistrash on August 28, 2016, 07:56:33 AM
I bought my own router too, even though I was only being charged $5/month.  Strangely, I found out Home Depot was selling one that worked with my provider and was able to use some gift cards that I purchased at a discount.
Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: johnny847 on August 28, 2016, 09:37:24 AM
I bought my own router too, even though I was only being charged $5/month.  Strangely, I found out Home Depot was selling one that worked with my provider and was able to use some gift cards that I purchased at a discount.

Wait, what? Home Depot sells routers?

(I do believe you mean modem not router. A router will always work with any provider. A modem may or may not).
Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: yuka on August 28, 2016, 11:29:47 PM
I always feel bad when people remind me how bad they gouge the military for internet.  Internet on base on Okinawa is  only available from one company and I think its owned by Comcast, we pay $80 a month for 20mbs which realistically is more in the 2mbs  range (although they've been better recently).  I've considered dropping to the 2mbs plan, but if I'm getting 1/10th of what I'm supposedly paying for now...

If I could live off base there's Japanese companies and options, such as fiber 100mbs for $50 a month, but contracts and all make them unavailable to us on base.

I've never had to pay for military internet, but I've been stuck in situations where their abysmal offerings are all I can access. My current setup in a hotel struggles to load images of all sizes. Fortunately I only have a few more weeks here.

I'm so excited to buy my own internet again that I have deal alerts for routers and modems in preparation for my new apartment.
Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: monte0930 on August 29, 2016, 09:52:37 AM
Good job, that was one of the first things I did after reading MMM and deciding to cut my monthly/recurring expenses. I went from Paying $63 per month for 15 Meg + rental modem, down to $14.99 per month for my own equipment and 2.5 Megs. The speed is just enough for my light internet use/Netflix and saves me $48 per month or $576 per year. All for something I don't even miss.
Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: yuka on August 29, 2016, 09:55:59 AM
Good job, that was one of the first things I did after reading MMM and deciding to cut my monthly/recurring expenses. I went from Paying $63 per month for 15 Meg + rental modem, down to $14.99 per month for my own equipment and 2.5 Megs. The speed is just enough for my light internet use/Netflix and saves me $48 per month or $576 per year. All for something I don't even miss.

Wow, I think 2.5Mbps is more badassity than I can handle. Internet may be my big splurge item after being on abysmally slow, unreliable, and censored connections for the past six years.
Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: giggles on August 29, 2016, 10:44:03 AM
I want to know more about downgrading the internet speed!  For those of you who have done it, how many devices were you using?  We typically have 2 phones, 2 ipads, 2 lap tops and 2 TVS - not all on at the same time, but we often use 2-4 devices at the same time.  We have 150 speed from Comcast, but the price for basic cable and internet jumps to $100/mo after promotion period, and I want to know what I can live with for downgrading.
Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: Paul der Krake on August 29, 2016, 10:50:46 AM
I want to know more about downgrading the internet speed!  For those of you who have done it, how many devices were you using?  We typically have 2 phones, 2 ipads, 2 lap tops and 2 TVS - not all on at the same time, but we often use 2-4 devices at the same time.  We have 150 speed from Comcast, but the price for basic cable and internet jumps to $100/mo after promotion period, and I want to know what I can live with for downgrading.
The number of devices doesn't mean anything- it's all about aggregate volume. Having a good router is important if you connect many devices at once, but the modem doesn't care.

25 Mpbs is plenty.
Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: MoneyCat on August 29, 2016, 10:58:33 AM
Well, I was finally able to get some real information on my new internet bill from Comcast -- which was like pulling teeth because they really don't want their customers to know anything about their bill -- and it turns out that with all our cost-savings measures we're only saving $20/month on our bill.

I spoke with my wife about closing the account and reopening it under her name to get the promotional price, but she flatout refuses because she thinks that is low-class. I disagree, but I can't force her to do it, so, oh well. Could have saved us a ton of money.

I wish the United States didn't have Communist-style internet service monopolies.
Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: monte0930 on August 29, 2016, 11:38:08 AM
I want to know more about downgrading the internet speed!  For those of you who have done it, how many devices were you using?  We typically have 2 phones, 2 ipads, 2 lap tops and 2 TVS - not all on at the same time, but we often use 2-4 devices at the same time.  We have 150 speed from Comcast, but the price for basic cable and internet jumps to $100/mo after promotion period, and I want to know what I can live with for downgrading.

I estimated my speed based on Neflix's recommended minimum of 1Mbps. Since I only stream on one device at a time, this meant that I was able to get by with Time Warner's every day low price plan of 2.5Mbps. I probably cannot stream the Highest Quality all the time, but it is a small price to pay for internet that is 1/4 the cost of the next tier. It also does not go up after the "one year" period.

To estimate your use, look at this article: http://www.ottcommunications.com/how-much-internet-speed-do-i-really-need/
Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: MilesTeg on August 29, 2016, 11:57:51 AM
I want to know more about downgrading the internet speed!  For those of you who have done it, how many devices were you using?  We typically have 2 phones, 2 ipads, 2 lap tops and 2 TVS - not all on at the same time, but we often use 2-4 devices at the same time.  We have 150 speed from Comcast, but the price for basic cable and internet jumps to $100/mo after promotion period, and I want to know what I can live with for downgrading.

