I went to all internet from Xfinity, and bought YouTube tv. I’m under 150 bucks. It’s not ideal but YouTube is better at sports than the 1000 channel Xfinity package, and I can pick and choose the streamers. It’s not cheap but when my initial plan ran out cable was 300!

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Cable is a dead zone so sometimes you just wanna channel search like it’s 1996. So I like having a cable analogue around. Add Pluto TV and you’re great baby!

Xfinity sucks and about 2/3 of mass residents know this. When we pay 80$ a month for 250 up when they refuse to put fiber for any rural area while the cities get fiber and pay 30$ for much faster speeds and overall better plans, then yeah, I can comfortably say Comcast/Xfinity sucks.

Regional sports is your fees for RSN’s like NESN and nbc sports Boston.

Espin always adds 10-15.

I don't watch any of those channels, besides nbc I've never heard of the others.

Cancel the cable... meowing requires no fees

I am definitely leaning towards cancelling cable but I may have to give the meowing more thought

I am new to mass but now I see that Xfinity sucks. I thought my bill would be tops 150. and I'm paying 200. I think I'm going back to just internet.

They’re in your cable package.

If it’s the only option, only keep xfinity for internet. If you have a handful of devices you can get a decent price. Then if you want any live tv or anything like that spend the money on FuboTV (best sports option). If you don’t care about sports, hulutv is a good option, and YouTube tv.

Buy your own modem and router and ask to get rid of that rental fee

Guys get couple of neighbors and split a 3-way DirecTV stream package That’s what I do

Unfortunately I live in an apartment and they contacted with Xfinity.

I know, use xfinity for internet only, then do a 3 way stream package for DirecTV Stream

Comcast will charge you more for internet only than for their ludicrous triple play package. I have cable tv and phone service I dont need and never use. There are no other options in my area. Fios is expanding in the area, but not to my town. I have to pay the sports fee as well. Why arent they held accountable like other utilities?

check out some of the new plans for 5g wireless internet. Tmobile has an internet plan for $50 and starry has some as low as $30 i believe (need to check availability)

Sorry don't mean to be harsh but this is on you.

You are paying for a service and don't seem to know what you are getting.

If you do not watch sports then trim the fat and get rid of anything you don't need.

Why are you renting a modem? Buy your own, even a $300 modem will pay for itself eventually vs. a $15/m fee, plus 100% they spy on your traffic via their modem.

It is the chump tax.

Not harsh but factual. However, the modem doesn't rid the 40 in fees for sports that I'm not interested in.

I pay $29.99 a month for internet/wifi just to watch Netflix. I barely watch TV as it is. I also have mobile service through them which is $45 a Month with a free phone from them.

t-mobile been making moves

We bought a motor router combo for 150 bucks at Walmart had it for almost 6 years now no issues. Netgear.

To explain those fees, comcast has to “buy” content IE channel broadcasting rights to air the channels. That fee is passed along to consumers via the broadcasting fee. This will vary based on what channels you subscribe to and what deals the companies have worked out. The sports fee is added to packages over a certain level and just like the broadcast fee, is the cost of comcast being allowed to carry some games/channels. The short answer to both things is, you need to downgrade the service below the threshold for the pay channels and sports packages. Source: worked for a cable provider years ago and had to explain this a LOT

Outrageous

T-Mobile Internet for $30 a month for the win.

I have experienced Comcast Xfinity and Charter Spectrum, and the latency was the same as T-Mobile. I am only paying less (which is a win). Both cable providers kept raising their rates. Sometimes they would give you a speed bump and call that the new "normal," but the rates would likely follow soon afterward.

Of the two (2) cable companies, Comcast Xfinity was the worst. I owned my own modem and lost count of how many times they wanted to bill me for using their modem (which I did not have). At least Charter Spectrum (locally) did not have that issue, but I would still suggest buying your own modem since theirs would cause issues (even if theirs was free).

But I digress. The fees kept adding up, and I learned having the so-called "fast speed" did not add up too much. You can watch Netflix in full 1080pi with as little as 5 Mbps download. I learned that when Comcast Xfinity experienced issues. I later discovered when Charter Spectrum had problems that you could still play 4k video with as low as 20 Mbps. All that hype for having the fastest speed is just that, hype. It's to justify the next new price increase.

I call them every two years and tell them I want to pay $50/month and they say okay. That's $50 total inclusive of fees, taxes and whatever else. This gives me 200 Mbps down and I'd guess that it costs them $10/month for the service.

