Well, the dispute is over and CBS is back on in the DC/MD area. For us, though, it was too little too late. Call it the perfect storm.
We saw we hadn’t recorded some shows because of this.
That caused us to look at the account a little earlier than we would have this month, and we noticed our agreement was up and our bill had gone up by almost $15.
We have wanted to cut the cord for years, but bundling made internet only plus streaming more expensive than our FIOS bundle, especially since we were at somewhat low speeds (100 Mbps) and figured we would need higher, more expensive speeds for streaming. But FIOS jus unbundled services.
So we looked. And in a couple of weeks, we will be internet only with FIOS, streaming with Sling, and still keeping our home number with Ooma for just the taxes and regulatory fees per month. Cost overall will be about what we were paying before the recent increase, but only because we bumped up to Gigabit internet.
The amount Verizon is getting from us was cut almost in half. We have a few up front one time costs (OTA antenna & DVR, but got a really good deal on those from Sling, and the Ooma Telo), but those weren’t bad and the increase in internet speed should be worth it. We may be able to lower the streaming cost more once we start figuring things out more.
These companies want to fight like this and keep increasing prices on us, it will keep pushing people like us to find alternatives.
