3 ms·

I think cell phones, not streaming, replaced cable, as far as monthly bills. Home Internet replaced the home phone bill, cell phones replaced the cable bill. I

by asark 7y ago

I think cell phones, not streaming, replaced cable, as far as monthly bills. Home Internet replaced the home phone bill, cell phones replaced the cable bill. I bet lots of households are north of $200/mo between the two, which is probably close to (somewhat higher than—inflation, after all, plus we may just be spending a little more on this stuff) what phone + cable/satellite used to run for the some sorts of households. A streaming subscription or two's nothing next to those, though tack a couple on top and we are probably paying more, inflation adjusted, for this stuff than we used to. It's cell phones that're really soaking up the dollars, though. We've got about the worst you can get and still have any data (very low data limit) and it's still almost $100 for two lines, and we own both our phones outright so aren't paying the monthly add-on for a phone payment.

fwip 7y ago
I think cell phones eliminated the home phone line for most people, not the internet. Edit: I recommend US mobile or Ting for cheap phone plans. My wife and I pay ~$55 combined monthly on Ting.
- asark 7y ago
  > I think cell phones eliminated the home phone line for most people, not the internet. Right, in functionality, but if you think in terms of a kind of slot for bills, I think home Internet fits close into where the phone bill used to (think back when phone bills were kinda high, especially if you wanted caller ID and voicemail and such, once those came around, or long distance) while cell phones tend to be a little higher and fit roughly where cable/satellite used to, as far as proportion of telecom bill goes. > Edit: I recommend US mobile or Ting for cheap phone plans. My wife and I pay ~$55 combined monthly on Ting. Yeah, probably time for us to shop around again. We're on T-Mobile, which was easily the cheapest option from the big carriers at the time we picked it. We like that we still get (much slower) Internet service if we hit our tiny cap, which we can do by accidentally watching youtube for a few minutes with the wifi off. But maybe we should look at re-sellers. Seems crazy that they could be cheaper than going first-party, but I guess maybe they are, somehow. [EDIT] is that $55 with taxes and fees and such? I remember last time I looked into this, maybe a year ago, what I kept running into was that it looked like I'd save a lot looking at sales' version of the figures, but when it came time to get serious about paying and those things got added in it was no savings, or maybe just single digit $/mo so not really worth a switch.
  - fwip 7y ago
    Looking at my bank account statements, it looks like it was $42 for the last two months, and $52 for the two months before that, so that's after taxes/fees. It varies based on usage, and we're fairly light on data, so you might see higher numbers. (No cap, but if you use more you get billed more.)
ramraj07 7y ago
It can be argued very easily that the combination of home internet and cell phones is 2-3x more valuable to any houseold today than cable + phone was decades ago.
maimeowmeow 7y ago
people have been paying for cell phones for a while though. We used to pay about 30 a line for just a certain amount of talk minutes, but now we have cricket, and its only 20 a line with 5 gb of 4g. Granted with tmobile I had enough discounts for unlimited data for around 30 a line.

by asark 7y ago

fwip 7y ago

I think cell phones eliminated the home phone line for most people, not the internet. Edit: I recommend US mobile or Ting for cheap phone plans. My wife and I pay ~$55 combined monthly on Ting.

asark 7y ago
> I think cell phones eliminated the home phone line for most people, not the internet. Right, in functionality, but if you think in terms of a kind of slot for bills, I think home Internet fits close into where the phone bill used to (think back when phone bills were kinda high, especially if you wanted caller ID and voicemail and such, once those came around, or long distance) while cell phones tend to be a little higher and fit roughly where cable/satellite used to, as far as proportion of telecom bill goes. > Edit: I recommend US mobile or Ting for cheap phone plans. My wife and I pay ~$55 combined monthly on Ting. Yeah, probably time for us to shop around again. We're on T-Mobile, which was easily the cheapest option from the big carriers at the time we picked it. We like that we still get (much slower) Internet service if we hit our tiny cap, which we can do by accidentally watching youtube for a few minutes with the wifi off. But maybe we should look at re-sellers. Seems crazy that they could be cheaper than going first-party, but I guess maybe they are, somehow. [EDIT] is that $55 with taxes and fees and such? I remember last time I looked into this, maybe a year ago, what I kept running into was that it looked like I'd save a lot looking at sales' version of the figures, but when it came time to get serious about paying and those things got added in it was no savings, or maybe just single digit $/mo so not really worth a switch.
- fwip 7y ago
  Looking at my bank account statements, it looks like it was $42 for the last two months, and $52 for the two months before that, so that's after taxes/fees. It varies based on usage, and we're fairly light on data, so you might see higher numbers. (No cap, but if you use more you get billed more.)

ramraj07 7y ago

It can be argued very easily that the combination of home internet and cell phones is 2-3x more valuable to any houseold today than cable + phone was decades ago.

maimeowmeow 7y ago

people have been paying for cell phones for a while though. We used to pay about 30 a line for just a certain amount of talk minutes, but now we have cricket, and its only 20 a line with 5 gb of 4g. Granted with tmobile I had enough discounts for unlimited data for around 30 a line.