On January 1st I woke early, made a pot of coffee, and sat down to watch the Sunday morning punditry. In general, this is not a good idea as it often leads to shouting and throwing things at the television, which tends to wake my wife and scare the cat, but it’s a hard habit to break.
First up, as always, was ABC’s “This Week with” … whomever they got for that week … George … Martha … Krusty the Clown. I turned the television on, punched in Channel 4, and was presented with a black-bordered message from Frontier Communications, our cable provider. It informed me that the distributor of our local ABC affiliate was being a pooter and wouldn’t negotiate a “reasonable rate” for their programming and, since Frontier “won’t settle for less than fair pricing for our customers,” they chose instead to deprive us of the ABC channels altogether.
It was the last straw.
Frontier Communications — our internet, land-line, and cable provider — has never been easy to deal with and I’ve had a hate on them for some time, now. I’m not unique in that, to be sure — cable companies rate down there with used-car salesfolk and Congress — but in the past year or so, Frontier has charged us for DVRs/STBs we don’t have, rolled out an unannounced software upgrade that completely dumped my DVR recording line-up, supplied us with an outdated router that required me to reboot the whole house on a regular basis, and ratcheted up the charges on our bill by a few bucks every month. With all this, waking up to find one of the major networks blocked from my lineup tipped my Frustration Coefficient from “seriously irked” into “mad as hell.”
I mean, what did Frontier expect me to do? Call ABC? Call the distributor? I’m the customer. I don’t work for them. I’m paying money for a service which, due to their inept negotiation skills, is now incomplete. And will I get a rebate? Don’t make me laugh.
I didn’t even bother contacting Frontier. Past experience has taught me that such action is like talking to the frakking borg. Futile. Doing nothing, however, was unacceptable. So I began to implement a plan that my wife and I had been considering for some time.
Within a few days, we had a Roku box in our house. I set it up and, after living with it for a week, we’re about ready for the next step. In a few days, we’ll have a digital antenna and some security cameras. These items will allow us to completely drop our cable service and our land-line. In time, we’ll probably find a new ISP also, and will flip Frontier the bird as we drive off into our cable-free future.
From a consumer viewpoint, we are experiencing a major shift of paradigms:
- We can no longer think of entertainment in terms of networks, but rather as individual shows and apps. We won’t tune in ABC or NBC, we’ll tune in Hulu or Sling, Netflix or Amazon Prime.
- Almost all of our viewing will be on-demand, totally untethered from a broadcast schedule.
- Our television capability will no longer be tied to our home and TVs, but will now follow us anywhere, via our mobile devices.
- We will not have a land line; our house will not have a phone number.
- We will once more have a television antenna for local stations (though not, thankfully, an aerial on the roof).
We will be giving up some things, of course. The DVR will be missed. And as we move to a patchwork of subscriptions, I will miss the simplicity of a single-source provider. Undoubtedly, we’ll also miss some of our regular shows, or be unaware of new shows due to the lack of commercials.
But these are small things. Right now, I’m thinking of the money I’ll save by cutting my expenses by about $180 per month.
For younger readers, all of this may seem silly. You’re probably already cable-free, land-line-free, and internet/wifi/mobile phone-ready as you Pokemon through life. For me, it’s a new world and I will feel somewhat adrift without the familiar anchors I’ve come to rely upon for over half a century.
But it’s time. I have no more patience for companies that take a premium and provide only mediocrity. I’m tired of being taken for granted by corporations.
It’s time to take my power back, demand better, and kick the chumps to the curb.
k
Unraveling Time
Desert Wind
Ploughman's Son
Ploughman King
The Year the Cloud Fell
The Spirit of Thunder
Shadow of the Storm
The Cry of the Wind
Beneath a Wounded Sky
Cryptogenesis: A Memoir
Kurt R.A. Giambastiani 
[…] update you on my cable-cutting process soon, but for this week, here’s a look into the things that keep me up at night. Literally. […]
LikeLike
Great post!! Do you need a high-speed internet connection? I tried to cut off Comcast but as a photographer, I need to have good internet service (I know that is an oxymoron with Comcast). We did drop cable (except for the internet connection). We then ended up getting it back for $5 more a month. I wish you the best and I admire you!!
LikeLike
Being the movie hound I am, yes, we will need a broadband internet connection. Also, I work from home occasionally and have on-call duties, so a broadband connection is a necessity. I’ve been looking at providers and unfortunately Frontier is our best bet, the only other viable option for our area being Comcast. I know there are other, more high-tech solutions, but I want to simplify, not complicate. We’re well on the way, though. I’ll be posting a follow up soon.
LikeLike
As you know, we’re already fully internet based through wi-fi subscription. Frontier unfortunately, but down here (at least) its the cheapest.
I am curious about the “digital antenna”; so is Barb. Do share – here or via email.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, JC, you’re the one who got us thinking about the switch. When Frontier blocked ABC, that was the tipping point.
I posted some details on the digital antenna on a thread Barb posted, and plan for a follow-up here.
LikeLike
Interesting post, Kurt. Because we’re on the road, and because we’ve so far decided getting a satellite set-up in the RV isn’t worth it, we’ve been relying on whatever cable or antenna-capturing TV we can find. We rent a movie if we don’t have good TV and a Red Box is available, or we pick something off our shelf (we purchase various movies and collections of TV show seasons).
Do I get antsy if it looks like we might be someplace where I’ll miss a show I particularly enjoy? Yep. I love my shows like the next person. But that feeling also makes me realize how addictive some of that stuff can be.
The other thing we’ve discovered is how detrimental the 24-hour news cycle on FoxNews, CNN, and other outlets can be — when we don’t get them, I’m sure I’m happier, more optimistic. And when we get those channels again, we’re both surprised at how little has changed. Usually the pundits are chewing over the same stuff they’d been gnawing on when we last saw them.
I’ve become one of those believers in the theory that somewhere, somehow, the powers that be like a populace that is perpetually distracted and fearful.
It’ll be great to hear how this goes for you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ellen, your situation is unusual, indeed. And I will second your observation about mood and access to news. Once or twice a year, I go on a week-long “information fast” where I stay off the internet (as much as possible) and avoid all news programming. It’s a good reset for the old noggin. As for the pundits, maybe it’s the weirdness of this past year, but I really see them chewing over the same bits of gristle instead of reporting anything new, so their value to me has diminished greatly, of late.
LikeLike