The God Awful suffering Cable Television and landlines

Back story:

7 years ago I cut the cord. I ditched cable and satellite tv before it was a hippy trend. Like most people here on ATS, I just couldn’t suffer through the lack of content, noisy and constant commercials and insanely high prices. When I cut the cord, I found so much more joy in life.

I haven’t had a landline since I joined the Air Force in 2002. Once cell phones were affordable I jumped on that bandwagon and never looked back.

Modern Day:

My wife and I are expecting a baby in a month. My In-Laws can’t seem to figure out how to use a fire stick or Netflix or anything that isn’t cable. My mother-in-law is retiring at the end of the year and is going to be a full time nanny. Because she’s going to save us hundreds of dollars a month in childcare costs, the least we could do is get her cable that she can navigate and a phone line for emergency calls should she need it.

My God...nothing has changed with it. It’s just as awful as I remember. 150 channels of nothing. I recorded a movie and went back to watch it last night and there were 12-15 minute segments of nothing but commercials. And they’re so loud!! Any of the “good” channels are an upgrade. We aren’t getting the upgrade.

I didn’t think the landline would be a big deal. But we’ve had it less than a week and I’m already getting 5+ spam and robo calls a day on it. If it keeps up I’m gonna bury it out back.

How is it that the cable companies haven’t even tried to restructure their business model? The only reason we have it is because of the mother-in-law situation, which I’m grateful to have a full time nanny to care for our daughter.

Anyway...maybe this is more of a rant. But I didn’t mean it to be a rant.

a reply to: Assassin82

We did the very same thing six months ago. My wife had some trouble with it at first, but I helped teach her how to navigate it. We use the Firestick as Amazon Prime members. I also subscribed to Sling for the Discovery channel, the History Channel and NBC for her Soaps. I then got CBS all access for many shows we like.

The biggest problem for us, the one thing we really miss is, is Baseball. From what I have read, the MLB TV app doesnt work and their black out rules mean we cant watch our favorite teams home games. Really sucks. There is a work around for MLB black out rules, i.e. subscribing to an offshore VPN, but I fear it would slow everything down way to much.

Sorry to hear about the m-in-law. Take heart however, with luck you will out live her.

a reply to: Assassin82

The cable companies are forced to package channels.
I'll give you an example.

Espn is owned by Disney.
If a cable or satellite company wants to carry espn they are required to carry all other Disney owned channels.

Unfortunately you cant pick just the channels you want..

a reply to: Assassin82

Just unplug the land line until you actually need to use it, no ringing and the telemarketers waste time letting it ring. We have Direct TV which is as much of a wasteland as cable and with no extras is still expensive. I have nothing on the bedroom TV other than rabbit ears and since local stations all have gone digital, with each local station now providing at least 3 or 4 channels instead of just one, it's like free cable, and I find myself watching more free TV now.

I quit tv at least 15 years ago. Every now and then I get conned into going to someones house where the TV screaming advertisements is considered background noise, and it makes me wonder how people do it.

I thought billy mayes hawking his crap was bad, but now it's just so much worse these days.

Maybe it's the millenial in me, but landlines are totally worthless.

Problem is, they put them in that damned 3-pack (cable, internet, phone) which is usually cheaper than getting just internet/cable.

I've had landline service for over 3 years now and haven't used it once.

We have to call cable company like every year to get a new "offer" which reduces our package rate. The issue for us is that by the time we figure out how to get high speed internet, streaming services, etc from all the separate services, the cost isn't all that cheaper than the bundle for internet, phone, cable....

The intellectual property lawyers are the problem. They make it difficult to get content from other services.

a reply to: seaswine

Yeah, they package the service.
The only reason I can see to have a land line is for a security system.

I have mediacom internet service and I get crap in the mail all the time trying to give me a deal on cable TV and phone service...
I just trash the junk mail....

a reply to: Assassin82

Took me years to get my mom off of cable.

These days she is happy about not having it.

We have a landline and get the same. Spam calls all day long.
Our solution was to get a phone that has a ringer that can be turned off and that flashes when it rings.
It also has a screen that tells us what number is calling.

Cost 20 bucks on amazon.

a reply to: Assassin82

Ugh... Yeah its brainwashing/programming, lots of things hidden also in the commercials.

