Getting off the cable-internet habit.

December 16, 2009 9:56 AM

I'm thinking about canceling my Comcast internet and TV service. To fulfill my internet needs I would switch from my current last-gen handset to a smart phone with a data plan. What should I consider before I make this move?

There are a few reasons that I want to make this move:

1) I hate Comcast (I've posted about it in AskMeFi before, conincidentally) because of their business practices and customer service.

2) An extra $120 dollars a month (minus the cost of the data plan) would be pretty great for my finances, and allow me to save more money for grad school.

3) I've recently found myself wasting tons of time just randomly clicking back and forth between different sites online - at the expense of doing more productive things. I'd like to see how my life changes without that temptation there.

I work around computers all day, and can access my email and various social sites without affecting my job performance - so that's one source of internet access. I figure that a smart phone gets me into my email account and facebook at home.

I'm interested in hearing about anyone else who has made this switch, and anything I should consider before I try it. I'd also be interested in opinions on the best data plan (I'd be spending most of my time in the mid-Atlantic region).

Also, would it be possible to turn my phone into a 3G (or 4G) modem to use with my netbook and tower?

I have a feeling that if I do switch, and then decide to go back, Comcast will be charging me some ridiculous 'unhooking' and 'rehooking' fee for my efforts.

posted by codacorolla to Work & Money (15 answers total)

There are a few tips and tricks on this website
http://www.deadcable.com/
as far as getting rid of the tv part.

For the broadband aspect, be aware that all the carriers now
have capped broadband plans. Usually around 5GB.
If you exceed this quota, things get pretty expensive.

Furthermore cellphone carriers have a bit of a history dropping
(firing) customers who use their mobile broadband plan too heavy.
I know it sounds crazy but it is the state of the market now.

Your connection on a mobile plan, will be significantly slower than what you
should be used to with a cable connection.
posted by digividal at 10:14 AM on December 16, 2009

Comcast would be so goddamn happy to have you back that you can just tell them you don't want to pay any extra fees and they'll waive them. They will almost certainly offer you 50% off when you try to cancel. Expect to be on the phone for awhile convincing them that yes, you really DO want to cancel.

Make sure you have productive activities in place, or you'll just be tempted to find another way to waste time.
posted by desjardins at 10:23 AM on December 16, 2009 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I do have options in terms of free public WiFi. If (for example a game is released on Steam that I want) I can take my laptop there, get the install file, pop it onto my 16 gig SD card, and then transfer to my gaming rig. The idea of phone-as-modem would be for certain sites that don't show up well on a mobile device, but that I don't want to wait to access at work.
posted by codacorolla at 10:25 AM on December 16, 2009

It's possible to use your phone as like a modem for your computers; search for "tethering". But each mobile carrier either forbids tethering, or charges extra for it. (That doesn't stop a lot of people from doing it anyway.) Also, you'll want to be careful of exceeding bandwidth caps even on supposedly "unlimited" plans (don't do a lot of video or music downloading/streaming).
posted by mbrubeck at 10:39 AM on December 16, 2009

Comcast, as much as they do suck, doesn't tend to charge fees for either disconnecting or connecting their internet service. Early termination fees haven't really been that popular in the basic cable and broadband markets to the degree that they have with wireless carriers. So if you're looking to avoid stupid, arbitrary, excessive fees, Comcast is probably the place to stay.

The thing with wireless broadband is that compared to even a low-end hard-wire plan, it's as slow as molasses running uphill in January. We're talking 2Mbps, 3Mbps tops. If you're lucky. Depending on your location, neighborhood, the construction of your house, and the phase of the moon, you might be lucky to be 750kbps. Compare with Comcast, which I don't think offers a plan much lower than 6Mbps, and Verizon FiOS, which runs around 15Mbps.

You're also going to get either 1) a traffic cap, or 2) a downright punitive pricing structure. Quite possibly both. Verizon's 5GB/month plan is like $30. That's next to nothing unless all you use it for is email, which makes it less a "broadband" plan than an "email" plan. I routinely go through twice that. You want to do any streaming video, and you're going to pay through the nose. Something like Steam is just going to rape your wallet.

Look, the reason to get wireless broadband is because it's wireless. The customer service isn't much better than Comcast, the cellular carriers customer service practices tend to be a lot worse,* and getting the same kind of connectivity is prohibitively expensive. Switch ISPs if you must, but at this point, replacing your wired ISP with a wireless one just doesn't make any sense, from a user experience or financial perspective.

