Help me understand the phoneline thing

CaseLogic

SatelliteGuys Family
Original poster
Oct 13, 2008
39
0
From what I understand, they charge you $5 if you don't have your receiver(s) hooked up to a phone line. Well it's not that I care, but we don't even have a landline at our home. Do they really charge you if you don't even have a phone line? We can hook up through ethernet, is that sufficient?
 
I've been a subscriber for 20 years, have never connected my receiver to a landline and have never been charged $5. It must be a new policy that is not retro to old agreements.
 
The fee only applies to the receivers with dual outputs for "TV1" and "TV2"

The ViP622 and ViP722 are currently ethernet-enabled and if they can find dish's Internet servers this will satisfy the requirement.
 
222 also works. I currently have my 722 and 222 both connected via ethernet and no fee. I, personally, would recommend that setup if you don't have a phone line but do have ethernet available to both locations of the boxes. Only complaint is that the 222's software is a little half-baked, so you have to reboot it every so often (every 2-3 weeks or so) because it will freeze up.
 
I've been a subscriber for 20 years, have never connected my receiver to a landline and have never been charged $5. It must be a new policy that is not retro to old agreements.

I thought dish come out around 1996, 20 years long time...

Phone line fee applies to dual tuner receivers.

20 years...12 years...close enough, right? :p

Willing to bet DefCon doesn't have a dual tuner either.
 
NO NO NO
The additional outlet fee"not phone line fee" fee is STANDARD. It is only NOT charged if you do not connect a phone line. Again ONLY on dual tuners. It is a "perk" to having a dual tuner and a phone line connected. ANd is a standard charge for ALL additional tuners which are NOT dual.
 
So many customers make such a huge deal about the phone line fee.... The reality is it's not really a "fee" in that if you go with DirectTV, you're paying that $5 additional anyway, with no way to waive it.

So here's the deal. Every Dish Network dual tuner receiver has the ability to output to 2 TVs.

DirectTV uses 2 seperate receivers to control 2 TVs. They charge $5 per standard receiver. So in a 4 room install, you are paying $15-20 in lease fees for receivers (I forget if they charge a lease fee on the first receiver, hence the 15-20)

Dish Network uses 2 dual tuner receivers to control those same 4 TVs (when possible, depending on what kind of setup you require with HD and DVRs). They charge $5-7 (7 for HD receivers) for the receiver leases, per month, plus an additional $5 for the additional room that each dual tuner receiver can output to. The difference is, if you plug the receiver into an active phone line (or LAN if you have a VIP receiver) they will waive the $5 Additional Outlet fee. So in total, you would be paying 2 equipment lease fees, instead of 4.

VIP receivers are DishCOMM enabled, meaning if you plug at least one in, the other can talk to the first through your house electrical (assuming the outlets are connected, which most are), and you will not have to plug the second one into the phone/LAN line to waive the fee. This requires some configuration in the receivers Menus, but is easy to do.

The other advantage to you(and to Dish, of course) is the ease of ordering Pay-Per-View. No phone calls or computer are necessary to order if you're connected. Find what you want to order, hit Select and Confirm your selection and it's ordered.

In the case of VIP DVRs... having your receivers connected to the internet will enable you to program your DVR timers through any internet enabled computer....... eventually.

Dish uses the phone line/LAN to receive Set Top Box health information... meaning the receiver reports signal strength it is receiving from the LNB on the Dish. If the signal gets low enough, or the receiver reports an serious LNBF problem, the system generates a Service Call for a technician to come fix your system in an attempt to be proactive and eliminate service outages before customers get upset. This part is not happening 100% of the time, but it does happen. Without the phone/LAN connection, Dish has no way to receive information from the receiver as Satellite is a 1 way connection, unlike digital Cable TV.... the Dish on your house isn't sending information to the satellites in space :)

Dish does use this connection to make money too.... don't let anyone lie to you.... they keep records of how many people watched so-and-so channel at whatever time in order to use that information to bargain for more advertising dollars. Some people make a big deal about this.... personally, I couldn't care less... even if they could see me ordering "Fat White Booty Humper", what the hell do I care? :p
 
I've been a subscriber for 20 years, have never connected my receiver to a landline and have never been charged $5. It must be a new policy that is not retro to old agreements.

I've been reminded that the house, purchased in 1989, had cable at first before satellite, so my memory is not serving me as it should.:( I checked my bill and I am paying $5/month for a second receiver, but neither is connected to a phone line.
 

Losing signal-110/119/129

Dishcomm, ethernet, and the dual tuner $5 fee

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 0, Members: 0, Guests: 0)

Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 1)