Tips for lowering internet bill

[ImpulsE69]

I think it depends heavily on the area. I have FIOS, but it is super expensive, and the Up/down are NOT the same. They still limit it based on tier (20/3 - granted there are no caps). The main thing about FIOS is stability. I could get faster, but it's not worth the price.

 

[bononos]

And competition is going to be worse with the current useless corporate hack FCC chairman who is against internet neutrality and is looking to overturn the current laws.

 

[OverVolt]

Use less internet obviously, they measure it at the tap.

I'm paying $80 for 35mbps right now but I can actually get 65mbps for $65 I just gotta get off my lazy butt and head over to the cable place.

When I had FIOS I was commonly throttled to 15mbps down and 70mbps up lol.

I would suggest you really only need 15mbps or so if you have a good router. I think most people have poor performance using junk routers and connecting too many devices to a home router. Routing actually takes alot of work/processing power and people are connecting phones, tablets, game systems, computers, smart TVs etc. to home routers and the packet routing goes to shit.

 

[Thebobo]

I think it depends heavily on the area. I have FIOS, but it is super expensive, and the Up/down are NOT the same. They still limit it based on tier (20/3 - granted there are no caps). The main thing about FIOS is stability. I could get faster, but it's not worth the price.

Yea at home here with fios the slowest you can get is 50/50, it was 25/25 when I first got it but when I upgraded and then later tried to downgrade they said 25 was no longer available. But now I took them up on their 25/25 more for $5 deal so I normally get around 85/85. At work we have two T1 one lines for a whopping 3/3 mbps and they added IP phones lol it can be really slooooooooooow.

 

[Scarpozzi]

To know my history, I've been on the internet roughly since it started....was doing the BBS stuff before that and got CompuServe. I was lucky enough to have a friend with a family member at Prodigy. (free unlimited minutes with his account) At the same time, AOL disks were very easy to come by...not sure how many "free minutes" we burned using those and making new accounts.

Considering the speed and cost of things these days, it's not a bad deal getting internet for $50-60/month. However, I can't stand that I'm paying for it twice. We had our first kid in 2012 and I realized that I had little time to play online games or browse the internet....I mean, that's what work's for right? Despite being a full time Sys Admin for a large organization and needing to work from home, I got upset when my rate went from the Introductory rate of $30-50...I called and had the intro rate extended....2 years later, they said they couldn't do it anymore. My bill was $60/month and I realized I just wasn't using it enough because I was on Verizon's unlimited plan, grandfathered. I did some tests, was able to RDP when I tethered my phone to my laptop...realized I could work from home, from my boat, from my cabin... I called my cable ISP and cancelled. That was 3+ years ago.

I've been using my phone's wifi hotspot.. My only gripe is when my Xbox One wants to download a 3.9GB update....but I'm getting by. I don't stream a lot of movies, but it works great when I when I want to.

Anyhow....I'm currently a Sprint customer on the Freedom Unlimited Plan with my wife....we pay $90/month for both lines + tax. (Total of $110/month for cellphone and Internet)....and she gets a work stipend that knocks most of that down. What killed me about having home broadband was that I'm at work 8 hours/day....asleep 8 hours/day....doing other stuff 5 hours/day....and not willing to spend $2/day to sit in front of a computer since I do that at work. I've saved $67/month for 3 years....will be near $2500 next month saved.

 

[rh71]

Wow 15/2 as an offer. This isn't 2010 anymore is it?

Get a job that requires internet connection and foots your bill.

We work at home full time - most employees (global IT) including managers do. Our company used to pay it but wised up back around 2005 and said "everyone needs internet at home anyway these days, we're no longer paying for it." I think it was covered for about 2 years.

However, I can't stand that I'm paying for it twice.

What killed me about having home broadband was that I'm at work 8 hours/day....asleep 8 hours/day....doing other stuff 5 hours/day....and not willing to spend $2/day to sit in front of a computer since I do that at work. I've saved $67/month for 3 years....will be near $2500 next month saved.

At night when I'm not online for work, I still use plenty of internet - streaming shows, downloading torrents to watch in bed, and playing multiplayer games before bed. Would be very dull nights without it.

 

[ultimatebob]

Wow 15/2 as an offer. This isn't 2010 anymore is it?

We work at home full time - most employees (global IT) including managers do. Our company used to pay it but wised up back around 2005 and said "everyone needs internet at home anyway these days, we're no longer paying for it." I think it was covered for about 2 years.

At night when I'm not online for work, I still use plenty of internet - streaming shows, downloading torrents to watch in bed, and playing multiplayer games before bed. Would be very dull nights without it.

I'd like to say "your employer is a cheap bastard!", but the place I work at now doesn't even give us a second cell phone for after hours support anymore. They just assume that everyone in the tech industry has a smartphone with unlimited data by now, and they're mostly right on that.

 

[rh71]

^ well you knew that already. Billions in revenue but the shareholders still don't like it.

 

[Herr Kutz]

Called Cox up and it's a no go. Now I'm trying to debate moving over to AT&T. There is an early termination fee of $180 (pro-rated), but I wanted to find out if there is a grace period (say a few weeks) in case I find their service lacking. For their internet services, there is no online documentation that I could find so I called them up and the rep told me there is a 30 day grace period, or "buyer's remorse period". I asked her if she could please point me to some documentation that explains the policy so if I need to cancel within that period they won't hit me up with an ETF. So I'm on hold for about 5 minutes while she goes to look for it, and she comes back and basically reads me their ETF policy which has absolutely nothing about the grace period. According to the rep, they don't spell it out because the grace period is different for their various services (14 days for phone, 30 for internet, none for DirectTV). This makes no sense because they have a different terms of service for each of their services. And of course this means they are within their "rights" to screw me with an ETF if I find out their service sucks balls within the first week or so. This makes the decision more difficult...