Hopper Plus new hardware??

[HipKat]

Nice.

Well you have me slammed on Audio. I'm using a Polk Magnifi-Max system

 

[DishSubLA]

Part of Dish's plans for its 5G could be to deliver its live streaming channels in areas that don't have fast ISP speeds so the Hopper+ can still be an upgrade to almost all Dish subscribers.

 

[DishSubLA]

I’m not so sure there is much to be gained by Dish taking over DTV. And AT&T would probably not be helpful in such an endeavor.

I don’t think Charlie would be that invested in “winning” and being the last man standing. There’s gotta be money in it. Probably cheaper to poach those customers.

A Dish/DTV merge would bring "efficiencies" and sufficient critical mass to make DBS a survivable business in the long run with just enough subscribers, especially if Dish transitions to internet delivery in the long run. However, Dish's capital is tied up in the 5G business that not even the big wireless companies have built out anything that truly resembles the phony maps they promote with pathetic 5G spotty service. So, a Dish/DTV merge could be in the future like at least years away, but it would make too much sense to both Dish and DTV to merge. They need each other--badly, especially as time passes.

I live in an extremely large metro area, and everyone I know (and this is also reported by the tech press) that fell for 5G hand-sets (phones) says they RARELY get 5G and in the one or two spots (well, there words are "very, very few") places they get 5G, they are often either "bumped" or when leaving the tiny 5G cells they are handed-off to 4G/LTE, and their experience is something like 99% 4G/LTE as they travel large distances to work and play throughout the region, and this is in the most densely populated metro area in the USA. PATHETIC! A pretty big let down for those I know.

5G is really only going to make economic sense for enterprise, business, and industrial use (and only in densely populated areas for the most part) as the current 4G/LTE Pro/Advanced or whatever the flavor of 4G or LTE we are using, provides us with up to 300Mbps--IIRC--and even my MVNO (Total Wireless which seems to have a great QoS Tier with Verizon) gives me up to 100Mbps. Do we really need more than that? I never have and I watch LIVE TV, including Slingbox and Dish Anywhere and other video services, and things download fast enough for me, and I get a mere 200Mbps with my home ISP and I have no slow downs when streaming and doing quite a lot on-line. BTW, is there not a 6G in the works? I seem to remember that.

My ISP keeps trying to get me to pay an extra $20 per month to step up from 200Mbps to 400Mbps. REALLY???? PLEASE! What CONSUMER household could even use up all the 200Mbps even with Zoom's and 4K streaming and all those tiny data streams to load those webpages. It, and 5G for consumer handsets and service, really is a SCAM for the vast majority of consumer users. I can hardly wait for what 5G can do for driver-less ride-shares. Now, that a great use of 5G speed and ultra low latency, not loading a dopey movie on my phone in 15 seconds.

 

[HipKat]

However, Dish's capital is tied up in the 5G business that not even the big wireless companies have built out anything that truly resembles the phony maps they promote with pathetic 5G spotty service.

Man for sure! I just got a Pixel 6 Pro, all set for blazing 5G speeds... and found out there is very limited Verizon 5G in Illinois and none of it is near me

 

[Jim5506]

My 5G service is with AT&T and AFAIK I get 5G all the time here in Lubbock, at least my phone's little 5G light is always on. Of course as we travel on I-20 to Dallas there are spots where service quality drops to 4GLTE and I've seen 2Gin Cozumel and Costa Maya Mexico but I have never noticed the 5G light being off either here or in the Dallas Metroplex - I'll try to pay closer attention in the future. Perhaps it is not the absence of 5G but a limit in capacity (all the 5G frequencies are busy) and you drew a short straw.

 

[navychop]

Relatives visiting reported their phones said 5G. We don’t have 5G here.

The 600MHz band T-Mobile uses for 5G kinda makes sense.

I believe in Charlie, the CEO….. Anyway, he has tricks up his sleeve that may bring back customers, and poach some from DTV. Without any DTV baggage. He can later cherry pick their satellites if that makes sense. I believe the window of a merger making sense is closing rapidly. He can get the custies anyway.

