It’s the part of cord cutting people talk about the least—internet service. Sure you can cut cable and shed yourself of your overpriced bundle of channels, but odds are, you’re going to still need internet service. With 75 million people subscribing to Netflix (that’s not even counting all of those who bum passwords from their friends), there’s pretty much no way around it. You need internet service to stream.
And for most people, that means going back to the cable company you just cut ties with and making a deal with the devil, so to speak.
You can probably guess what comes next. The spurned cable company will gladly take you back, but not without changing up the deal. Sure, they’ll give you standalone internet service, but it will come at a price.
“I currently have the ATT Uverse package, and I'm cutting the TV and phone services,” one of my CutCableToday.com readers wrote to me. “They now want to increase my internet cost from $14.95 per month to $47 per month!”
So what’s a cord cutter to do? Do you have to just bite the bullet and pay? Not necessarily.
When you cut the cord, the first thing the cable company will try to do is push you to upgrade your internet speeds. Comcast’s retention guide instructs reps to push for it if customers insist on cutting cable. Verizon has been caught telling customers they need faster internet to make Netflix run more smoothly. But do you really need faster internet to stream when you cut the cord?
Not likely. (There’s a reason cable companies are the least liked of any US industry.) In general, you need about 5 Mbps to stream Netflix and similar services in decent quality. Of course, if you plan on doing anything else online while you’re streaming, you’ll need some wiggle room. And if you want to stream on more than one device at a time, you should figure you need 5 Mbps per stream.
But if Verizon is trying to convince you to go from 50 Mbps to 100 Mbps, don’t do it. Think about how many people you have in your home that will be streaming and estimate your speed needs. Odds are, you’ll be able to get by with much slower internet than what they’re trying to push on you. And remember, if you find out you need faster internet, you can always upgrade later.
Now, full disclosure, you’re still going to pay a bit more for internet service if it’s not bundled into a package with TV and home phone. However, you’ll still save plenty once it’s all said and done. You also have to remember that those bundled prices won’t last forever—the promo will run out, and you’re price will undoubtedly rise.
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