A good point of reference: A high quality stream from Netflix/etc. takes about 5Mbps to sustain. So, with 150 you would be able to support 30 devices streaming at the same time (real world results may vary, hah).

Typical web, IM, gaming, etc. is easily handled with ~1Mbps per device.

150Mbps is crazy overkill for a single family. 150Mbps (if it were symmetric) would be something a medium size office environment (100+ employees) would make good use of.

I would suggest a ~25Mbps plan.

Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: johnny847 on August 29, 2016, 01:17:28 PM
Well, I was finally able to get some real information on my new internet bill from Comcast -- which was like pulling teeth because they really don't want their customers to know anything about their bill -- and it turns out that with all our cost-savings measures we're only saving $20/month on our bill.

I spoke with my wife about closing the account and reopening it under her name to get the promotional price, but she flatout refuses because she thinks that is low-class. I disagree, but I can't force her to do it, so, oh well. Could have saved us a ton of money.

I wish the United States didn't have Communist-style internet service monopolies.

I know I'm preaching to the choir at this point, but I'd argue Comcast charging you an arm and a leg is low class.


And giggles, as others have said - 150 mbps is absurd for the a single family. I mean even 10 mbps would probably be fine.
Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: BTDretire on August 29, 2016, 02:00:57 PM
I'm on a boat in a marina with wifi, I just did a speedtest.
0.42 MBPS Download and 1.44MBPS upload.
I know it seems backwards but that's
a common occurrence on this system.
That is about half what it is on a good day.
Been dealing with this for several years, so no big deal,
when I go home I have 30 MBPS.
 This is fine for the forum, not so good watching videos.
Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: yuka on August 29, 2016, 02:31:37 PM
I want to know more about downgrading the internet speed!  For those of you who have done it, how many devices were you using?  We typically have 2 phones, 2 ipads, 2 lap tops and 2 TVS - not all on at the same time, but we often use 2-4 devices at the same time.  We have 150 speed from Comcast, but the price for basic cable and internet jumps to $100/mo after promotion period, and I want to know what I can live with for downgrading.

Typical web, IM, gaming, etc. is easily handled with ~1Mbps per device.

150Mbps is crazy overkill for a single family. 150Mbps (if it were symmetric) would be something a medium size office environment (100+ employees) would make good use of.

I would suggest a ~25Mbps plan.

(This is mostly for giggles, but I strongly disagree with the 1Mbps figure.)

As another poster mentioned, the number of devices is a poor measure of what you really want to know, which is how much simultaneous usage there will be.

Netflix at 1920x1080 is dynamic now (or at least they're transitioning their catalog now), but averages 5Mbps.
Music, at fairly high quality, is ~300kbps, so it's irrelevant.

Where I disagree is using 1Mbps for browsing. If you do browsing with few or no images, this will be fine. But it's not uncommon to run into 2MB images, which take 16 seconds each (ideal) with 1Mbps.  Browsing, however, is an activity that can handle many parallel users because you want burst speed (as opposed to the sustained bandwidth needs of video). I'd say that 20-25Mbps is the level at which facebook browsing (an image-heavy example) is unlikely to improve much more, and probably 5 users could happily share that.

Beyond 25Mbps is for file downloading (or for many users). Torrenting, backups, game and movie downloading, etc. In some cases, you get stuck with more download bandwidth than needed in order to get upload bandwidth (because some carriers give wildly asymmetric up/down, like 60/5). This mostly matters for file sync (Google Drive/Dropbox.)
Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: BTDretire on August 29, 2016, 03:06:54 PM
At my home I checked my 30Mbps and got 7.5Mbps, I turned around and saw my son was playing a video game
on his laptop. I ask him to stop a miute, a retest brought it back up to 30Mbps. I don't kow what game
but I now it was a data hog.
Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: MilesTeg on August 29, 2016, 03:19:15 PM

Typical web, IM, gaming, etc. is easily handled with ~1Mbps per device.

150Mbps is crazy overkill for a single family. 150Mbps (if it were symmetric) would be something a medium size office environment (100+ employees) would make good use of.

I would suggest a ~25Mbps plan.

(This is mostly for giggles, but I strongly disagree with the 1Mbps figure.)

As another poster mentioned, the number of devices is a poor measure of what you really want to know, which is how much simultaneous usage there will be.

Netflix at 1920x1080 is dynamic now (or at least they're transitioning their catalog now), but averages 5Mbps.
Music, at fairly high quality, is ~300kbps, so it's irrelevant.

Where I disagree is using 1Mbps for browsing. If you do browsing with few or no images, this will be fine. But it's not uncommon to run into 2MB images, which take 16 seconds each (ideal) with 1Mbps.  Browsing, however, is an activity that can handle many parallel users because you want burst speed (as opposed to the sustained bandwidth needs of video). I'd say that 20-25Mbps is the level at which facebook browsing (an image-heavy example) is unlikely to improve much more, and probably 5 users could happily share that.

