Cutting the cord

[LouisEly]

I’m really excited for our property in Montana.

It's not by chance in the Whitefish Lake or Flathead Lake area, is it? I just got back from there.

 

It will not be the last time I go there.

[DHonks]

I’m really excited for our property in Montana.

It's not by chance in the Whitefish Lake or Flathead Lake area, is it? I just got back from there.

 

It will not be the last time I go there.

 

You got it...awesome spot we found twenty years ago. Better weather than WI, mountains, low humidity, milder winters, very few mosquitos, friendly people. Has the best parts of Wisco, and none of the drawbacks.

[Samurai Bucky]

Yeah Beard, it's pretty bad where I'm at (about an hour East of eagle river. I am as rural as it gets up here. Nearest (very) small town is 15 minutes away (Dunbar)

We are in your neck of the woods -- just north of Dunbar. Over the years, the cell coverage has been better (AT&T), but it depends on the phone. If I put the phone in a certain corner of the cabin, I can use it as a hot spot to do some work.

 

It also depends on the season (leaves or not) and the wind (I swear...)

 

Every time I look at changing to a new carrier, I look at the coverage map. Very few cover Florence county. Even the coverage in Aurora (just south of Iron Mountain) is poor.

 

At least it gives my kids a chance to learn to live without a cell phone. I'll chalk that up as a win.

[Menotti80]

Yeah Beard, it's pretty bad where I'm at (about an hour East of eagle river. I am as rural as it gets up here. Nearest (very) small town is 15 minutes away (Dunbar)

We are in your neck of the woods -- just north of Dunbar. Over the years, the cell coverage has been better (AT&T), but it depends on the phone. If I put the phone in a certain corner of the cabin, I can use it as a hot spot to do some work.

 

It also depends on the season (leaves or not) and the wind (I swear...)

 

Every time I look at changing to a new carrier, I look at the coverage map. Very few cover Florence county. Even the coverage in Aurora (just south of Iron Mountain) is poor.

 

At least it gives my kids a chance to learn to live without a cell phone. I'll chalk that up as a win.

 

 

Can't disagree with any of this! I'm not expecting major city level signal, but even a bar or two would be nice haha

 

Where exactly are you at Samurai, just curious?

[GAME05]

I'm in the middle of nowhere not WI. Been looking into ways to ditch my 3Mb internet. Only one satellite company offers service, a 10Mb speed which they also throttle once you reach a fairly low usage on. I thought MiFi would be the solution, but the Verizon guy told me it's also a very low data limit and there's no getting around it.

 

My boss next door but on a different street can't even get DSL unless she gives them $5000 to run a wire there.

[nate82]

I'm in the middle of nowhere not WI. Been looking into ways to ditch my 3Mb internet. Only one satellite company offers service, a 10Mb speed which they also throttle once you reach a fairly low usage on. I thought MiFi would be the solution, but the Verizon guy told me it's also a very low data limit and there's no getting around it.

 

My boss next door but on a different street can't even get DSL unless she gives them $5000 to run a wire there.

 

If other people who live in the same neighborhood who may want DSL also what would stop them or you from pooling money together to get what you want? Once you have the line out there it would be beneficial for the company to run it to more than one house.

[GAME05]

My boss is the only one on that side of the street and they told her that they'd already connected as many lines as they could and couldn't add her unless somebody drops out.

 

It's a poor area. Folks around here would only have enough money for the cheapest package, and so the company focuses on the richer folks. And we're on a park boundary, so there won't be further development for them to warrant expansion.

[Samurai Bucky]

 

Can't disagree with any of this! I'm not expecting major city level signal, but even a bar or two would be nice haha

 

Where exactly are you at Samurai, just curious?

 

Just north of the Florence / Marinette county line off of U.

 

How about you?

[Menotti80]

Marble Road. Off of B, just East of U.

 

Practically neighbors I'd say haha

[logan82]

Good point. But that is today's tech and/or solutions also. No one thought satellites would reach starlink speed either. What if people put up 5G towers at various places where the high speed fiber resides rather than running that fiber to each house. For example, a friend of mine has fiber running down the road past his house. Rather than the $20k bill of running it up to his house, what if they put in a tower and picked up him and his neighbors? Perhaps the business case isn't there today, but you need to look forward where costs continue to drop due to volume and improvements.

That is an interesting solution but the wireless rights would have to be bought and paid for.

[LouisEly]

Somewhat related, but wondering what people would think would be the best option for someone who rents an apartment in Eau Claire during the week for work but whose full-time home is in Neenah. Logging in on-line doesn't really work because they limit how many times you can log into your TV service from a different IP address.

[igor67]

Sling is completely portable. You do need to have decent internet to stream. Netflix is also completely portable and lets you stream a little better with slower connections (since it buffers unlike Sling).

[RobDeer 45]

Somewhat related, but wondering what people would think would be the best option for someone who rents an apartment in Eau Claire during the week for work but whose full-time home is in Neenah. Logging in on-line doesn't really work because they limit how many times you can log into your TV service from a different IP address.

 

Can they call the company and explain the situation, see if they'd allow them to login as much as they want? Otherwise I love YoutubeTV. You can try it free for a month. I was super worried about it not being enough of what I want, compared to DTV. When I did the free trial, I only used YTV and found I was not missing anything at all (until NFL comes back and I don't have Sunday Ticket, but I think I will split the cost with a friend and use their online login). With YTV you can have multiple logins going at once and can use it wherever.

