Cutting Cable Cord / Slashing Monthly Cable Bill

[Rob0115 1,105]

Pretty much all these things can be done on a Raspberry Pi as well.  You just need to set it up, no big deal.  They can be gotten really cheap and put out 1080P video, I am sure 4k video will come to them. 

 

You can load kodi onto them using either Raspbian (Debian distro) or now Pi  2/3does Windows.  

[oneshot 45]

Dropped triple play over 2 years ago. All i have is internet ,netflix and hulu. I dont miss cable tv at all and i save  $80  .. optimum can kiss my ass if they think i will ever pay 160+ for a bunch of crap programming

[InFamous 311]

I have a Firestick and ordered the FireTV  a few days ago that should be here next week. I am on vacation from work Easter week so I'm going to unplug cable and subscribe to PlayStation view's free week to see if it'll work out for me and the Family. If all goes well I'll be calling Optimum to tell them to piss off and drop it down to just internet and probably up my speeds. I pay $215 for cable right now, I should be able to drop that to $80 for internet and $40 for PlayStation Vue. 

 

On a secondary note. The home phone we actually do use quite often, a lot of times even for fax. I know I can port my number to Google Voice for free but what is a viable option for fax machine usage?

[InFamous 311]

FireStick will be for the bedroom and I ordered the FireTV because of all the recommendations about the better experience for the main TV in the livingroom, both kids also have Chrome Casts. I know they'll be fine because they just stream most of their stuff anyway. It's more me and wifey getting used to it, but I sure would love an extra $100 or so in my pocket each month. 

[Howard 538]

I have a Firestick and ordered the FireTV a few days ago that should be here next week. I am on vacation from work Easter week so I'm going to unplug cable and subscribe to PlayStation view's free week to see if it'll work out for me and the Family. If all goes well I'll be calling Optimum to tell them to piss off and drop it down to just internet and probably up my speeds. I pay $215 for cable right now, I should be able to drop that to $80 for internet and $40 for PlayStation Vue.

 

On a secondary note. The home phone we actually do use quite often, a lot of times even for fax. I know I can port my number to Google Voice for free but what is a viable option for fax machine usage?

Before you drop the triple play port the phone number out and drop phone. Then call retention and get a better price on internet. I got them to take $5 off a month and raise the speed from 50/25 to 200/35 Mbps. Last take your cable boxes to the store and drop TV. When they try to raise the rate just tell them you told retention that is BS and you had told them you were only going to keep Internet if they did not drop the price. I dropped $100 a month off my bill keeping only Internet and PS Vue and Ooma for phone which will do fax too.

[InFamous 311]

With Ooma I would just plug my printer/fax into it? I'm looking on their website now for more info and see if it's a viable option. Thanks Howard!

[InFamous 311]

http://support.ooma.com/home/faxing-with-ooma

 

Got it.

[SW9racer 262]

With ooma you dial *99 before sending a fax. Always works for me.

[InFamous 311]

Thanks guys, I'll end up ordering the Ooma device off ebay I think...looks like it'll be $60-$70, I'm assuming it'll work with my current portable phones. Then doing the Premium service for $9.99+tax so about $15/month

[Howard 538]

Thanks guys, I'll end up ordering the Ooma device off ebay I think...looks like it'll be $60-$70, I'm assuming it'll work with my current portable phones. Then doing the Premium service for $9.99+tax so about $15/month

For $99 you can get a year of premium service including porting a number for free.

[Newtonian 453]

Along the lines of this thread I am currently paying for data through the local cable company ($70/month) and I have 2 lines with Vonage ($80/month). 

 

Does anyone know of a better deal through a different internet provider? I need 2 phones, free international calling, and fast data.

 

Not interested in those pay-once services like Ooma or LowJack.

 

I live in Newton if you didn't know.

[Newtonian 453]

Along the lines of this thread I am currently paying for data through the local cable company ($70/month) and I have 2 lines with Vonage ($80/month). 

 

Does anyone know of a better deal through a different internet provider? I need 2 phones, free international calling, and fast data.

 

Not interested in those pay-once services like Ooma or LowJack.

 

I live in Newton if you didn't know.

[Howard 538]

Along the lines of this thread I am currently paying for data through the local cable company ($70/month) and I have 2 lines with Vonage ($80/month). 

 

Does anyone know of a better deal through a different internet provider? I need 2 phones, free international calling, and fast data.

 

Not interested in those pay-once services like Ooma or LowJack.

 

I live in Newton if you didn't know.

Not sure what you mean about pay once services like Ooma.  You don't pay once with Ooma, you pay by the month just like Verizon.  Magic Jack has poor quality and poor support.  Ooma quality is as good or better than the VoIP service I had through my cable company.  Further they have real life people you can talk with and are quite reasonable - you really should check into it more.

