There are many people who still cannot afford the cost of internet. I travel close to 260 days a year and to a lot of rural towns. Red box is cheaper to then than internet. Many homes in these areas are far awy from any service
It is a cable TV box. You used it to select a channel to watch. The cable connected to the back and another cable connected it to a TV. You tune the TV to channel 3 and then use the contraption to tune the cable channel you want to watch. I used that particular model back when I was subscribed to Bexar County Cablevision.