After years of hearing my parents complain about their sky-high cable bills, I finally had enough — they were going to cut the cord, whether they felt up to it or not. Of course, they’ve got to help me throughout the entire transition from cable, and my colleagues here at Tom’s Guide have given me all the info on the best cable TV alternatives, will my parents ever need one.
As you can imagine, giving up more than 20 years of cable service came with concerns. Not only did their flagship TV lack a built-in smart TV platform, the cable service also provided Wi-Fi in their homes. And Optimum, like some other major service providers, makes it difficult to pay for your home Internet connection independently of your cable package.
It took a lot of persuasion and a bit of metaphorical hand-holding, but my parents finally called it quits on Optimum. From there, their first order of business was to put their home back online. As a fan of Verizon’s internet service in my own apartment, I looked up the Verizon Internet Gateway, which is basically a giant hotspot for your home. With autopay enabled, Verizon’s LTE home service came down to $25 per month.
My parents were paying $195 a month for cable and internet, so they saw big savings right away. When the Internet Gateway device arrived in the mail a few days later, I set it up with the Verizon mobile app within the hour—no home service appointment required.
Cut the cord with the help of the Fire TV Cube
Once you’ve created the Verizon Internet Gateway, it’s time to convert your old Sharp TV into a Smart TV. I enlisted the Amazon Fire TV Cube, one of the best streaming devices around. It also doubles as an Alexa smart speaker.
If you follow my smart home series, you may know that my parents’ house is equipped with more than a dozen smart home appliances. I’ll save the story of pairing them all with the new Wi-Fi for another time.
Setting up the Fire TV Cube was almost as simple as plugging in the power and the HDMI cords. I got on WI-Fi, logged in with our family’s shared Amazon Prime credentials and began installing streaming apps to use.
Of course, Amazon Prime Video comes built in, but we also subscribe to Netflix and Hulu, so I download those apps to the Cube as well. I’ve also installed some of the better streaming services that don’t treat account sharing as a criminal offense, which I won’t mention because my parents take great pleasure in not paying for as many services as they can now access, and I don’t. want to pick up those services. Don’t act like you don’t either.
Skip cable replacement (for now)
For a full week now, my parents have had a dozen or so streaming apps to watch shows, movies, and other content on demand. I’ve given them my apartment’s Verizon cable login to watch the Grammys on CBS, but that’s the only request to get the cable experience they want. They are content with all the things they can stream without the alternative cable service. If we somehow had to give up on account login sharing, well, Paramount Plus brings CBS straight at its top tier.
However, I don’t think they want to go without live TV forever. Fortunately, the best cable TV alternatives, such as Sling TV, can be managed from month to month. Sling offers the cheapest base package price ($40 per month) of any service with any network channels, and that will still keep their monthly savings at over $100 compared to before the cord was cut.
Although reluctant at first, my parents are thrilled with their new setup. They are even trying to convince our neighbors to take up the same momentum. We’ll see how long they’ll be happy without live TV, but for now, cable is being kicked to the curb with no sign of being welcomed back to my parents’ house.
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