[HBecwithFn7 296]

Not sure what you mean about pay once services like Ooma.  You don't pay once with Ooma, you pay by the month just like Verizon.  Magic Jack has poor quality and poor support.  Ooma quality is as good or better than the VoIP service I had through my cable company.  Further they have real life people you can talk with and are quite reasonable - you really should check into it more.

 

I have Ooma as well.  You have two options - a "regular" service and a "Premium" service.  The "regular" service I believe is in the $11-13ish a month range.  With the premium service, you make one annual payment of around $130.00, and then all you pay is something like $4-5 per month to cover the taxes on the service (so they say). The premium service includes a lot more features, and unlimited calling to the US, Mex, Canada, etc. etc, and some incredibly low rates to foreign countries (i.e. something like .06/min to most of Europe). 

[Howard 538]

I have Ooma as well.  You have two options - a "regular" service and a "Premium" service.  The "regular" service I believe is in the $11-13ish a month range.  With the premium service, you make one annual payment of around $130.00, and then all you pay is something like $4-5 per month to cover the taxes on the service (so they say). The premium service includes a lot more features, and unlimited calling to the US, Mex, Canada, etc. etc, and some incredibly low rates to foreign countries (i.e. something like .06/min to most of Europe).

 

Perhaps they changed it since you got yours.  The regular service is actually FREE, you just pay the monthly taxes and 911 fee which in New Jermany comes to about $4.08 a month.  The premium service is an additional $10 a month, but they have a plan where you can prepay and get 12 months for $99 up front.  They also have an International plan but I am not up on it as I don't make International calls and never read it.

[Newtonian 453]

Not sure what you mean about pay once services like Ooma.  You don't pay once with Ooma, you pay by the month just like Verizon.  Magic Jack has poor quality and poor support.  Ooma quality is as good or better than the VoIP service I had through my cable company.  Further they have real life people you can talk with and are quite reasonable - you really should check into it more.

Thanks Howie. I read some unflattering things about Ooma. One of the lines is for business, which must be 99% reliable, as Vonage currently is. My main concern is the data. I can always piggyback phone service. There don't seem to be many internet providers up here.

[Howard 538]

Thanks Howie. I read some unflattering things about Ooma. One of the lines is for business, which must be 99% reliable, as Vonage currently is. My main concern is the data. I can always piggyback phone service. There don't seem to be many internet providers up here.

 

I think there are some people that for some reason like to bash Oooma, not sure why.  It has been around for quite a while and I have found it very reliable.  I also have Magic Jack which is less reliable.  I have had two number for eons going back to copper service when you used dialup.  I wanted to keep the second number but wanted to cut cost so I switched one line to Magic Jack.  I got that four or five years ago and for $99 you got five years of service.  The quality has gotten better but it still is not perfect, but for that price you can't beat it as a second line.  I had switch the other to the Cable Triple Play but ditched that a few months ago when I got rid of Cable TV.  I switched to Oooma and find the call quality better than the Cable VoIP and it has been very reliable.  I have my modem, router and Oooma on a UPS and have had service even during two small power failures.  I also like their phone app where you can make calls over WiFi or LTE using your Oooma number and answer calls on your cell as well.  Very happy so far.

[Newtonian 453]

I think there are some people that for some reason like to bash Oooma, not sure why.  It has been around for quite a while and I have found it very reliable.  I also have Magic Jack which is less reliable.  I have had two number for eons going back to copper service when you used dialup.  I wanted to keep the second number but wanted to cut cost so I switched one line to Magic Jack.  I got that four or five years ago and for $99 you got five years of service.  The quality has gotten better but it still is not perfect, but for that price you can't beat it as a second line.  I had switch the other to the Cable Triple Play but ditched that a few months ago when I got rid of Cable TV.  I switched to Oooma and find the call quality better than the Cable VoIP and it has been very reliable.  I have my modem, router and Oooma on a UPS and have had service even during two small power failures.  I also like their phone app where you can make calls over WiFi or LTE using your Oooma number and answer calls on your cell as well.  Very happy so far.

OK Howard. I'll try Ooma on the condition that I can keep both my numbers. But what I really need is f-ing internet service that does not cost $70-plus a month. One interesting possibility is to use my phone data plan, which charges $1 per gigabyte. I wonder what my consumption is per month...Is there a way to tell?

[Rob0115 1,105]

I think there are some people that for some reason like to bash Oooma, not sure why.  It has been around for quite a while and I have found it very reliable.  I also have Magic Jack which is less reliable.  I have had two number for eons going back to copper service when you used dialup.  I wanted to keep the second number but wanted to cut cost so I switched one line to Magic Jack.  I got that four or five years ago and for $99 you got five years of service.  The quality has gotten better but it still is not perfect, but for that price you can't beat it as a second line.  I had switch the other to the Cable Triple Play but ditched that a few months ago when I got rid of Cable TV.  I switched to Oooma and find the call quality better than the Cable VoIP and it has been very reliable.  I have my modem, router and Oooma on a UPS and have had service even during two small power failures.  I also like their phone app where you can make calls over WiFi or LTE using your Oooma number and answer calls on your cell as well.  Very happy so far.