 

[jerryez]

I thought that Dish and DTV equipment were not compatible with each other. After a merger, Dish would have to replace ALL DTV equipment, which would not make a merger a good deal, but a costly one.

 

[navychop]

Some expect the merged company to maintain the two incompatible systems. However, this might increase service and support costs to uneconomic levels, as well as upset customers with “inferior” old DTV equipment.

I suspect Dish would be ahead to take a few years to win over DTV customers and stretch out any conversion costs. Cheaper than a merger/acquisition. Maybe, with technological advances, they could come out with a cheaper, yet more capable, Hopper 4. Or an 8 tuner model with built in Hopper Plus features. Many possibilities. Spend on 5G rollout (which I believe is aimed more at vehicles and commercial uses than cell phones) now, see where the market is in a few years.

 

[HipKat]

I thought that Dish and DTV equipment were not compatible with each other. After a merger, Dish would have to replace ALL DTV equipment, which would not make a merger a good deal, but a costly one.

Trust me, they have plenty of refub'd equipment to cover it...

 

[Radioguy41]

If there were going to be a merger with DTV it would have happened at low ebb, not after a spinoff and outside investors got their talons in it.

 

[DishSubLA]

My 5G service is with AT&T and AFAIK I get 5G all the time here in Lubbock, at least my phone's little 5G light is always on. Of course as we travel on I-20 to Dallas there are spots where service quality drops to 4GLTE and I've seen 2Gin Cozumel and Costa Maya Mexico but I have never noticed the 5G light being off either here or in the Dallas Metroplex - I'll try to pay closer attention in the future. Perhaps it is not the absence of 5G but a limit in capacity (all the 5G frequencies are busy) and you drew a short straw.

I remember reading an article some years ago that one of the big 4 wireless companies back then--I think it was Verizon or T-Mobile--was caught intentionally illuminating the 4G or LTE annunciator on users phones were giving the phone user the impression they were accessing LTE service when, in fact, they were not, but, instead were accessing the slower 3G network. The wireless company gave some phony baloney technical reason/mistake, but the FTC was not buying the excuse, and move to take action. The "mistake" was quickly corrected in several areas in the US were the FTC alleges it occurred.

Sometimes in heavy usage areas, even 4G/LTE can slow down dramatically to 3G speeds, but still on the 4G/LTE network. However, I would not be surprised that the big 3 Wireless companies may be pushing the the 5G annunciator to light up when it may not "necessarily" be accessing 5G, but the older 4G/LTE network instead, perhaps because it anticipates you returning to the 5G network in just a few cell from now he, he, he.

I don't doubt there are some areas that were some test areas outside of densely populated areas that may have a fair number of contiguous 5G cells, but the MONEY and "ROI" for the wireless companies for 5G is in heavily densely populated urban, suburban areas and sport stadiums and other venues or areas that can have tens of thousands of people in a small area, and in enterprise/industry.

But, I'm glad to hear someone out there is getting large 5G coverage, and Lubbock Texas would have made an excellent "test market" or early rollout experimental market in that the population numbers (and I'm thinking not much terrain to complicate a test/early rollout unlike the terrain hell of LA, southern California) allow for simulated services in much larger cites and suburbs that still allow Lubbock to easily fall back to 4G/LTE without creating major problems during 5G implementation and operations in Lubbock. Lubbock looks to be an excellent early roll-out of 5G before getting into much deeper waters and much meaner people who cry loud and nasty in those really big cities when they don't get what they pay for .

 

[DishSubLA]

Some expect the merged company to maintain the two incompatible systems. However, this might increase service and support costs to uneconomic levels, as well as upset customers with “inferior” old DTV equipment.

I suspect Dish would be ahead to take a few years to win over DTV customers and stretch out any conversion costs. Cheaper than a merger/acquisition. Maybe, with technological advances, they could come out with a cheaper, yet more capable, Hopper 4. Or an 8 tuner model with built in Hopper Plus features. Many possibilities. Spend on 5G rollout (which I believe is aimed more at vehicles and commercial uses than cell phones) now, see where the market is in a few years.