*I worked for the FCC in 2008. The agency was royally pissed at the cellular carriers for a wide range of abusive behaviors, particularly early termination fees, but more or less okay with the cable industry, aside from the perpetual hobby-horse of a la carte cable. I attended more than one hearing where the commissioners were on the verge of tearing the Verizon/AT&T reps a new one while the Comcast/TimeWarner reps were smelling like roses. Comcast ain't got nuthin' on the cell carriers in terms of charging too much for too little and screwing you with fees.
posted by valkyryn at 10:47 AM on December 16, 2009 [2 favorites]

My upstairs neighbor share their internet with me. It's shared between six other people but none of use do torrents so it's never slow for me. Downside: a few times I've had to go upstairs and ask them to reset the wireless router. Upside: I pay $8/month.

I'd recommend doing something like that if geographics and logistics allow, over replacing your connection entirely with a wireless one.
posted by 6550 at 11:13 AM on December 16, 2009

one thing you might want to consider: if your internet needs are basic (i.e. you're not all the time downloading huge files and whatnot), you can often get basic DSL service fairly cheap. AT&T, for example, offers "DSL Lite" (768kbit) for $20/mo (or no-phone 1.5Mbit DSL for $38). this may be cheaper than adding tethering to a cell phone plan, depending on who you are and what you've bought, and it's cheaper than normal 6-8Mbit no-TV Comcast (which runs $55 in Memphis). it's gonna take a while to download a game from Steam on one of them, but at least you won't have to hang out in a coffeeshop or library for an hour babysitting your laptop while you do it. I'm not sure how this would help #3 on your list, though, other than the slowness might dissuade you from using it as much.

also, if you're looking at a smartphone with a good Web experience (say, iPhone, Palm Pre, Android, etc.) read up before you buy on how tethering works on it specifically before you put money down and expect it. for example, you really can't do it on an iPhone, unless you're willing to jailbreak it.
posted by mrg at 11:32 AM on December 16, 2009

Response by poster: Part of my problem is that, due to my location, Comcast is basically it in terms of internet or Cable TV access. Shitty, I know, but an unfortunate reality.
posted by codacorolla at 11:44 AM on December 16, 2009

Best answer: A word of warning: AT&T might change their pay scale, due to about 3% of smart-phone customers driving 40% of data traffic. Fake Steve Jobs is calling for iPhone users to overwhelm the AT&T data network (via). I think the retaliation is a bit weird, but the data plan cost discussion might get noisy following this Friday.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:48 AM on December 16, 2009

Best answer: I've been using my iPhone for tethering my laptop for a couple of months now, I spend about 45 minutes/day surfing the web on the bus, and I haven't exceed 300MB/month yet. So tethering is definately an option as long as you aren't downloading big files, or doing much streaming*

* note: I'm in Canada where tether is enabled and free on iPhone data plans. I have a 5GB cap.
posted by blue_beetle at 12:26 PM on December 16, 2009

Best answer: Are you playing the discount game with Comcast? If you aren't, you should be. Call them and ask for a discount. Literally, tell them your bill is too high and, since you always pay on time, you want a reason to stay with Comcast instead of switching to another provider (the fact that there isn't another provider in your area is irrelevant). Comcast will give you 6 months at a discounted rate before your plan reverts to the regular price. After 6 months at the non-discounted price, you again qualify for a discount. That's the discount game. 6 months on, 6 months off. They, of course, don't tell you you can do this.

Is it a hassle to call them every year to negotiate a new 6 month discount? Sure.... but it's worth a couple hundred bucks, so why not?

I literally have it set in my calendar to call them every year for a new 6 month discount.
posted by 2oh1 at 1:45 PM on December 16, 2009

Response by poster: It's good to know about caps, but I have a very good place that I can park my netbook for downloads where the owners of the connection barely use it and don't care if I'm over every once in a while.

It may be an issue with browsing youtube (one of unfortunate pass-times), but maybe cutting down on random video browsing will be a good thing.

It is at least comforting to know that Comcast won't dick me around based on disconnecting/reconnecting my account.

As someone mentioned above, part of this is also seeing just how different my life will be without constant, fast access to the internet (I'm hoping it will be more book and exercise-filled, but we shall see).

I'm going to leave the question open for a little bit longer, and I appreciate everyone's contributions so far.
posted by codacorolla at 1:57 PM on December 16, 2009

The few times that I've had a smart phone with a data plan and no internet at home have been very frustrating.
posted by gregr at 2:35 PM on December 16, 2009

If you are in the US on AT&T, I'd recommend getting a non-AT&T unlocked smartphone so that you can pay the lower $15/month plan for internet.
posted by palionex at 3:03 PM on December 16, 2009

Speaking of asking Comcast to lower your bill... THIS was linked to on Lifehacker today. It basically says what I said above - if you want your bill lowered, ask.

Cheers!
posted by 2oh1 at 10:25 PM on December 16, 2009