 

I've had no issues with Ooma, worth the 2 bucks / month.  

[Howard 538]

Ooma actually automatically gives you two number.  They do charge something like $35-$39 to port a number but if you sign up for $99 for a year of premium that includes porting one number for free.  You can find the device for like $70 re-manufactured on the internet, but I bought mine from Costco online for around $129 which included the unit and one of their special receivers and a wireless dongle.  I did this for the added features but also because if I did not like it Costco takes stuff back forever at full refund.  If you were going to use your data plan you would need to hook Ooma up wirelessly which could have a negative impact on call quality.  The bandwidth used by Ooma is not that large, I am sure you can search for that with Google and get an answer of what it uses per minute of calling.  I think there is an always on component to usage so that there is always a dial tone available too but that is very small.  Don't know what would happen when your cell signal is not present - I don't think this a good way to go.  What are your choices for Internet?

[Newtonian 453]

Everyone: Please check out the Ooma reviews on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2mwWSQq

 

24% of reviewers gave it one star. Average review is 3.5. Lots of horror stories. You mileage may vary. 

 

If you use your landline only occasionally, and not for business, this could save you a lot of money. But if you expect no nonsense from your landline service you should perhaps reconsider. 

[Howard 538]

Everyone: Please check out the Ooma reviews on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2mwWSQq

 

24% of reviewers gave it one star. Average review is 3.5. Lots of horror stories. You mileage may vary.

 

If you use your landline only occasionally, and not for business, this could save you a lot of money. But if you expect no nonsense from your landline service you should perhaps reconsider.

I hear what you are saying and was hesitant because of those Amazon reviews. Thing is a lot of Amazon reviews are fake. I decided to get input from people I know or people I associate with on Facebook or forums like this. Of real people I contacted I don't recall any of them having anything bad to say so I gave it a try and have been very pleased. I also think most of the bad reviews online were quite a few years old and may not be representative of the way things are today. I do understand and appreciate your apprehension as I felt that way going into this as well.

 

 

 

I should add a few general comments as well, how you hook up a VoIP system will have big impacts on quality. They should where ever possible be hooked up via Ethernet NOT wifi. You should either set QOS up in your router or have the VoIP unit plugged into the modem and then have your router plugged into the voice box.

[Newtonian 453]

I hear what you are saying and was hesitant because of those Amazon reviews. Thing is a lot of Amazon reviews are fake. I decided to get input from people I know or people I associate with on Facebook or forums like this. Of real people I contacted I don't recall any of them having anything bad to say so I gave it a try and have been very pleased. I also think most of the bad reviews online were quite a few years old and may not be representative of the way things are today. I do understand and appreciate your apprehension as I felt that way going into this as well.

 

 

 

I should add a few general comments as well, how you hook up a VoIP system will have big impacts on quality. They should where ever possible be hooked up via Ethernet NOT wifi. You should either set QOS up in your router or have the VoIP unit plugged into the modem and then have your router plugged into the voice box.

I've actually found Amazon reviews to be quite reliable, and I buy almost everything there. Of course if I saw a total of 5 reviews for a product I would not believe it whether they were all stellar or all crap. But the sheer number of negative reviews is a huge red flag especially, as mentioned, since my business lives and dies by the telephone.

 

I came across this, which works with Google Voice, and has mostly 5-star reviews (and thousands of those):

 

http://amzn.to/2mwZJss

 

As my grandfather used to say, "I dink I wanna try."

[Howard 538]

Hey, I don't have a horse in this race and really don't care if you go with Ooma or not - they don't pay me  I have had good luck with it.  I read through some of those reviews and find the bulk are either old or based on installation problems - the instructions are very confusing.  I think those with quality issue are using a WiFi Connection.  As for porting their web page told me it could take two weeks, it took 36 hours.  I've called with questions twice and immediately got a live person who was able to help me.

 

I investigated the other device you are talking about it and liked that it was cheaper and there were no fees.  The only problem I see with it is that it uses Google Voice and there is absolutely no support with Google.  Trying calling Google, you can't.  Also Google has a tendency to just drop services at times, so who know what the future of voice might be.  Finally I could find no easy way to port my existing Cablevision phone number to them and I wanted to keep my number.

 

If you go with the Obi box please get back to me and let me know how it works out.

[bhunted 887]

Check out Netalk.... much cheaper and just as good. I had 4 lines at once going. Now have 3... 1 dedicated fax line and 2 voice lines.

Had them for years with no issues and if so, they have telephone support.

