Internet Service Providers, known as ISP’s, are companies that own and maintain the infrastructure necessary to connect your home to the outside world in three major ways: TV, phone, and internet. This infrastructure includes the lower hung cables seen on utility poles, underground conduits, high performance routers and switches (located in those windowless buildings), and high bandwidth connections to other ISP’s and countries, including undersea fiber optic. There is a high cost associated to owning the infrastructure and the tens of thousands of employees needed to maintain and upgrade it. However, the industry is highly competitive, so special deals are run and this competition drives the price of the service down. Note I said service, not equipment…
The Contract ‘Package Deal’
ISP’s, like other companies that provide a service, require a contract. Most consumers do not know this, but you do NOT have to pay higher amounts after your ‘special’ package deal runs out in 1 to 2 years. Simply call your ISP when your deal is about to run out (or, if you’re like my family, you panic when you notice your bill is suddenly twice what it was last month because the deal expired, often followed by panic calling me and asking what to do). Have no fear – just call and ask for the current deals. Then, ask them to place you on that deal. Most of the time, they do this without any issue but if not, just threaten to leave, or call again and speak to someone different. But be polite – the customer service rep taking your call is an average person just like you and me, simply doing their job. I dislike when people call me with misdirected anger – I’m here to help you fix your printer, I didn’t cause it!
Stop Leasing! Use Your Own Equipment!
Another way to save money is to use your own equipment. Consumers think that the shiny white or black boxes provided to them with their ISP’s logo on them are their only option. This is just not true. I did a quick search and simple math revealed something shocking: You can save roughly $472 over 4 years by purchasing your own internet equipment. You can save double the savings if you also purchase your own TV equipment. This practice is called Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). You likely haven’t heard about it because ISP’s do allow you use their own equipment – but they certainly won’t advertise it because it is their easiest way of making money. They offer competitive internet packages, but they make up for it on the equipment lease. The worse part is that the device leased to you can usually be paid off around 8 months!
Charged for Using Your Own Equipment? Not anymore!
Maybe the one good thing about 2020 is that your ISP can no longer charge you fees for using your own equipment. Hopefully, most of you will have never heard about this before, but the few of you who do, good news! Your ISP, notoriously Frontier, said they will charge rental fees “whether you used it or not” (their words!). As of December 20, 2020, by power of the FCC it is illegal to charge customers for equipment they are not using. This is a win for those of you who used your own equipment but still had to pay fees, although usually smaller than the rental fee, for doing so!
“But my Set Top Box is Included”
While you will find a line item charge for the internet device (which I dive into below), there is no charge for the Set Top Box (STB), also called a DVR, for your TV. The price of this equipment rental is typically included in your TV package, however any additional TV’s will require a separate STB and these will show up as additional charges. However, you can get a credit for using your own main STB!
Ditch The All In One Device
That router/modem/switch combo device your ISP provides you is commonly referred to as an All In One, given it is combining separate network devices into one box. My first complaint is that these devices are not reliable or high performing, compared to using individual dedicated devices. These devices meet your internet speed to start, but every year or so they fail, or your ISP might double your speeds “for free”. This increase in speed sounds great, until you are contacted saying you need a new device to support these higher speeds. You swap the box at your local ISP store and probably don’t notice that the line item on your bill for the lease of that box is higher. Right now, the average cost of leasing an AIO is $14 in 2020. This is $2 higher than the average of the previous two years. And you likely don’t need the speed increase if your habits or number of devices hasn’t changed.
AIO’s Stink
Another complaint I have is the performance and reliability. These devices are more sensitive to power fluctuations than dedicated stand alone devices because they have very small power supplies inside that cannot rectify the power as easily or provide a few seconds reserve of power the same way a power brick inline of the cord can do. Yes, those power bricks are clunky, but they are more effective at saving your equipment. Those bricks get hot, and yet in addition to the wireless/routing/switching/modem in the AIO device, they cram in the power supply. This leads to some warm running equipment.
All this heat has to go somewhere, but these devices do not have adequate airflow or fans, some don’t have fans in them at all! My guess is that they want to keep the devices as sleek looking as possible and so we can’t afford to incorporate more venting into the design of the shell. The cost is that the circuitry gets warm and the solder and metal connections soften, which decreases performance. The WiFi chip tends to be the most noticeable: after a while it begins the phase of burning out where your WiFi will drop and come back on, and the intervals between the outages will get shorter and shorter until you no longer can tolerate it, or it dies altogether. Of course, you can take your AIO into your nearest ISP store and exchange it and continue your expensive lease, or you can purchase your own equipment.
We Can Help
Contact us today to see how we can help you save money and increase your network performance! We’ll review your bill, evaluate your needs, and make a recommendation.