Beyond 25Mbps is for file downloading (or for many users). Torrenting, backups, game and movie downloading, etc. In some cases, you get stuck with more download bandwidth than needed in order to get upload bandwidth (because some carriers give wildly asymmetric up/down, like 60/5). This mostly matters for file sync (Google Drive/Dropbox.)
[/quote]

Damn ye whippersnappers are your fancy panty intertubes speed. When I was a youngin' we had 9.6Kbps and were damn spoiled with that!

Also, get off my lawn!

;)
Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: pdxbator on August 29, 2016, 04:36:26 PM
Thanks for this thread. I am on Centurylink and wasn't really paying attention to my bill. I'd been paying $10/month for a modem lease and just bought one to get rid of that. Every little bit of savings helps.
Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: giggles on September 02, 2016, 08:48:00 AM
Wow, thanks for the info about the internet speeds.  We are getting WAY too much. 

We have our own modem (Zoom 5341 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem 5341J ) and router (Cisco-Linksys WRT54G2 Wireless-G Broadband Router) so not paying those fees.  But I am going do down-grade internet for sure!  Offering me 10+ channels and 50 mbps for $77.95 with free HBO.  Not loving it but better than $105.  Lowest speed offered was 10 mbps and no plans offered in my area between 10-50 mbps.
Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: johnny847 on September 02, 2016, 10:17:35 AM
Wow, thanks for the info about the internet speeds.  We are getting WAY too much. 

We have our own modem (Zoom 5341 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem 5341J ) and router (Cisco-Linksys WRT54G2 Wireless-G Broadband Router) so not paying those fees.  But I am going do down-grade internet for sure!  Offering me 10+ channels and 50 mbps for $77.95 with free HBO.  Not loving it but better than $105.  Lowest speed offered was 10 mbps and no plans offered in my area between 10-50 mbps.


Even 50 mbps is too much for you guys - especially with your current router. A wireless G router has a theoretical maximum speed of 54 mbps. Of course, you never actually get that speed. I mean under the best of conditions you'd probably get 80% of that.
Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: giggles on September 03, 2016, 09:00:08 PM
Do you think I could get away with ten?  I was nervous that they didn't offer anything between 10 and 50.  Dropping to 50 is no noticeable difference so I am thrilled about that. ,
Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: yuka on September 04, 2016, 06:35:45 AM
Do you think I could get away with ten?  I was nervous that they didn't offer anything between 10 and 50.  Dropping to 50 is no noticeable difference so I am thrilled about that. ,

Giggles, a few of us started to answer that above. I'd go and read some of those.

In my experience, there are three types of demanding internet usage.

You definitely Could be fine on all of these, and if it's just two in the household, I'd say most likely would. With more people than that, I'd argue that you, as the person shrinking the pipe, should make the (entirely worthwhile) commitment to watch far less streaming.

I'd ask yourself which of these is going to cause problems in your situation: slower big downloads (you won't be bothered if the files are smallish), a limit on how many people can stream at once, or slightly slower webpage loading. Then ask yourself if it's worth paying all that money to be able to never be limited in streaming or get faster cat pics.
Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: Unstoppable on September 20, 2016, 12:57:38 PM
We are at $35 for 15mbps with TWC. It streams Netflix without interruption at this speed.
Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: HipGnosis on September 22, 2016, 01:50:59 PM
I went from Paying $63 per month for 15 Meg + rental modem, down to $14.99 per month for my own equipment and 2.5 Megs. The speed is just enough for my light internet use/Netflix and saves me $48 per month or $576 per year.
I'm in the process of doing basically the same - I bought a refurbished cable modem (that's on TWC's list of approved modems) off Amazon.  I had TWC install the 2.5 MBs, $15/mo service.  I had to call and ask for the plan - it's not listed on their website.  I asked for their lowest price internet only service, she called it budget or economy.  And she said this is not an introductory price.  I can watch youtube w/o lag, but I can't watch two videos at the same time. 
I still have AT&T Uverse internet (6Mbs) because my home phone is tied to it and I'm going to port the # to a VoIP service w/ voicemail.
Title: Re: Downgraded my home internet service and purchased my own equipment
Post by: mskyle on September 22, 2016, 02:09:21 PM
We just switched the internet from my name to my boyfriend's to take advantage of the latest new customer discount. We were paying $60 a month for 50Mbps and a modem rental, now we'll be paying $40 for 155Mbps, which I think is overkill but my boyfriend has been wanting for a while now (very important to download new playstation games as fast as possible...) and the slowest version is $35/month, so I guess $5 a month is not a bad price to pay for a happy partner. We bought our own modem (for $30) and are going to do a "self install" to avoid the installation fee, so we'll save at least $300 over the next two years, maybe more if they have a better deal next fall. Hopefully I can sneak us back down to 50Mbps and they won't notice/mind that it's always the same modem...