Being a dealer for DirecTV and Dish Network, I always take issue when someone calls this phone line thing a penalty. If you have extra rooms with DirecTV, they charge you a $5.00 fee for each room above the first.. Dish actually gives you the option to have that fee waived for a second room if you plug to a phone line.. So to me that's not a penalty, it's a bonus. I know there are those that seem to look at it differently, but this is the plain truth.. It's a savings feature.
No, it's in how you choose to "spin" it & I always take issue with THAT...
The plain truth is - you still ONLY get ONE tuner per room on those "dual room" DVR's from dish. Which means (duh) each room CANNOT watch 1 live show & record another live show at the same time.
And even if you were to install a dual-tuner DISH DVR in both rooms, if the customer does NOT have a landline, then they are
PENALIZED to the tune of
$10, JUST f/the 2nd tuner in the SAME rooms, JUST because they choose NOT to patronize the phone co., or do not have a broadband connection, while D* does NOT charge it. It's a penalty, plain & simple - which is why I ALWAYS steer these customers right over to D*!
If you do install 612's, then I understand this all does NOT apply - but those units only became available within the past year.