[DHonks]

Get AT&T TV, one box in each location. I use it to have one service for both places I spend time. Saves a ton of money over the old days of having Directv in both spots.

[GAME05]

I can't wait for Starlink. Only one internet provider in town and they know it. My internet has been out for a week and they regularly don't bother showing up for scheduled repairs. And when they do they tell me their box is old and there's nothing they can do.

[nectarsis]

I just found out today Spectrum/Charter (and AT&T U-Verse) have dropped the El Rey network. It was one of the few channels we still watched...at this rate baseballs one of my main reasons to hold on to cable. :/

[patrickgpe]

youtube TV dropped all fox sports regional networks effective today. Seems like the deal they reached earlier this year was just to cover the NBA, NHL and MLB seasons and then expired. Its sad that they just had a 15 dollar rate increase, and got rid of pretty much the only reason i have the service.

 

I'll try hulu live, but have heard nothing but bad things about it. I really don't want to go back to cable, but it may be the only option left.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

youtube TV dropped all fox sports regional networks effective today. Seems like the deal they reached earlier this year was just to cover the NBA, NHL and MLB seasons and then expired. Its sad that they just had a 15 dollar rate increase, and got rid of pretty much the only reason i have the service.

 

I'll try hulu live, but have heard nothing but bad things about it. I really don't want to go back to cable, but it may be the only option left.

 

I've been using Hulu Live TV all summer, and it is much improved over what they were putting out last year. Very few complaints this time around.

[jerichoholicninja]

Seems like all these streaming services are going the way of cable companies with price increases and limited selection.

[TURBO]

Seems like all these streaming services are going the way of cable companies with price increases and limited selection.

 

Yup, all fun and games at first, now that things are settling, they'll end up not being as great of a value as most anticipated.

 

I have stuck with cable all this time, and though it costs more, I have no complaints with service or channel offerings.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Seems like all these streaming services are going the way of cable companies with price increases and limited selection.

 

Yup, all fun and games at first, now that things are settling, they'll end up not being as great of a value as most anticipated.

 

I have stuck with cable all this time, and though it costs more, I have no complaints with service or channel offerings.

 

The issue is that not everyone, mainly those who live in rural areas, has access to cable television (raises hand). And cable companies aren't going out of their way to provide access to rural areas, because the overhead doesn't justify the increase in infrastructure investments. So what I'm left with is satellite television or streaming services, and my options with satellite are basically AT&T TV (DirecTV) if I want FS Wisconsin.

[madbad2000]

I am very glad that I ripped the bandaid off and got rid of cable and didn't pick up a dedicated streaming service. I cut my screen time back immensely without any regrets. I have netflix free with my cell phone plan, im a prime member so get video included and watch some free YouTube videos when i want some time killer. My wife and I were talking last week and our TV hasn't been turned on since the beginning of June and used sparingly prior to that. Lots more time with my young children, more physical activities outside and more work done around the house. Gives me time to do other things too like learn a language and piano. I think I always had this feeling like I was going to miss something if I didn't watch all the shows and talk about it at work around the water cooler. Very glad to be trying some new things.

[CheezWizHed]

I cut the cord years ago and haven't missed it either. We do watch TV every night, but not normally until later in the evening.

 

I have Prime and Hulu (free from phone plan). I get an MLB and NFL replay subscriptions (about $200/year). We watch a few NBA games and normally add Sling for the playoffs, then drop it again. Plus, I have TIVO for OTA programs. My smart TVs also have other misc apps like TubiTV and Roku that has commercial driven free content. Thus, I still have way more than I need.

 

More recently, I deleted all the games from my phone and started focusing on my guitar playing.

[Samurai Bucky]

We recently got a new iPhone and can receive one year of Apple TV. We already subscribe to Disney, Netflix, YoutubeTV and Prime (via various children, etc.). Is AppleTV a good service?

[SeaBass]

We recently got a new iPhone and can receive one year of Apple TV. We already subscribe to Disney, Netflix, YoutubeTV and Prime (via various children, etc.). Is AppleTV a good service?

I have a free year subscription to it for the same reason. It's a newer service so there's not a ton of original content yet.

 

When scrolling the list of their included content I did see a fair amount of children's shows, I don't have kids so I didn't study them closely but there was one Charlie Brown special on there (The Great Pumpkin). There was also a Fraggle Rock show. Again, I didn't look that close.

 

I've only watched one Apple TV+ original on it so far, Greyhound starring Tom Hanks, it's a WW2 movie where Hanks is a US captain on a destroyer escorting merchant supply ships across the Atlantic to protect them from German U-boats that are trying to sink them. It was a good solid movie I'd say 3.5 stars out of 5. Good action, perhaps a little light on character development outside of Hanks', it's pretty clear his role is where 99% of the focus went (which is understandable, he's Tom friggin Hanks after all) and the side characters remain fairly unexplored and two dimensional.

 

Otherwise it's similar to Amazon Prime. Some content is included for free with the subscription but you can also rent or buy movies.

 

I wouldn't pay for it because it's nowhere near as robust as Netflix or Amazon Prime at this point but since it's free there's no harm. It's easy enough to cancel so that you don't get charged when the year expires. If you don't even want to go that far and just skip the free trial you probably aren't missing much.