Bye Bye Cable...... sort of

I just made a major change to my media services and I'm VERY happy about it.

I got really tired of a few things:

• Rates and charges always going up for cable/internet/phone
• The "packages" being structured so that none of the basic ones ever have what you want
• Hidden costs.  Verizon is famous for this.  You have to buy a Docsis Modem, and pricey settop boxes

I eliminated regular cable TV from Optimum.  All I have now is 100M Internet, and basic-local TV.  I pay $67 plus fees and taxes, and I turned in my cable boxes.

For cable TV, I subscribe to DIRECTV NOW, which is a new streaming service.  I get 60 channels, and they happen to be ones that I actually want.  We can have 2 concurrent users, and it's $35/month.  For an extra $5 I have HBO NOW which includes On-Demand access, plus it gives you On-Demand access to MOST of the cable channels in the subscription. ABC, FOX, and NBC are included. CBS is working out a deal with them, but you can still watch these on your local TV service, sans cable box.

For phone, we mostly use our cell phones, but I bought an ObiHai box and attached it to Jill's Google Voice number.  As far as a real landline, we haven't had REAL copper landlines in this neighborhood in a long time.  

My monthly bill is about half of what it was, and I can now watch TV on my phone, or laptops, ANYWHERE.  Not just on my own WiFi like the Optimum app restricted.

DIrecTV NOW works on the Amazon Fire Stick, and they'll give you a free one if you pay for your first month in advance.  It will be available on ROKU in a matter of weeks, and also works on Apple TV, Chromecast and is coming to XBOX  One.

You NEED to have decent Internet to make it work (100 M or better in my case with three kids in the house all watching NETFLIX, and YouTube)

Enjoy!  (I think there may be some kind of referral bonus but I really don't care. I just hate seeing people spend so much money on cable)