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Flickr/Raelene GIf you can’t just cut the cord on cable TV, there are a few ways to lessen its cost. Soon, that list could include buying your own cable box, but for now, the simplest of the bunch is still picking up your own modem.
This is far from a new tip, but with the cable industry’s questionable practices in the news again, it bears repeating: If you’re renting a modem from your ISP, there’s a good chance you’re throwing money away. The $4-12 it costs per month may not seem like a big deal, but that adds up over time. With the right modem, any upfront cost should pay itself off in 12-18 months, if not sooner.
If you rent from Comcast, Time Warner, Cox, or a few others — but not Verizon FiOS or Charter, the latter of which bakes its modem fee into its overall bill — have a look at the $70 Arris/Motorola Surfboard SB6141. It’s generally regarded as the go-to modem for most people privy to this info, earning recommendations from the The Wirecutter, Tom’s Guide, and Lifehacker over the years, along with a 4.4 rating on Amazon after more than 8,500 user reviews. It supports the most common (for now) DOCSIS 3.0 standard, and allows for Internet speeds that should be more than sufficient for most people. Crucially, it does all this at a price that's relatively affordable.
Couple things worth noting here: There’s a Surfboard SB6183 that’s also popular and advertises double the download speeds, but that’ll be overkill for all but a niche of users, so the extra $25 probably isn’t worth it. Also, you may have read recently that Comcast has stopped supporting this particular unit, but that only applies to the version it leases out to consumers itself; the company says that any retail version, like the model linked below, should still work fine.
There’s a small chance you’ll be hassled by your provider for making the switch, and you may not get the same technical support if things go haywire, but all told, this is an obvious move for any (compatible) user who likes saving money.
Arris / Motorola Surfboard SB6141 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem (White), $69.99, available at Amazon.
