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7 Reasons Cord Cutting Might Not Work For You

Author: Justin Pot / Source: howtogeek.com

Cord cutting—ditching cable or satellite TV and watching stuff online instead—is great. It’s also not for everyone.

Cable TV is expensive, which is why millions of people are opting to stop paying for it every month and subscribe to various online streaming services instead.

People often save money doing this, and for most tech savvy people, we highly recommend it.

Having said that, it’s not for everyone. There are a few reasons that cord cutting might not be for you—here’s a few to think about.

Your Broadband Options Suck

Streaming online video only works if you have reliable broadband access, and millions of Americans don’t—78 million by one estimate. This is true in rural areas, as most people know, but a shameful number of urban and suburban areas also don’t have broadband access.

It sucks, but if you’re one of those unlucky people, cord cutting might not work out for you. Services like Netflix need to buffer a lot on slower connections (and often reduce image quality), which is annoying but not necessarily a deal breaker. But anything streaming live events is going to be basically unusable, because you’ll end up missing a lot to stutters and buffers.

And if you have multiple people in your home that like to watch different things at the same time, forget about it.

Your ISP Has Low Data Caps

This is related to the previous point, but it’s worth thinking about on its own. Many ISPs cap the amount of bandwidth you’re allowed to use in a month, after which they either slow down your connection or cut you off completely.

If your ISP caps your data, cord cutting might not be a good idea, because streaming a lot of television can cause you to hit this cap quickly.

Look into this before cutting the cord. Your provider might offer an unlimited data plan for a fee, or you might consider switching to an ISP without caps if you have that option.

Antenna Reception Isn’t an Option Where You Live

Many cord cutters use an antenna to pick up local stations, or even use Plex to record free TV broadcasts. This lets you watch shows on ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and PBS affiliates free of charge, but it only works if you can get a decent signal. This is even more important in the age of digital broadcasts: there are no fuzzy signals anymore, the picture is either perfect or it doesn’t come in.

If you live far from the nearest broadcast tower, or simply somewhere with a lot of interference, it might be hard to get a signal. Check out TVFool: they have a a tool for checking your reception complete with antenna recommendations.