Consumer Tech for December

Saving Money on Your Phone, Internet and TV Bill

And holiday gift choices

San Diego, California—Now that you’ve emptied your bank account for those Christmas and Hanukah gifts, the next sticker shock will be when your trusty service provider raises your TV, phone and Internet bill.  But unlike the new Tablet, HDTV, or remote control airplane you just purchased, there’s very rarely a sale from your service provider.

However, a little chink in the service provider impenetrable wall has occurred. The previous monopoly that Cablevision, Comcast, and Time Warner held has been altered. The iron hold  has been softened by the emergence of those phone guys from AT@T and Verizon. But these companies,  usually better liked than the dreaded cable companies,  are also facing strong competition from the cable companies as they move their fiber to the home or fiber to the curb technology right in your backyard.

A retired banker I know who hates the cable and phone companies but lives in an area in New England that has no service competition at all, and poor mobile phone service because it’s so isolated, studied her options after getting a 35% raise in her bill from Cablevision for her TV, phone and Internet and then a 20% increase from Verizon on her mobile phone bill, despite very sporadic service.

She looked favorably at using Sling Box from her family’s apartment in New York city to give her all the TV stations her family was paying for including HBO, Showtime and the sports channels, but of course that would still require Internet access. She thought about Skype and OOvoo and Fring for making almost free phone calls and even video calls using the similar service from Google and AOL, but those, too, require Internet.  Even the $20 a year Magic Jack phone service, that now has improved quality, also needs an Internet connection.

The banker couldn’t use DirecTV or Dish network as a replacement for her TV service as her hilly forest like condo area has too many trees.

So what did she do to reduce her ever rising phone Internet, TV and mobile bill? She decided to notify her service provider (Cablevision) that she didn’t want any services. After being quizzed by the marketing department…instead of saying that she couldn’t afford the services, she said that with AT@T UVerse and Verizon FIOS in the area she could get a much better deal by at least $40 a month in savings. She was switched to the aptly named “Termination” department and after repeating her story, she was immediately given a new one year deal with free HBO for an amazing $50 less a month for all three services. But here’s the kicker: After her family in NYC heard what her new bill from Cablevision was, they called Time Warner and threatened to end their three in one service and, voila, they too got a reduced bill. Threatening to leave really works!

Cancels Mobile contract and winds up saving money!

My friend lowered her mobile phone bill without signing up for another two years the way AT@T and Verizon make you do. And she still got a new Smart phone for a cheaper price than the Verizon and AT@T deals. How’d she do that?

She started using Sprint’s no contract Boost Mobile (she could have used their Virgin Mobile partner, too) and got a  new LG Smart phone and a $50 a month all you can call and all you can surf deal that if she continues to pay her bill on time will actually drop $5 a month down to $40 after six months. She is presently trying out a brand new mobile phone model that Boost offers called the ZTE Warp. The Warp, a relatively new brand to North America, gives the bigger name Smart phone makers a run for their money. With a $200 price tag, it’s about half what some other Smart phones cost yet contains most  of the top features commonly found in HTC, Samsung, Motorola, and LG Android models. If she doesn’t like this model she simply returns it after a month and picks another brand.

Other carriers that offer no contract cancel at any time without a penalty monthly charge include Metro PCS, T-Mobile Prepaid and many regional carriers. Make sure you try to use the phones when you travel too as some of the regional carriers and even the prepaid ones from Verizon and AT@T don’t always work well. Also, make sure that the hardware you buy, whether a top of the line HTC or the fading yet still popular Blackberry, comes with the no contract deal and has the features you want.

Bytes and Pieces: The ZTE Warp, a no contract hardware offer from Spring,  after some extensive tests,  turns out to be a best in class pick for 3G phones. Its main competition at that price is the LG Revolution, also a great pick for under $250 (with contract) . The Revolution does have 4G capabilities with its Verizon Service, but its super fast speed didn’t work all over the country, no matter what Verizon claimed.

However, the LG Revolution is an underrated mobile phone despite being saddled with a Bing search engine browser, arguably the worst browser on a phone, Tablet, PC or any where. You can override the Bing browser by making Google or any other search engine the default engine on the Droid browser, also on the main Apps page of the phone.

If you have decided to purchase an iPad from the Apple store and they give you a chance to opt for a 3G model or a 3G add-on model ,  instead of a more affordable Wi-Fi model, remember to choose the specific  service provider like Verizon or AT@T, carefully. Some service providers are offering a discount to your main mobile bill with the addition of a Tablet to your cadre of mobile devices….some are not!