Double Edged Sword!
You all must have thought about the consequences of this....
1. There can be more piracy. You can have a few houses that share an intranet (a router with NAT) wirelessly that all transmit to Dish like it is in one household. I can see about five wireless networks from my neighbors. These neighbors can all split the bill. That isn't good! Our rates will go up!
2. Dish can save money, but what is the tradeoff? I'm assuming that the cost savings comes from reducing the number of lines that the 622s call to. They are 800 numbers, so dish pays for that call, which could be expensive in some remote areas.
The tradeoff is what you might want to be very concerned about. If you have your 622 connected to high bandwidh internet, dish can do a lot more spying on what you are watching. They can compile this information now, and sell it to advertisers. We might become a ratings system, which has some benefits. Ratings drive advertising as well. Dish could even potentially download commercials into your 622 to turn the box into a direct marketing device and even make more money!
I have read this thread, and I haven't seen any decenters. That is okay, I know in years past I wanted this feature, but it is also good to look at it from different angles too. Personally, I don't think I should have to connect the 622 to a phone line. I only have ONE receiver, the 622. How in the world can I pirate anything with just one box?? I shouldn't need to connect it to the phone line to avoid that fee - that would be an even better feature!
We are not lemings, we are customers!