boyst Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 I heard if you dig a hole out back of your house - you can cut your water usage in half. Do you really think your free content on the internet is going to last? Content companies are already signing deals with cable/satellite providers to provide a verification scheme to prove you already pay for the content before you can view on line for free at the content provider's site. On top of that - at what lengths are you to go to in order to keep free content. There is always a way to get new free content. From bootlegging VHS, to ripping DVD's, to torrenting, eventually it just changes to another method. And don't knock the hole in the ground, well water is usually good stuff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sullim4 Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 Cord-cutting is a very real problem for content providers. This past quarter is the first time in history that the two major satellite companies have had a net loss of subscribers (Dish hemmoraged them, DirecTV had a very slight gain, resulting in a net loss). The cable companies' subscriber growth slowed considerably as well. The cable folks have the hammer of caps and charging per-byte for their internet service... and you're going to see a lot of draconian practices around that in the near-term future if these losses continue. Right now the workaround for caps is to subscribe to business-class service but who knows how long that will last. It's sports that's preventing me from cord-cutting. I can get all four major nets OTA for free plus a handful of stupid shopping/religious channels. College football, Sunday Ticket, and the Sabres are really my primary reasons to keep DirecTV at this point... cable TV is such a waste of money anymore. I really regret not suspending my DirecTV service this summer and giving Netflix-only a try. I've watched next to nothing on TV the past few months - just Hells Kitchen and Masterchef. Honestly I am shocked at how much I spend on internet, phone, and TV per month. $70 for the cell phone/data plan + $60 for cable internet + $70 for DirecTV. $200 freaking dollars a month... and I subscribe to the cheapest phone/data plan, the lowest internet tier Comcast offers, and Total Choice+Sunday Ticket on DirecTV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SDS Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 And don't knock the hole in the ground, well water is usually good stuff! I was referring to saving toilet water.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fezmid Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 $70 for the cell phone/data plan Have you looked at Virgin Mobile? My wife just signed up and the service seems good. For $25/month, you get unlimited data and text, plus around 300 minutes I believe. For $45, you upgrade to unlimited minutes. It uses Sprint's network. So far she's been pretty happy with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Poojer Posted August 14, 2011 Author Share Posted August 14, 2011 i got virgin mobile for my kids...way cheaper than adding lines to my verizon bill..never any issues with their service Have you looked at Virgin Mobile? My wife just signed up and the service seems good. For $25/month, you get unlimited data and text, plus around 300 minutes I believe. For $45, you upgrade to unlimited minutes. It uses Sprint's network. So far she's been pretty happy with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sullim4 Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 Have you looked at Virgin Mobile? My wife just signed up and the service seems good. For $25/month, you get unlimited data and text, plus around 300 minutes I believe. For $45, you upgrade to unlimited minutes. It uses Sprint's network. So far she's been pretty happy with it. I wish I could, but unfortunately my employer's phones (WP7) aren't on Virgin. I got locked into a 2 year contract this past November with T-Mobile so I really can't change until Nov 2012 (Microsoft gave its employees free phones in exchange for signing 2 year contracts with the carriers). Comcast is the only decent option for internet out here now that Frontier bought out Verizon. I own my modem so I don't pay the rental fee. And of course, Comcast forces you to subscribe to limited cable if you want internet (otherwise they tag on a charge equal to the cost of limited cable). That basically leaves DirecTV as the only thing where I can make some cuts as I'm long out of the 2 year contract I had with them. I can easily afford to pay for all of this... what's making me think twice is the ridiculousness of paying $200/mo for what amounts to casual mobile web usage, about 10 phone calls and text messages per month, internet access, and watching sports on TV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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