If you’ve ever dreamed of ditching your cable, dish, or phone company, the latest episode of The Handyguys Podcast offers a great primer on how to save money and keep great service by cutting the cable.
Like my fellow DIY Blog Squad-ers, the Handyguys, I’ve also found that my best value in home media and telephony was to pass up the phone and cable company packages and roll my own bundle.
Instead of cable or dish TV, I have a Netflix membership and use a Roku device
Here’s my DIY media/service “bundle” by the numbers:
- $24/mo – 6.0 Mbps municipal wifi internet
- $9/mo – 1-disc-at-a-time Netflix membership (+$99 device purchase for Roku)
- $3/mo – taxes on free Ooma local and long-distance phone service (+$199 device purchase)
- $0/mo – streaming internet radio through Squeezebox (after device purchases)
So my total ongoing monthly cost for internet, video, audio, and home phone is $36. In comparison, the standard monthly rate just for stand-alone 1.5 Mbps (1/4 my speed) DSL internet through my local phone company is $40. Although I have purchased some service-specific devices, my monthly expense savings defray those upfront costs. For example, the Ooma phone is the newest part of my bundle and it will take me about 8 months to make up the $199 device cost with the monthly savings from cancelling my service with the local phone company. After that, I’m money ahead on my home phone.
Your results may vary, of course, based on your own media preferences and the services available in your area. However, I’ve found some tremendous value from my DIY media/service bundle. And money saved here means there is more left in my pocket for other priorities like DIY projects around the house.
I'm Josh and since 2005 I have shared home improvement stories and ideas from my family's Arts & Crafts bungalow in Minneapolis, MN. I'm trying to combine the best of 1923 with the best of the 21st century-- and I hope it won't take another 88 years to do it.
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How has your experience been with USI wireless? I jumped on the USI bandwagon when it was first made available, but I was frustrated with the reliability of the connection and went back to Comcast within about 6 months. I’ve heard it has become much more reliable since I left, but I’m still skeptical based on my experiences.
I’ve also been thinking about the antenna in the attic thing. How many channels do you pick up?
We’ve been going without cable too. I use Boxee which is free software to search for and stream TV of the internet and play movies through netflix, hulu, and others. We currently have our antenna in the basement but I plan on moving it to the attic in the future. I was surprised at how many channels we get over the air, off the top of my head I’d say we get 15-20.
I’m hitting my palm on my forehead over here about the antenna IN the attic. Doh! Why didn’t I think of that!
I’m going to look into our municipal internet too.
Thank you so much for this post!
Reuben, I’ve been a USI Wireless subscriber for 3 years and I’ve experienced my share of frustrations in that time. After a service call from a tech that accurately positioned my directional wifi antenna several months ago, my connection (which was always fast enough) went from spotty to solid. Bear in mind, the node I connect through is just across the alley, so my circumstances are nearly ideal.
Another option, which is brand new to the neighborhood is wimax/4G service through clear.com. The prices aren’t as cheap as USI Wireless, but they’re competitive with Qwest and Comcast, no bundle required.
Bunny & Reuben, re: the TV antenna in the attic, it works fine, especially when I aimed it in the right direction. AntennaWeb.org is a great resource for calculating what strength of antenna to buy and what direction to aim it.
I can tune in all the major Twin Cities stations (2,4,5,9,11,23,29,45)as well as a shopping channel, some Spanish-broadcast channels, and several religious channels.
Mike, do you have a dedicated home theater pc for Boxee, or do you connect a laptop for occasional use? I’ve looked at Boxee a couple times, but without a htpc it didn’t seem like a great fit for me.
This is totally intriguing but – does any of it work in rural areas? I’ve contacted Sprint, Verizon and Comcast and been told there’s no coverage or service, so I may be stuck with ATT DSL and a land line. But I love the IDEA of it!
Beth, your options will be narrower in a rural area, but if you can get a fast DSL (5+ Mbps) through ATT it might still work. You’ll just need to compare your current costs for internet and land line phone to the cost of fast stand-alone DSL + the cost of services like Ooma and Netflix I mentioned above. Good luck!
I’m always checking on your blog to see what fun things you are up to. Recently my dad purchased a squeezebox and it got me thinking about your “bundle”. Regarding your wifi antenna, is that something that USI provided or did you purchase it yourself? And with the Ooma, I know that in Minneapolis we have our water meter read through the phone line, how is yours set up?
Thanks for your time. I’m very intrigued!