Calling them every two years is a pain but I try to keep repeating costs to a minimum.

That’s catty

I have had tMobile internet in western Mass for over a year and I love it. Flat $50 a month.

Great question. I'd love a real answer

I see what you did there friend

Do you ha e a tv box and remote cause that is also in the bill, so the fees would be there for the service

I would switch to FiOS if you could. The day FiOS became available I switched and haven't regretted it one bit

How are the speeds/reliability holding up? There have been awesome improvements since you last bought one. Something to consider for sure.

Yeah I was sort of wondering this. Why do you have a cable TV package if you’re not watching TV? If you downgrade to internet only the cost will probably drop dramatically.

Whatever you do, make sure to ask what your total monthly bill will be, after any promotions expire. They get sneaky with those promo rates.

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You are pretty clearly paying for tv service. You have a box and remote and even if you want to keep the local TV stations (which is the $24.70) the $14.95 is probably an additional service (NESN?) that you should easily be able to cancel.

I would recommend getting FIOS or some other internet only service (Xfinity probably has one, I live Verizon better but either/or) and go streaming. Sling seems to be the best option for a non-sports fan.

I haven't had any issues knock on wood. But definitely open to checking out new ones. It's definitely been a while haha

I canceled Xfinity after paying close to $300 a month for Triple play with gig internet, and their customer service sucks.

Instead, I opted for Fios (not sure if it's available in your area).

Fios also offer a good amount of discounts as well. I have internet (1Gig)/ YouTube TV and pay around $125 monthly for the whole thing. Autopay and Paperless enabled set you back another $10 off your bill.

Here's a mini breakdown of the pricing that I pay;

Gigabit Internet- $99.99 ( I believe there's a current price lock for ten years when you sign up, and usually, other promos or deals they give)

Youtube TV- 64.99 4K plus- 19.99

I currently have a few discounts which drop it down to $105/125 (105 is without 4K if I chose to go that route) All in all, 88-dollar savings in discounts.

I'd suggest getting Roku for its ease of use, usually $20-25 for the basic ones, but any Streaming device would work.

I also added, optional BTW, 4K plus another $20 monthly (Add-on to YT-TV), which grants unlimited Device Streaming (up to 3 simultaneous devices can view content without the 4K +), The ability to view DVR downloads offline on mobile devices.

This is why I don’t get cable. I do have RCN internet and they still pull BS but $60 for 500/25 is the best deal I can get. I then pay $55 for sling TV plus I have Netflix, Apple TV plus, And Disney Plus for streaming. I watch mostly YouTube and my downloaded content or OTA tbh so I’m going to cut back on the steaming things after the holidays.

Instead of paying for cable just get internet only. Problem solved

Can comfortably say it sucks both ways. Having lived in the city, I had much more frequent outages and they also lasted longer! More people, more cables, more work, more of a shitshow. I think I have a laughable post on my history showing my apartment’s cable setup from a year ago for a few residents in a building….stupidly convoluted.

Regardless, my point is FUCK XFINITY. terrible company no matter who you are or how you cut it. Fuck them.

What kind of speed do you pay for vs what you actually get?

I got spectrum when I moved West and it was like 70 a month for 400 down, which I actually get most of the time. Of course it was just an “introductory rate” that was a surprise to me, and now I’m paying 90.

We had a tech come out once when we had slow speeds/drops and he was a saint. Replaced a bunch of cables inside and outside the house and was super friendly.

Fuck Comcast

It’s almost as if competition benefits consumers? Funny how that works

And Verizon doesn't also charge these insane TV-related fees? Of course they do. Anyway, the key here is dropping the TV portion of the service and keeping just internet service. Also, not everyone has fios or another fiber internet provider.

We are trying so hard to get our town to do their own fiber broadband. There are literally no options here besides Comcast. They ended up doing it for just their own town offices. Buttheads.

