High-speed Wi-Fi and smartphones have rendered redundant many of the ‘legacy’ services, such as telephones, pay TV, home monitoring and other services. If you are watching most of your video content on streaming services, it certainly makes sense not to pay for a TV package, similarly if most of your talking and chatting is on the smartphone, why pay for a telephone line.
With options growing by the day, it is no surprise that ‘cord cutting’ is becoming increasingly popular among different age groups. Here are some of the services you can replace with newer technology.
Cut cable and satellite television: TV packages can get costly, but fortunately there are many streaming services (and more to come) that use your existing Internet connection to stream to your TV, tablet, laptop, smartphone, or smart display such as an Amazon Echo Show or Google Nest Hub.
If you have a smart TV, it should already have built-in apps for popular services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and YouTube, and in many cases, the ability to add more, including new entrants, like Disney+ and Apple TV+.
Alternatively, there are many products that can turn a regular TV into a smart TV, such as Roku (from $29), Google Chromecast (from $35), Amazon Fire TV Stick (from $39), and Apple TV (from $149).
While streaming services are called an over-the-top (OTT) solution, TV lovers can also opt for an over-the-air (OTA) option, by picking up an indoor or outdoor antenna. Depending on where you live, you might find many high-quality television stations you can watch for free.
Cut the landline: Of course, you know smartphones can replace landlines, but here are a few more additional considerations:
Some (but not all) smart displays such as the Google Nest Hub let you make free hands-free video calls to others. But all of them let you make free phone calls over Wi-Fi. Make free audio calls between Amazon smart speakers, such as the Echo Dot, or even call any 10-digit North American landline or mobile phone, for free over Wi-Fi.
If you already have Wi-Fi at home, you can also use free voice and video calling services, too, such as Skype, FaceTime, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Google Duo, and many others. In most cases, both the caller and recipient need to use the same service. Apps like TextNow also give you a free phone number to call and text from.
Cut dedicated home alarm systems: Many people pay a hefty fee each month for home alarm monitoring system. You can skip paying these fees by buying a smart speaker or display with home monitoring.
If you own a Google smart speaker or display, the optional Nest Aware service, which now includes all cameras, speakers and displays in your home for one price, has an interesting opt-in feature. Should your Nest Mini, or other Nest speaker or display hear a smoke or carbon monoxide alarm, it could immediately send an alert to your phone. You then have the option to hear the audio clip or listen live to confirm the alarm, and even call 9-1-1 emergency services closest to your home. even if you are away.
Cut the Wi-Fi: Finally, with 4G LTE cellular speeds pretty fast, and 5G around the corner, another round of cord-cutting to consider may be your home Wi-Fi. Provided, your cellular carrier can offer comparable speeds to your home Internet, and it is not too much to pay for an unlimited plan. In which case, you can ditch a wireless plan.
Some cellular providers sell or rent a cellular modem, but expect a new round of cord-cutting to truly take off if 5G truly lives up to the hype.
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