Well, DTV uses the Dish compatible DVB for all its HD services. The legacy DSS--IIRC--is still used for SD services only, so Dish and DTV are not as incompatible as we might think as far as Set-top-boxes. As far as DTV's use of Ka band reserved for internet services--greater bandwidth at the expense of far worse rain fade performance--they can find a solution for compatibility for that kink, as well. There are a number of scenarios to deal with that. Of course, any scenario will cost money.

However, a Dish/DTV merge would keep things as they are--two systems under one company--for some time (with the efficiency of critical mass) as they intelligently implement a plan to a single system or work to delivery by internet as the compatible long-term solution for greater efficiencies.

Compatibility can not happen over night nor without some MONEY being spent to bring some customers to one system or the other. I really think that a Dish/DTV merger would result in a full speed ahead delivery by internet (Hopper+ like STB) to be the real compatibility solution for the long term, not satellites.

 

[navychop]

I suspect the Hopper Plus and the investment timeline will make OBE any merger. At most, a deal with DTV to transition their subscribers to Dish’s combined satellite and Internet system. Where’s the profit in that? BURY THEM!

 

[DishSubLA]

Man for sure! I just got a Pixel 6 Pro, all set for blazing 5G speeds... and found out there is very limited Verizon 5G in Illinois and none of it is near me

CNET had a great number of seperate reviews of 5G phones in 2021 as they tested and used them in different cites across the USA for a fair evaluation of 5G networks and found great disappointment. 5G in smaller cities seemed a better experience to some. I have not seen any recent CNET reviews of 5G phones because I just don't care to see them, but I am hearing for those who have them that NOT MUCH has changed on the 5G front. I think we are still suffering from the long delay in building towers and the shortage of properly trained people to do this dangerous work and the deaths--in 2020, I think--really slowed down, and then the Covid-19 slowed the network build out even more. The FCC is going to have to grant, yet again, another round of extensions on the 5G build out. Count on it.

 

[TheKrell]

...the terrain hell of LA, southern California...

Say what?

I was born in Long Beach and grew up in various homes in Orange County. Now I don't know Lubbock at all, so I'll take your word for it that it's totally flat. And certainly there were dead spots in OC such as the cliffs next to the Pacific where one of our homes needed a big antenna on a tall mast to receive even snowy TV. But most of the population lived on a flat plain with LOS to Mt. Wilson. Am I not remembering correctly?

 

[HipKat]

Say what?

I was born in Long Beach and grew up in various homes in Orange County. Now I don't know Lubbock at all, so I'll take your word for it that it's totally flat. And certainly there were dead spots in OC such as the cliffs next to the Pacific where one of our homes needed a big antenna on a tall mast to receive even snowy TV. But most of the population lived on a flat plain with LOS to Mt. Wilson. Am I not remembering correctly?

Nope, I lived in WIlmington in the late 80's and that's how I remember it, too, when the smog wasn't obscuring everything lol

 

[GPM]

As far as 5G goes, it is really spotty. I live about 1/2 mile from a T-Mobile 5G tower. I recently switched to T-Mobile Home Internet and I get a very good 5G signal. The supplied gateway gives you access to real time stats from the tower. That said, even people who live fairly close to me get poor results from the same service. And that tower is the slower implementation of 5G, not the ultra fast version so it reaches farther but is not nearly as fast. The best I see is around 100-120 Mb download speeds.

 

[Jim5506]

Say what?

I was born in Long Beach and grew up in various homes in Orange County. Now I don't know Lubbock at all, so I'll take your word for it that it's totally flat. And certainly there were dead spots in OC such as the cliffs next to the Pacific where one of our homes needed a big antenna on a tall mast to receive even snowy TV. But most of the population lived on a flat plain with LOS to Mt. Wilson. Am I not remembering correctly?

=The highest point in Lubbock is a flyover, but there is a canyon just about 10 miles east of town where there are some expensive lake homes that have trouble receiving some of the local TV stations.

 

[Jim5506]

I just tested my 5G in my Samsung A71 5G with AT&T here in Lubbock - wifi turned off of course. Download speed was 91.11 Mbps through AT&T Internet, which is higher than AT&T's claim of 79.6 Mbps national average for 5G. About the same as I get with my Suddenlink 100Mbps ethernet service through cable.

 

[navychop]

So YOU’RE the one!