Just thought I would chip in to the discussion with my own experience. I stopped using landlines and cable TV back in 2008--I hate phones anyway and only keep a cell for emergencies, and I also hated paying a lot of money each month for the privilege of watching crappy shows loaded with commercials. Most of the content on HBO, Showtime, and the like didn't interest me that much.

My alternative solution has been Amazon Prime and Netflix. The original shows available on Prime and Netflix are improving all the time, and I can usually find good movies too if I'm in the mood. My total monthly cost (including my internet) is around $80, FWIW.

I also have my favorite shows and movies on DVD. I don't miss cable one bit.

FCC maintains a do-not-call list but it isn't completely effective.

'charity' calls are allowed. I get one a week or so from some police fund

and a lot of third-world scam stuff ignores the law. there is a site on FCC to report unwanted calls but they continue.
I keep a landline for work reasons; plus I'm in the boonies and cell coverage is spotty.

I'm currently reading a fiction novel.

People routinely ask me why...

Just having TV noise on is an addiction for a lot of people. Trust me, I used to install the crap.

It's either a babysitter for the kids (see my sig,) company for the elderly, or just zombie brainwash juice for Johnny Blaze. A lot of people can't even fall asleep without the TV on.

They go right for that Faux News or ReeNN too.

originally posted by: seaswine
Maybe it's the millenial in me, but landlines are totally worthless.

Yes, it is the millenial in you. If you were a doctor and saw how much per page it costs to send and receive faxed documents you would install a POTS line to your fax machine. At a very low 3 cents per page for electronic fax you would spend $1200 for 40,000 pages in a month (combined in and out) which would cost about 1/10th of that price using an analog line.

The FCC wanted to eliminate POTS lines by 2018 but i feel as we approach 2020 we are still far from it.

originally posted by: seaswine
Maybe it's the millenial in me, but landlines are totally worthless.

City dweller, are you? You ought to rely on cell phones where the service is marginal--sometimes they work; sometimes they don't. Or when they do, it's intermittent. Now try to call 911. Still think they are worthless?

BTW, it's "millennial" but it's okay. I didn't know how to spell my own name when I was four years old either.

Even with cable in sharp decline, more movies, TV series, and news are being produced than ever before. Digital/streaming has changed everything.

The internet on your phone with Social networking is 10 times more addictive than cable TV. People have wireless earbuds that keep them in constant contact with social media. The irony is that more and more people feel alone and disconnected.

www.marketwatch.com...

Do you want fries with that dystopia?

a reply to: olaru12

Some of those streaming services are coming out with some great original content of their own. I rarely get invested into series... I just don't sit down and watch fiction a lot, but every once and a while, I'll find a show I'll finish over the course of a month... I might do 3 series over the span of a year, and the last few years they've all been streaming originals.

It's nice because they can use whatever language they wish, and don't have to water things down so much due to regulation.

originally posted by: elkabong57
Just thought I would chip in to the discussion with my own experience. I stopped using landlines and cable TV back in 2008--I hate phones anyway and only keep a cell for emergencies, and I also hated paying a lot of money each month for the privilege of watching crappy shows loaded with commercials. Most of the content on HBO, Showtime, and the like didn't interest me that much.

My alternative solution has been Amazon Prime and Netflix. The original shows available on Prime and Netflix are improving all the time, and I can usually find good movies too if I'm in the mood. My total monthly cost (including my internet) is around $80, FWIW.

I also have my favorite shows and movies on DVD. I don't miss cable one bit.

I’ve been strictly using Netflix, HBOGO, and Amazon Prime for years now. I may use cable to watch a live sports game from time to time now that we have cable, but that’s it. My wife’s also instructed me we will be using Disney+ when it’s launched, so we’ll have that.

Honestly, I could just as happily sit in a quiet room with my own thoughts. Lol

originally posted by: CriticalStinker
a reply to: olaru12

Some of those streaming services are coming out with some great original content of their own. I rarely get invested into series... I just don't sit down and watch fiction a lot, but every once and a while, I'll find a show I'll finish over the course of a month... I might do 3 series over the span of a year, and the last few years they've all been streaming originals.

It's nice because they can use whatever language they wish, and don't have to water things down so much due to regulation.

Keep a look out for this one I'm currently working on. It looks great.

a reply to: elkabong57

My alternative solution has been Amazon Prime and Netflix.

Prime has really stepped it up. At first it sucked so bad. Now they are actually putting out some good content.