No phone line in my house

[holidayidol]

Does the Dual Tuner DVR unit (522 for example) only work for multiple rooms if there is a phone line? Any exceptions?

Can a network or any other solution allow this to work without a phone line?

Or am I stuck with getting a receiver in each room (3 altogether)? This is seriously the only thing holding me up to switching back to Dish Network again.

 

[jlhugh]

It will work. They will charge you the $5 a month for not having a phone line plugged in plus the $5 DVR fee. So you will have about $10 extra on your bill.

 

[holidayidol]

Thanks jlhugh.

So ok, if I get the 180 Package my bill will be approx as follows (?):

+52.99 programming
+5.00 one additional standard unit
+5.00 no phone line fee
+5.00 DVR fee
---------------------
$ 67.99

If that is correct, sheesh that adds up fast.

Are there any known ways to keep those specs, but save a little more ?

 

[Ilya]

Can a network or any other solution allow this to work without a phone line?

VoIP (like Vonage) should work too, I think.

 

[chaddux]

Thanks jlhugh.

So ok, if I get the 180 Package my bill will be approx as follows (?):

+52.99 programming
+5.00 one additional standard unit
+5.00 no phone line fee
+5.00 DVR fee
---------------------
$ 67.99

If that is correct, sheesh that adds up fast.

Are there any known ways to keep those specs, but save a little more ?

I believe your original posts indicates you will use two receivers in three rooms, right? If so, the fees are as follows:

America's Top 180: 52.99
522 Tuner 1: 0.00 Additional Receiver/Lease Fee (One receiver included in package price)
522 Tuner 2: 4.99 Additional Receiver/Phone Line Fee (Would be waived if you had the phone line connected)
Other Receiver: 5.00 Additional Receiver/Lease Fee
522 DVR Fee: 4.98
Total: 62.96 + any applicable tax in your area

All additional receivers would each incur a separate 5.00 fee.

 

[andrews777]

The "additional receiver fee" is different than the "no phone fee". I have my two 522s hooked up to a phone and I still pay the extra receiver fee for the second. I would considering cancelling the home phone line if I could get rid of the other, but that and my home alarm make it worth keeping the home phone at a very basic level at this point.

Brad

 

[SimpleSimon]

Remember, the $5 charge for not having the phone line hooked up, comes out to be the same as having two single tuner boxes.

I don't think anyone has ever come up with the REAL answer as to why E* does this.

 

[digiblur]

Pick up an Sipura SPA1001 from Voxilla, configure it for FreeWorldDialup, change the receiver to dial an * before the number(or you could change the dial plan on the Sipura), and let the receiver dial away. No monthly bill for a phone line....

 

[cclement]

Pick up an Sipura SPA1001 from Voxilla, configure it for FreeWorldDialup, change the receiver to dial an * before the number(or you could change the dial plan on the Sipura), and let the receiver dial away. No monthly bill for a phone line....

Pardon my ignorance, but I know nothing of this service. I don't have a landline- cell phone and cable broadband only. I didn't really understand this website or service.

Please tell me more about this.

 

[Mark_AR]

Check with your cable broadband co. Here in ARkysaw, COX is offering cable/internet/phone in one package.

Just to quickly familiarize you with the technology, here is a link to COX in PHX. It explains the concept...

http://www.cox.com/phoenix/telephone/

 

[uWILLknow]

Here it is....

Remember, the $5 charge for not having the phone line hooked up, comes out to be the same as having two single tuner boxes.

I don't think anyone has ever come up with the REAL answer as to why E* does this.

No one will ever tell u this officially; But the phone line is required to assure u are using the 2nd tuner for ur same household, not feeding it to another household and sharing the monthly bill. This tends to happen alot more (but not specific to) with international customers who will send the 2nd tuner signal (TV2) to their brother, cousin, Parents or whoever's house nearby (usually an apartment type situation). This is called "account packing". They will tell u it is so the receiver can order PPV's and do it's "updates". These updates come from the satellite and require a signal, not from a phone line. Imagine if they charged u $5 a month for the 301 not being plugged to a phone because u can't order PPV's. That wouldn't make sense seeing that u pay a transaction fee to watch a PPV when u have to order it By the automated phone system or internet or CSR.

