Internet cost

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JHZR2

JHZR2

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Hi,

We have verizon phone (no long distance, just a basic local line) and 768k DSL.

Our bill came in this month, and is over $50!

The taxes and fees take a big chunk, but the line is $16 and the internet is around $20.

What are others paying?

We refuse to pay to watch TV (cable), and even if we did go for one of these FIOS things, Im guessing the $15 in taxes would still be there (they always give a teaser price not including taxes and fees).

How do others deal with this? Since we cannot cheaply tether our iphones, we are stuck there. Do some buy DSL without the phone line? Im tempted to put our home line as an additional line on our cellphone plan for $9.99 and get rid of the land line service, just use it for DSL. Do others do this?

The cost of connectivity is really getting ridiculous, though the cost of the infrastructure is likely far less costly then it was years ago, and the capital cost has probably gone down...

Thanks!
 
I got rid of my landline a long time ago. It was just money being thrown away.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
I got rid of my landline a long time ago. It was just money being thrown away.


Great, but what was your approach to internet? Do you have cable? I won't pay for that, and even if I had it, Comcast cable internet is $50, which defeats the purpose of trying to keep costs down.

I dont want a $50 bill. I definitely dont want a $100 bill, which is what these cable/internet bundles that they sell around here charge. We have verizon and comcast.
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Great, but what was your approach to internet? Do you have cable? I won't pay for that, and even if I had it, Comcast cable internet is $50, which defeats the purpose of trying to keep costs down.

Comcast offers unadvertised Economy Internet for about $20/month. The speed is up to 1.5 Mbps. You need to call them and specifically ask for it. I'm not sure if it's available to non-TV customers.
 
Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
We have local phone + Basic internet cable + Basic TV cable for about $53 a month, tax and fees included.


What carrier?
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete

Comcast offers unadvertised Economy Internet for about $20/month. The speed is up to 1.5 Mbps. You need to call them and specifically ask for it. I'm not sure if it's available to non-TV customers.


$29.99 by us plus a $7/month equipment fee and a one-time $25 connection fee. And that is really only for 6 months...
 
I have fiber (the slow one 15 mbps up/down) and pay a year in advance which gets it to $36 a month. No other equipment costs (and they maintain the UPS system and the Gateway)

We then each have prepaid cell phones with 150-300 minutes a month for the phones.

My brother in Law who lives outside Philly (the one I was talking to you about last weekend) does the DSL only and its okay for the cost (I think he said its around $30) and then the cell phones for them.

I hate all the fees for the Land based phones ($40 for the phone and $40 in taxes) so we just say no. I've noticed that Cell phones that are on contract are getting a lot of the same taxes. So far the prepaid ones only have a $1 911 fee when you buy the cards.

Nothing else... (yet)

Take care, Bill
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
We have verizon phone (no long distance, just a basic local line) and 768k DSL.

Our bill came in this month, and is over $50!

The taxes and fees take a big chunk, but the line is $16 and the internet is around $20.

What are others paying?


You poor Americans and all your competition.
wink.gif


My phone bill is about $35 a month, with no long distance plan and few long distance calls made. It has a few calling features, but nothing elaborate. I hate telephones.

My satellite bill is around a $100 a month. I have a big package, probably a lot more than I need, but it is what it is. I certainly could cut it, but it won't go down to $15 a month or anything like that.

My internet bill is just over $60 a month for the high end plan (on cable, a local cooperative, to boot). I could reduce all these somewhat with bundling, but there are always tradeoffs, with that, too.

For example, the cable company offers cable (obviously), phone, and internet. If I switched everything to the cable company, I could probably save $20 a month. On those days, however, when the cable goes down, it's going to take the internet and the telephone with it. As it stands now, if the internet goes down, I go to the TV, or vice versa. If it was all one provider, and they both go down, I might actually have to go outside, and if I'm not due for an OC, there's a problem.
wink.gif
 
I pay $100/month for 20Mbps/5Mbps up and unlimited long distance to US and Canada(important to me). I am very happy with speed as I work 100% from home and contract covers it.

That being said 768Mpbs is pretty slow. I had 3Mbps Verizon DSL and was happy as same speed up too. However I got accidently "kicked off" and they stated 9 days to restore blaming government. I called comcast and they connected me and I was on within 2 hrs.

Do you do limited stuff on internet?
 
100/month is a non starter. It is just too expensive, IMO. This stuff (like cellphone service), should be getting cheaper.

I wonder if I got rid of the landline, which taxes, surcharges and fees would get dropped... I pay:
Federal Excise Tax 0.68
NJ State Sales Tax 1.66
911 System Fee 0.90
State and Local Sales Tax 0.16
Federal subscriber Line Charge $6.29
Federal universal Service Fee $1.15

Total = $10.84

So, $40.43 for phone line and internet (internet $21.99 for slow service, phone $16.45 base plus a $1.99 LD service that we dont use and they magically impose on us)... plus those taxes.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Great, but what was your approach to internet? Do you have cable? I won't pay for that, and even if I had it, Comcast cable internet is $50, which defeats the purpose of trying to keep costs down.

Comcast offers unadvertised Economy Internet for about $20/month. The speed is up to 1.5 Mbps. You need to call them and specifically ask for it. I'm not sure if it's available to non-TV customers.


I wonder if you can watch videos (ie youtube, TV shows) at that speed...
 
I dont waste my time watching TV over the net. Youtube comes in slow but it works at 768k.

I get all the local channels OTA. Why should I pay cable to watch the same commercials?
 
I have what they called DSL Direct (naked DSL), basically a $19.99 per month (+ tax and fee to about $25) on 1.5Mbps usually, on AT&T. No voice call.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
We have local phone + Basic internet cable + Basic TV cable for about $53 a month, tax and fees included.


What carrier?


Sorry, Cox.
 
Phone $55.95/month, $27.95 line rental and pretty well unlimited calls (not unlimited, by essentially so for our useage).

$39.95/Month internet (ADSL), at around a meg. 6MB peak (7AM to 12PM), 6MB off peak, then profiled to 256k.
 
Our wireless rural Internet service is $40/month for 5 MB download and 1.5 MB upload. Cell phones are $64/month (no data or texting). We haven't had a land line phone in almost 20 years.
 
Roadrunner is $62.25 per month for basic, no special speeds or packages. That's really a rip!

Like many, did away with land line some years back. T-Mobile has a prepaid plan for 1500 minutes talk/text with 30MB of internet use for $33.08 total. Quite the deal and we already had the phones so no added expense.

DirecTV just keeps easing up there now over $100 a month. I'm going to cut that one back or threaten to cancel, might get a better deal.

It's tough on fixed income folks just to maintain what they have these days.
 
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