 

http://www.nettalk.com/

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

[leahcim 680]

Check out Netalk.... much cheaper and just as good. I had 4 lines at once going. Now have 3... 1 dedicated fax line and 2 voice lines.

Had them for years with no issues and if so, they have telephone support.

 

http://www.nettalk.com/

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

I have had Nettalk for about 4 years.  It had been just ok, but good luck if you have problems and ever want to talk to a live person.

I have had issues on and off over the years.  Rarely do I get a response from Nettalk.  I stuck with it because it was good enough.

I had issues last October where incoming calls were hit-or-miss.  And the misses would usually just get a busy or a message saying "Wireless caller is not available"  It would not even go to voicemail!

 

Recently I have had issues with dropped calls and frequently have to reset the device.  And I found out they have a 1500 minute per month limit on outbound calls.  I am not sure if they just started enforcing it, but I am pretty sure I hit it this month (well, not me per se, now I get a message telling me to add credits to my account when I try to dial out).

 

I tried the Chat help--no one is there.  Said they will get back to me, three days later and still no response.

 

So I just ordered Ooma from Amazon (was on sale for $79.99) and it should arrive tomorrow.  The reviews look decent--definitely better than Nettalk has been, I will report back after a few months.  I will probably do the basic plan, which is about the same cost as Nettalk ($4/month).  Ooma also has a limit at 5000 minutes outbound per month, but claim they don't enforce it unless you are running a call center out of the house.  It cannot be worse than Nettalk, especially if they have live people when you need support.

 

I also like the fact that Ooma will interface with Amazon Echo (Alexa) for calling and IFTTT to announce calls through Hue or Wemo devices.  And I believe I can use the Ooma app over wifi on my Smartphone too.

 

Newtonian:  Ooma also advertises a business plan starting at $19.95/month.

[InFamous 311]

Newt you're kinda beat up by where you live. Service Electric basically built the cable infrastructure up there and owns a TON of the telephone poles in Sussex County. Which basically means, no one else is allowed to install anything there. The whole cable/internet thing almost anywhere especially in Sussex/Morris County is a monopoly...glad those things are illegal except when it comes to TV/Internet. 

[bhunted 887]

I have had Nettalk for about 4 years. It had been just ok, but good luck if you have problems and ever want to talk to a live person.

I have had issues on and off over the years. Rarely do I get a response from Nettalk. I stuck with it because it was good enough.

I had issues last October where incoming calls were hit-or-miss. And the misses would usually just get a busy or a message saying "Wireless caller is not available" It would not even go to voicemail!

 

Recently I have had issues with dropped calls and frequently have to reset the device. And I found out they have a 1500 minute per month limit on outbound calls. I am not sure if they just started enforcing it, but I am pretty sure I hit it this month (well, not me per se, now I get a message telling me to add credits to my account when I try to dial out).

 

I tried the Chat help--no one is there. Said they will get back to me, three days later and still no response.

 

So I just ordered Ooma from Amazon (was on sale for $79.99) and it should arrive tomorrow. The reviews look decent--definitely better than Nettalk has been, I will report back after a few months. I will probably do the basic plan, which is about the same cost as Nettalk ($4/month). Ooma also has a limit at 5000 minutes outbound per month, but claim they don't enforce it unless you are running a call center out of the house. It cannot be worse than Nettalk, especially if they have live people when you need support.

 

I also like the fact that Ooma will interface with Amazon Echo (Alexa) for calling and IFTTT to announce calls through Hue or Wemo devices. And I believe I can use the Ooma app over wifi on my Smartphone too.

 

Newtonian: Ooma also advertises a business plan starting at $19.95/month.

Wow! Sorry to hear that. Guess I'm lucky...

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Newtonian 453]

Newt you're kinda beat up by where you live. Service Electric basically built the cable infrastructure up there and owns a TON of the telephone poles in Sussex County. Which basically means, no one else is allowed to install anything there. The whole cable/internet thing almost anywhere especially in Sussex/Morris County is a monopoly...glad those things are illegal except when it comes to TV/Internet. 

I discovered something interesting while researching this today. Turns out that Service Electric gets its whole data shebang from CenturyLink. When I called C'link today they told me as much.

 

You're right we basically have one provider up here. When we first got Internet service in 1992 or 93 we had half a dozen toll-free local dialup services, including one outfit in Blairstown 13 miles away. The service has got way better but now it's Service Electric or satellite, basically.

[leahcim 680]

Wow! Sorry to hear that. Guess I'm lucky...

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah.  I really wanted to like it, and it was fine--good enough--for years.  And I did not mind the lack of customer support too much--until I needed it.  So I don't want to completely trash NT.

 

The one thing I did not try is switching from Wifi to wired.  Maybe that would have solved some of the issues.  And when I realized they started enforcing the 1500 minutes, that nudged me to make the change.