Ottakee Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 Right now we have DISH network for TV and AT&T for internet and phone. I see other "deals" out there for Charter that has cable TV, Internet, and cable phone or Verizon offers internet and phone along with Dish or ???? They all have various different packages, contracts, special pricing, then regular pricing, equipment fees, etc. and on and on. HOW in the world do you figure out what is best for your family and budget? It just seems so hard to compare the services and of course each claims that the other will raise their rates or aren't truthful about the real cost, etc. Any ideas on figuring this out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaxMom Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 In my experience - and usually in the "fine print" when we get flyers - they all raise their rates after a certain period (6 months, 1 or 2 years). The rest of the fees you generally don't hear about until you're ordering service (taxes, equipment, etc). Technologically, we've had better Internet service with dsl than cable, presumably because cable was the only thing available for so long that everyone on the street had it (and you share bandwidth/throughput). We went through DISH and DirecTv (with cable Internet), cable for tv/phone/Internet, and finally ended up with antenna, dsl, and plain old dialtone on our home phone. That's what works for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jennsmile Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 I live in a rural community. We have one phone option but it allows us to have DSL. My local calling area is maybe 600 numbers but that is okay as I have DSL which allows us to watch hula and have netflix on our roku. I am glad I only have one option and it is affordable. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2squared Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 We live rurally too, so our options are extremely limited. Still, the cost of media is annoying me. Home phone + satellite + High Speed Internet + Netflix + Cell Phone is $225/month. :001_huh: I am rebelling. My plan is to either eliminate the home phone or go to the safety plan ($10), eliminate the satellite, keep the high speed internet ($60), keep Netflix ($25), add a Roku ($0), and keep my cell ($45) for a total monthly bill of $135-$145. My goal is to reduce my monthly cost, avoid long-term contracts, and get the same or similar services. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommyof4ks Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 A spreadsheet with prices, services offered, and rates after the contract period. We just went through all of this again last month to find the best deals. We don't have cable or satellite, so that was easy. We changed our phone to MagicJack Plus, because it allowed us to keep our old phone number, and for $30 a YEAR that is the best deal we found for unlimited local and long distance. The sound quality is great, and we discovered there is an iPad app that let's us tuen our iPad into a phone, so now I get home phone calls where I am! It hooks into our DSL modem, and we were able to get a rate of $30 for the DSL for a year. We will reevaluate next year when that rate goes up to $48. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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