Living Local — The Joy(?) of Working with Las Vegas Utilities

After moving my office from my apartment to a workspace located in my accountant’s office, it was time to review my accounts and options with Las Vegas utilities, primarily telephone, electricity, and Internet. It turned out to be a very informative (but somewhat frustrating) exercise.

Before the move, I had a Vonage telephone line (VoIP) in my home/office and I moved that system very easily to my new location. Going forward, I will use my Cricket cellphone at home and everywhere else. Besides, I can connect the Cricket to my apartment Alexa and make calls hands-free.

I haven’t had cable television for six years. I use a television antenna and a Roku box for streaming. Since the move, I no longer upload large files and my Roku is now connected directly to the Cox Cable modem, so my local tech advisor said to switch from 100 mps (costing $100/month) to 30 mps ($50/month). Easier said than done.

While you can upgrade Cox Cable service on their website, you have to call Cox directly to downgrade — and be prepared for several hold times as they move you from department to department. The first time I called, there was an outage in my area, so they couldn’t pull up my account. The next day, I was able to get through (after 15 minutes on hold and 10 minutes of upselling by the Cox representative) and arranged an immediate downgrade to 30 mps. So far it’s working just fine and I don’t notice any difference.

Like everyone else in the valley, I get my electricity through Nevada Power, but I pay through budget billing. Realizing that my summer bills will be considerably lower this year (I don’t air-condition the apartment much when I’m not there), I pulled up my account online to go back to paying the normal monthly bill. My “budget” bill was $80 a month. Last month’s usage was $27 – and switching back to normal billing created a credit of $89. It will be interesting how it all works out electricity-wise through the summer.