Xfinity makes tv packages listed at certain prices (yours signature @ 129.99 PACKAGE PRICE meaning thats the base without taxes fees or equipment). Xfinity will not pay for any fees like any business those are passed to customers. Broadcast TV or Local broadcast channels (NBC,ABC,FOX,CBS) change the prices they charge to comcast based off their ad revenue, money they take in, ect. They continue to charge more as less people watch to stay alive and increase the rates to Xfinity who charge you them cause again businesses pay fees but pass them down to customers. Before you say that you dont watch them and get rid of them, its a package Xfinity cannot sell channels by itself, and frankly doesnt want to. A company like Disney owns Fox channels and ESPN and will sell in their own packages to comcast, for example disney will sell fox news to xfinity but they will also need to take fox sport 1 and 2 for hypothetical example and then xfinity will make packages with all those channels based off viewer tune in. As far as Regional sports fees its a similar situation, this "signature" package you have is the same "package price" in MA as it is for most of the east coast. in New england we have NESN ( new england sports network) and NBC sports boston, those are "our" regional sports and they similar to the broadcast networks charge various rates based off ad venue and viewership. if you go to other areas of the county there is the Big Ten Network, and others i dont know about and they charge xfinity different rates than what the new england channels do, and again this company does not pay fees and will pass these down the line to customers.

to OP get rid of the cable box and get xfinity stream app and buy a modem and router saves at min $14*12+ $168 a year (cost of a modem once). Or go get a channel guide, find only the channels you want and what packages they fall in, find the minimum requirement to fulfil that and downgrade. OR go to streaming... for now.

TV is expensive and will only continue to get more expensive, its a dying media who knows that it needs to increase costs to live long enough to jump to a streaming company, who may or may not even keep their content up to get paid. Also having alot of streaming services will make the argument that streaming is cheaper will go away.

source: FORMER xfinity employee dont harass me I haven't work there in many years

Look above your circle, you're also paying a rental fee for a TV box and remote. You 100% have some form of TV subscription. The description of your package says as much as well. Change your plan and then return the rented TV box and remote.

I just ran a test.

It says 152.5 download and 56.4 upload. I am not a gamer, but I am a reseller so I'm on the computer all the time and with no cable TV I stream all the time...no issues. I zoom/google meet every week, no issues.

I thought I could add a screen print but I don't see how.

Also, just FYI, T-mobile internet is not actually "approved" yet for this area. The woman told me I could get the modem free, test it, and then return it for free if it didn't work.

This could be changed, I've had it for over a year now.

So I did that and of course never returned it.

I will say the only problem I have is very rarely, maybe twice a month, it will momentarily drop then come right back...I don't know why it does this, and really didn't seem worth calling them about.

And no set up, just plug it in. It does have ethernet connections which I do use.

So it's not 400 but I personally don't need it to be that fast.

Hope this helps...got so sick of Comcast inching up the bill every month...started at $95 just for internet and I think it was $119 when I cancelled.

I think at this point we might as well accept that any and all corporate run provider is going to be mediocre at best. Time for real regulation.

LOL I just came here to comment this. I have to renegotiate in January. I called yesterday and that promo wasn't available yet so they credited me the difference and said the promo will be back the end of January and to call them for it.

It's a pain but I will hand it to the last few customer service reps I have got. They truly have made me whole each time and not taken up my whole day.

I also tell them I am going to walk to ATT (only other sorta option in my area) and it works.

I work from home and game a lot and have never needed more than the basic Mbps package and never had issues.

You should check if Verizon fiber is available at your home. The first thing I did when I moved into my house was replace the Xfinity with Verizon FiOS. It has been a million times better than any Xfinity/Comcast service I've ever had.

Why are you paying for Xfinity and then posting about it online?

I actually know this answer. Because we are so desperate for interaction and human connection we know electric/cable/rent is sure to garner some type of social media interactions

Anyways, this sort of behavior reminds me exactly of my mother. Laments the end of small businesses and downtowns and yet shops exclusively at costco for the savings. Can’t make this shit up

You vote in American “capitalism” with your purchases. Period.

Just internet should be like $80 per month. That’s what I have. Fight ‘‘em until you get that price.

I HATE Comcast with a passion and live for the day when I can tell them to go FUCK themselves.

BULLSYT. they charge you for local channels you can pick up with a digital Antenna . even with the most basic of plans, along with local sports, that you know, the local channel 4/5/7/10/etc cover. Then a franchise fee , I ask them everytime I call how I buy a franchise. as that is another b/s fee. Hell, I've asked them if I return the tv box, what just internet would be a month and they claim they are not sure.

And to top it off, the Town I live in, Well not let fios in. So comcast owns the area, as internet with direct tv or dish blow. Comcast must be greasing the palms of the selectmen As they block fios every time.

I also cannot think of a single reason to have cable if NOT for sports.

