Broadband Bailout

[mattdavis11]

Good grief. I you don't have the money, cut the service!

I remember when we first got it at home. It wasn't a money thing, it was service to our area, but we had libraries that had it for free. The entitlements have to stop.

I'm back to the antennae for local tv, it hasn't been bad. Sure, I missed some programs I once watched, but that was short lived. I don't miss them anymore.

Get a grip people, if it doesn't fit your budget, axe it.

[GH85Carrera]

Yep. I remember vividly being broke. Lots of macaroni and cheese, lots of rice and tater soup. I gave my grandmother my TV because I was busy working two jobs and never watched TV. When I got into computers dialup was all there was, and Bell owned everything, and technically to hook a modem to the phone line required a business line. No one did, and there are no phone police. I paid for my first modem with manual dialing and 300 baud to learn more about the world of computers.

It blows my mind that I went from 300 baud back then, to 960 Mb/sec download and 35 Mb per sec upload. The cable company calls it gigabit service, but they cheat as it never hits 1024 mb/sec speed. Still super fast service but my company pays for it for my business.

[Racerbvd]

When it was clear that my industry would be shut down last year, the 1st thing I did was cut premium TV.
Hell, I prefer the old show on late-night on METV better than most of the new crap.

[masraum]

I haven't had "cable" TV since at least 2014, but I think 2013.

There's a little stuff that's missed, but not much. We use Netflix streaming. I'll occasionally get a free month of hulu and then cancel.

[flipper35]

We had a local couple several years ago complaining that they were constantly broke but they had the highest speed internet they could get, 2 cell phones with unlimited data, tablets with data, and a $250 per month cable bill. You could not get them to trim any of that down. Well, walk to work then, it was only 6 or 8 blocks, and sell one of the cars. Sheesh, people have no sense of reality.

[flipper35]

We dropped cable/sat way back in 2007. Don't really miss it. We do have Discovery Plus and Disney Plus and Amazon Prime.

[onewhippedpuppy]

We live in a society where people think a brand new car, cell phone, cable TV, and internet service are essential to survival. Meanwhile I remember being young married, and poor with a newborn eating spaghetti with sauce and no meat, because the meat was too expensive. Still can’t stomach spaghetti to this day, even with meat!

[flipper35]

We bought a brand new car once, back in 2014. It was less than $2000 more than the cheap base models used on the lot that only had the 4 banger and no bluetooth and we wanted the 6 cylinder that was in the new car.

I guess the Cobra was "new" back in 1994, but that had to be assembled. It was far less expensive than a used one already assembled.

[oldE]

What is this TV of which you speak?
We got rid of the land line a few years ago as Bell was changing more for the line and the cel phone than for just two cels. Then last fall we had to replace the old cels and surprise! Two new ones with more airtime were cheaper still.
Since we're both retired we're thinking of getting rid of the old Mercedes. It is nice to have the flexibility from time to time, but not essential.

Best
Les

[flipper35]

Our landline is included with the internet. Our TV gets OTA and whatever we have on teh computer attached to it with our library of movies/TV shows.

We have the computer in this case.

[hbueno]

Is this what the tbread is about? https://www.fcc.gov/broadbandbenefit

Broadband is not cable TV altbough it's usually part of the bundle

I dumoed cable a few years ago but kept broadband. Working from home would be impossible without it. These days, internet access is a necessity, not a luxury.

[Neilk]

Originally Posted by hbueno

Is this what the tbread is about? https://www.fcc.gov/broadbandbenefit

Broadband is not cable TV altbough it's usually part of the bundle

I dumoed cable a few years ago but kept broadband. Working from home would be impossible without it. These days, internet access is a necessity, not a luxury.

Agreed.

Let's not make it any harder for low income kids to get an education. At least this benefit is to be used for a single purpose, to pay for broadband, and can't be abused or traded for non-essentials.

May as well throw this to PARF.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by flipper35

Our landline is included with the internet. Our TV gets OTA and whatever we have on teh computer attached to it with our library of movies/TV shows.

We have the computer in this case.

That's very nice. I like it.

[flipper35]

The wood is very quiet.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by hbueno

Is this what the tbread is about? https://www.fcc.gov/broadbandbenefit

Broadband is not cable TV altbough it's usually part of the bundle

I dumoed cable a few years ago but kept broadband. Working from home would be impossible without it. These days, internet access is a necessity, not a luxury.

That threw me off a bit at the beginning too.

These days, "broadband" is most commonly used to mean "high speed Internet access." But, technically, TV whether it be OTA or Cable is also broadband.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by Neilk

Let's not make it any harder for low income kids to get an education. At least this benefit is to be used for a single purpose, to pay for broadband, and can't be abused or traded for non-essentials.

I agree. This is one of those cases of providing government assistance that makes sense to me. I can argue both sides but the chance that this may actually help is a tangible to me.

How it is managed, how it sundowns is of course anther matter.

I pay $99 a month for 4G unlimited broadband on the farm and an additional $45 a month for satellite internet as a back up. Connectivity is essential in my life so I pay for an option should the primary go sneakers up.

My daughter gifts us Roku every year and I have the most basic DirecTV package there is at $45 per month.

With taxes, that is over $2400 a year for being connected, not an insignificant amount of money.

[flipper35]

Having internet for the kids is good, but for schoolwork you don't need Gb connections.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Just to play devils advocate there are also a number of public buildings like libraries that have free internet access.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

Just to play devils advocate there are also a number of public buildings like libraries that have free internet access.

I get it, 100%...like I said, I can argue both sides with equal import. McD's has free BB: I take an old Aunt of my wife's to McDonald's once a month for Saturday breakfast and the place looks like geriatric bingo on laptops. Beautiful sight.

In this case I am for trying to make it work. I know, I know. But I think, like very few other government programs, it may have merit, an actual ROI. I would prefer this happen at the State and County level.

[dad911]

Originally Posted by hbueno

Is this what the tbread is about? https://www.fcc.gov/broadbandbenefit
......

A household is eligible if a member of the household meets one of the criteria below:

Cool. Our "Household" is eligible.

I'm doing this all wrong. I'm going to shut down the business and search out 'free cheese' instead of working.