Thank you for your replies and concern. The replies here...

[BeauWorld]

Thank you for your replies and concern. The replies here have been encouraging. Especially whoever said by law, Rogers must provide cable service without an internet connection. I will have to monitor the situation more closely as we get into summer 2024, if the current boxes are supposed to be replaced by then. Hopefully Rogers/Shaw will contact me by then. I'll see if the prices you guys have given me, plus the new monthly charges like the box rental I don't pay right now, and the additional channels I want that I have now, will give me a comparable monthly bill, or will it be higher? I'm mostly concerned with that, plus getting 50 odd shows I usually have on my PVR all watched before the machine goes down. This will include taping more on my DVD recorder as we get closer.

[rstra]

@BeauWorld  To be clear, Rogers must provide LIMITED TV without an internet connection. 

[mdk]

@BeauWorld -- This will include taping more on my DVD recorder as we get closer.

Don't forget about "Shaw On Demand" (or whatever Rogers calls it) as an alternate "next-day" source of what you want to defer the viewing.

[acarnold909]

I myself am using the wired Bluecurve tv player, so wouldn't that work if you don't have internet?

[mdk]

@acarnold909 -- Shaw carries three separate streams over their cable network:

1. Shaw Home Phone
2. Shaw TV
3. Shaw Internet

So, your TV box can connect to the "Shaw TV" stream, even when that is the only stream to which you have subscribed.

Note that the "Shaw Internet" stream is throttled, e.g., if you pay for "Shaw Fibre+10" or for "Shaw Fibre+ Gig 1.5", that is the speed that you will get.

[Upfront6891]

As of the summer of 2024 Shaw wasn't phasing out this box. However, after having our cable suspended in vacation mode and reactivating it again I found the 3510 to be extremely sluggish with the program guide.

I tried to have the box upgraded for free but Retentions wouldn't budge. I said fine, cancel my basic cable. Shaw insisted I return the box including power supply and remote.

Interestingly, I noticed the 3510-M is only partially visible on the site. When clicking the hyperlink it's 404. I'm looking for an iptv provider but that's a frustrating rabbit hole. 

[rstra]

@Upfront6891 Ours was phased out at our other home, we just ignored them until they shut it down, then we cancelled. You may be in a town that hasn’t done the change over yet. We just use Plex if we want to watch the news.

[Upfront6891]

@rstrathat's interesting. How long ago was that?

We can watch news via free iptv such as Plex or Pluto but what we're looking for is mainstream channels like NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN. Normally we don't need to watch them but we missed them the other night when they had New Years celebrations and other events like award shows.

Should we ask for basic cable from Shaw they'll now charge us a monthly PVR fee when prior to cancelling it was included as a credit. Now, we'll jump to Telus TV before we return to Shaw for basic cable. They certainly don't value their existing customers in an age where consumers are streaming more and cutting the cable and home phone chord.

[rstra]

@Upfront6891  That was back in the summer, we opted to just to cancel cable. I am not sure how much they would charge for the cable box.

[mdk]

@Upfront6891  wrote  what we're looking for is mainstream channels like NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN. 

All the broadcasters in Canada are required to offer "Limited TV" at a low price.  That will get you Canadian TV channels (CBC, CTV, House of Commons, Global, et cetera) but probably not the USA-based channels (ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN) unless you live close-enough to the border to receive their signals "over-the-air" (external antenna feeding into your TV). 

> Should we ask for basic cable from Shaw they'll now charge us a monthly PVR fee when prior to cancelling it was included as a credit.

You could ask. Note that "Limited TV" has a monthly charge ($5?) for the box(es), while the faster plans state "Xfinity Gateway rental included" and one TV box also is included. There are some discounts if you're on a two-year Value Plan.

What they may provide is a cable-modem and a wireless TV box and access to record programs to their "cloud" (unlike the old PVR units that recorded into a disk-drive inside the box). Unless you also subscribe to Internet, the cable-modem will be configured to NOT provide Internet access.

Currently, for Internet, you can get their "Starter" package: $80/month (plus taxes) on a 2-year ValuePlan,  offering 100 Mbps for both download & upload. Maybe, some "reseller" of Internet (Telus fiber or Shaw coaxial cables) will have a lower price for a higher speed ???