What do you watch on there, then? TLC??? That’s a dark place to be if so

This looks like ure getting a million channels you dont watch. I have spectrum or w/e the monopoly name is now and I only pay $54 a month for internet. Thats all anyone really needs now days. $194 u getting robbed.

I am probably going to be down voted to hell but the fiber showed up pretty recently in my Brighton neighborhood. Other parts of Boston had it faster, but since I moved to the city they were slowly installing it. I am not saying don't complain, because otherwise they will never change anything. I lived in CT where there were only 2 major internet providers and it sucked so i can related.

If this is your bill your for sure have cable my friend...

Switched to Tmobile for 50/mo 5G in worcester. Was paying 80/mo for Internet only trhu Charter.

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Not a fan of FIOS, but could be convinced when it becomes available in 2023 here.

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. Tmobile is a tad slower, but I am a one person household and Internet is 90 pct of my usage.

Protip. If you have a partner cancel your account. Open a new account in your partners name for the new customer discount. When that term is up cancel it and open another account in your name for the new customer deal. Repeat forever. The longer you have an account the more they charge you.

Total aside, but go but a cable modem and return the one Comcast gave you. They're charging you $15 a month for what is likely a $60-$80 modem. They know many folks are just too lazy to replace our don't know they can use their own with a smidge of effort.

Just do a search for "Xfinity compatible modems" for a list of equipment that works. Some sites even have reviews of the best modems specifically for Comcast.

We dropped our cable services a few years back just because they’ve added so much in additional costs. Instead we signed up for YouTube tv, which costs $65/mo, but you can have 5 accounts on a family plan. So we added 4 of my buddies to the account, and everyone pays about 1/5 of the cost. The only catch is that they have to sign in to watch YouTube tv in the home area code once every 90 days. To get around this I just had them all sign into the YouTube tv app on my phone, and when they get the message that they need to sign into the home area, they text me, I sign on as them, watch shows for a few seconds, and then they are good to go.

With YTV you can also record any movie or show, I now record all football games, and do yard work or whatever for the first hour, and then start the recording from the beginning and can fast forward through all commercials for the entire game. I haven’t watches a game with commercials in years.

I highly recommend it as an alternative, providing you have a few close friends who are also open to it. Takes a little extra work re:90 day sign ins, but it’s so worth it.

Also, you can buy a modem and router on eBay or whatever for pretty cheap and can also save on that monthly rental fee.

When we originally got Comcast, there was no other competition so they wouldn't negotiate. Then competition came in at a lower price and the first time I spent a couple of hours with them on the phone. Then it got a lot easier. My wife told me that Americans don't like to haggle (it's customary in a lot of countries) and that was true for me but I got used to haggling. We've had Comcast for 11 years now and $30/month really adds up over time.

That’s your NESN fee the 14.95

I have xfinity I pay $94 per month internet only, if you don’t speak up they just up charge everything. Call and keep complaining til it’s around 100

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Verizon has better customer service (not great, but better) if you have no tv, you should have no tv fees whatsoever. After being with Comcast for 14 years I expected this and often had stupid charges added to my bill, call, get ten reversed. No problems like this with Verizon (well once they withdrew $1400 from my checking for an account that was closed with a negative balance after I cashed the refund check in 2002, they gave my money back though)

It’s Comcraptastic! In most areas (rural, apartment complexes) you don’t have the freedom of choice, and they know it.

We got rid of cable TV years ago. I built our own home network that directly interface’s with Verizon’s ONT or the Cox gateway (we’re not in MA). We password-share with friends and relatives for streaming services. We installed a DTV antenna at the onset for live programming.

It’s also worth asking if you can get the branded modem/router for free for # years if you sign a price-lock agreement.

You missed my point. The silly fees are all TV and phoneline related, both with xfinity and fios. As for tech support, I've had both good and bad experiences with both of them.

You miss OP's point, they clearly state they have no TV service, which contradicts what the bill says. I think OP doesn't know what they signed up or Comcast is doing a practice called cramming (adding service without authorization)

Uh, no... Look at the bill again. The very first item...

> Your Xfinity package $129.99 Signature+ More Includes Limited Basic, Expanded Basic (Kids & Family, Entertainment, Sports & News), Digital Preferred Tier, Epix, HD, DVR Service, Gigabit Plus Internet, Unlimited Voice and Netflix Standard HD Plan.

That's very much both TV, premium channels, DVR, and phone service all in there.