A Series on How to do "Everything" using the Internet

Up until a few weeks ago I was using Time Warner Cable for our Phone, Cable TV, and Road Runner internet, and paying about $180/month for their combined package. They always sold it as a good deal, and when I've priced the AT&T U-verse offering for the same three options, it's always been about the same price.

I also was paying about $35/month for month-to-month Verizon 3G Internet access because I occasionally needed to use my laptop for internet access in places where there isn't a 3G connection. I had bought a Cradlepoint battery-powered portable 3G router (the PHS-300) because when I was using the modem, I liked to be able to use it to save battery life on my iPhone (it takes less for the iPhone to use WiFi than 3G).

Then the folks at CLEAR internet added San Antonio as one of their cities, and offered a combined Home and Mobile Internet WiMax package with unlimited usage for $55/month. And that started me thinking about how I could sign up for that package, and minimize our expenses.

Over the next week, I will show you how I've been able to move from $215/month for everything to that $55/month package, and lose virtually no functionality. In fact, if I were willing to spend a little more each month, I could throw my cell phone service into the mix as well.

Today I will cover the simplest part of this conversion - switching your Internet to using CLEAR (or another) provider. I'll discuss what equipment you might need or want, and a bit on setting it up. Tomorrow, I'll show how to use the Internet to provide your whole home with local and national long-distance phone service for $20/year (not a typo, a year, not a month). Wednesday I'll discuss how to plan for the most challenging part of the conversion - getting your entertainment over the Internet, and then on Thursday I'll give you the step by steps. Finally, on Friday, I'll cover that cell phone service option, and other concluding ideas and thoughts.

So hit up the next post for changing your Internet service.