$69.99 for AT&T 1gb connection - was $49.99 for 12 months I think, which was a save deal at the time as I was cancelling mobile phones at the same time. The only competition is a local provider who we had when we first moved over and they were not very good at all. I think they also charge the same now for a slower connection speed.

You should ask them "how much reduction if I drop TV completely?"
If they mention a figure, then you say "do that then." Either the message finally gets through or you do actually get a reduction

I should’ve thought of that

For many years we got completely free internet access from the state, as I was a librarian. So I think I’m still resistant to the idea of having to pay for it. (The state actually had a monopoly of providing it in the early days, as no commercial providers were interested.)

I feel the same with blackberries. Picked free over the fields as a child and by the bucket-load on the Bristol-Bath cycle path and here I have to buy them.

Mind you they're from Mexico and huge with no rejects.

We are fortunate, we have a blackberry patch. Mind you, over the years it’s got smaller and smaller as my wife prefers lawn to brambles. They are ripe here (northern NY) in July, whereas in England it’s an early autumn crop. This year we had so many we froze pounds of them, I believe there’s still some in the freezer.

Comcast xfinity internet only 600Mbps $65 per month including modem fee (previous two modems got fried a week apart by nearby lightening strikes last summer. The second was rented from xfinity and replaced no questions). Plus a digital antenna to pick up the superbowl!

WOW! is $90 per month for 500/50 including modem hire. Spectrum is dearer for similar speeds and worse service locally.

We'd love to get FiOS, but we are several blocks from the nearest connection point.

The only thing that would piss me off more than the ridiculous cost of internet access (or the cost of cell phone plans) is having to pay HOA fees. When we moved 16 months ago, we actually had to rule out some nice houses as both of us refused to get involved with a HOA.

Spectrum has a 100mbs down/10mbs up plan for $10.00 a month for seniors. The router is an additional $10 bucks a month, I have it. You can buy your own router if you don't prefer perpetual leasing. The router that includes wireless access might be higher than $10. I'm still using an Apple airport to create my home wireless network.

$60 for gigabit with AT&T

I am 55 yo. Am I a senior.? I have my own modem I do not need the free one I currently have. Please may I change from $18 to $10 a month for 2.5x speed! (& wtf is apple airport.? Do I need to know?)

This has got me checking what I have, and what I can get.
I am going to upgrade from 70mbps to 300mbps, and I will save $35.00, from $100.00 down to $65.00

We’ve been getting promotions for T Mobile Home Internet. Curiously, they have been offering $50 per month.

Don't know if 55 is a senior or not to Spectrum. Apple got out of the home wireless business a couple of years ago, but here's a link.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AirPort_Time_Capsule

Basically you run an ethernet cable from the router to this and it creates your home wireless network. It's really easy to set up if you have any Apple products.

Did they say if this was a 'package' or 'promotion' or whatever? Usually, Comcast will offer these deals for '1 year' and then, if you don't actively re-negotiate, they will bump you up in price without any further warning. As long as you don't mind fussing with them every year or so, this is not a terrible state of affairs but it is something you'll need to keep an eye on. But what you may have found is that you were on some legacy rate that was appropriate a few years ago, but has been reduced as the infrastructure has been improved ... but they never told you about it. Calling and verifying things once a year is definitely not a bad idea for a number of reasons.

The biggest hassle in terms of getting faster rates is that it often requires equipment upgrades, and those aren't always seamless activities. We needed new equipment in California recently, and the latest device they gave us (a combined modem/router/wifi access point) has a noisy fan which drives me crazy! In Arizona, I had a tech out troubleshooting an issue; he had to install an amplifier at the main cable box to boost the signal at the main TV outlet. I don't recall now if he said I still had the older 'RG59' coax cable or not (RG6 is the current standard). Basically, faster speeds require better infrastructure all round.

As an aside, when I lowered my bandwidth last year from around 100 to 50mbps, in order to save money, I didn't notice any difference in my viewing experience. A typical show on Netflix needs about 5Mbps for standard quality content, or 25 Mbps for 4K ultra content (which I don't pay for). So even 25 Mbps is 'good enough', unless you have multiple people in your household who are concurrently watching streaming content.