Should you rent a cable modem from Time Warner Cable or buy one?

When you have internet service from Time Warner Cable, you will need a cable modem.  Time Warner will rent you a modem for $5.99 per month.  Alternatively, you could purchase your own cable modem.  For example, you could purchase the Motorola Surfboard SB6121 cable modem from Amazon for $79.99.

Questions

1. What is the payback period (in months) if you decide to purchase the Motorola Surfboard SB6121 cable modem?
2. What are the advantages to renting a cable modem from Time Warner?
3. What are the advantages to buying a cable model from Time Warner?

Instructor Resources

These resources are provided to give the instructor flexibility for use of Accounting in the Headlines articles in the classroom. The blog posting itself can be assigned via a link to this site OR by distributing the student handout below. †Alternatively, the PowerPoint file below contains a bullet point overview of the article and the discussion questions. †The YouTube video link below is a narration of the blog post article (no discussion questions are included in the YouTube video; those can be assigned separately.)

• Student handout (pdf)†(contains entire blog posting + discussion questions)
• PowerPoint file†(brief article overview + discussion questions)
• YouTube video (narrated article in shareable YouTube link)

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