By the end of next week, I'll officially be free from cable TV. I called AT&T and ordered DSL on Tuesday. Yesterday I called Comcast and cancelled my digital cable and internet service. DSL goes live on the 11th. Cable goes dead on the 12th.

Lest anyone misunderstand what I'm doing here, I won't have a true television feed of any kind coming into my home. No DirecTV. No Dish Network. No AT&T U-Verse. Nothing. I don't even receive local channels over the way with good enough reception to rely upon. If I can't get it over the Internets, I can't watch it. Period. And if my research is accurate, I won't be sacrificing much in terms of available programming. I am a TV addict, and I don't expect this decision to change that.

The cost savings is amazing. My monthly cable/internet bill from Comcast was averaging aboout $165, while my new DSL runs $34 per month. Sure, there will be some taxes and fees on top of that, and I'll spend a little here and there for shows on Amazon Unbox and iTunes, but even on the worst month I don't expect to pay more than about $50 or $55.

And yes, I'm giving up a bit in picture and audio quality, but that's a small price to pay. I've already watched plenty of broadcasts on my computer and iPod to be used to that by now, and frankly it doesn't matter to me that much.

As this little experiment begins, I'll be sure to keep you posted about how things are working out.