Oh yeah, and VoIP phones DO NOT work with the Dish receivers; once again, they can't verify "location" with those kinds of phone lines. If u ever noticed, u can be in one state and have a VoIP phone line with a different city's area code...

 

[garn9173]

guess I should consider myself lucky as my wife and I are 3 year plus E* subscribers and have never been charged the $5.00 a month for not having our 2 301's hooked up to a phone line.

When we were shopping for satellite service, we went with E* because of the no phone line requirement. If E* would ever start enforcing that, i'm sure we would return to cable in a heartbeat.

No one will ever tell u this officially; But the phone line is required to assure u are using the 2nd tuner for ur same household, not feeding it to another household and sharing the monthly bill. This tends to happen alot more (but not specific to) with international customers who will send the 2nd tuner signal (TV2) to their brother, cousin, Parents or whoever's house nearby (usually an apartment type situation). This is called "account packing". They will tell u it is so the receiver can order PPV's and do it's "updates". These updates come from the satellite and require a signal, not from a phone line. Imagine if they charged u $5 a month for the 301 not being plugged to a phone because u can't order PPV's. That wouldn't make sense seeing that u pay a transaction fee to watch a PPV when u have to order it By the automated phone system or internet or CSR.

Oh yeah, and VoIP phones DO NOT work with the Dish receivers; once again, they can't verify "location" with those kinds of phone lines. If u ever noticed, u can be in one state and have a VoIP phone line with a different city's area code...

 

[Mr Tony]

guess I should consider myself lucky as my wife and I are 3 year plus E* subscribers and have never been charged the $5.00 a month for not having our 2 301's hooked up to a phone line.

if you have 2 single boxes, you are charged the 4.99 extra receiver fee

 

[garn9173]

yes we are, however, the previous post made it sound like you were the extra $5.00 for receivers that aren't hooked up to a phone line.

if you have 2 single boxes, you are charged the 4.99 extra receiver fee

 

[Mr Tony]

if you have a dual tuner box thats plugged into the phone line, there is no extra receiver charge.

If it isn't plugged in, then you are charged the 4.99 fee

 

[HokieEngineer]

Maybe in the mind of Charlie the $5 fee makes sense, but to me it only puts extra burden on the legit customer.

The only possible explanation for the fee is to discourage the account stacking that a previous poster talked about. But I dont see how an extra $5 is discouraging that. Big whup, some dude is splitting service 2+ ways, so everyone pays an extra $2.50 for their illegal hookup. I cant even buy a sandwich for $2.50 these days.

Anyways, what it IS discourging is legit people like me with no landline phone. I would like to upgrade to a HD-DVR, however both the 921 and 942 are dual tuner and thus levy the extra charges. Why should I pay extra for the same service? The only thing that would use the landline phone would be the dish receiver, thus voip, basic verizon, etc are even more wasted $$. As I've said before, I'm waiting to see what dish announces for mpeg4, and no upfront lease fee Hd-dvrs.. Otherwise its off to comcast.

 

[garn9173]

not to mention paying the $20.00 for a single land line. With paying E* to upgrade my equipment and then the hassles of laying phone line all over the house to hook up the receiver along with all of the equipment failure of the receivers that I read about here, it's just not worth it.

Maybe in the mind of Charlie the $5 fee makes sense, but to me it only puts extra burden on the legit customer.

The only possible explanation for the fee is to discourage the account stacking that a previous poster talked about. But I dont see how an extra $5 is discouraging that. Big whup, some dude is splitting service 2+ ways, so everyone pays an extra $2.50 for their illegal hookup. I cant even buy a sandwich for $2.50 these days.

Anyways, what it IS discourging is legit people like me with no landline phone. I would like to upgrade to a HD-DVR, however both the 921 and 942 are dual tuner and thus levy the extra charges. Why should I pay extra for the same service? The only thing that would use the landline phone would be the dish receiver, thus voip, basic verizon, etc are even more wasted $$. As I've said before, I'm waiting to see what dish announces for mpeg4, and no upfront lease fee Hd-dvrs.. Otherwise its off to comcast.

 

[Mr Tony]

Hokie

Its $5 per box, but I know what youre saying

I don't have a home phone…havent for almost 5 years now

So because of that, Dish penalizes me when I want to order PPV, by charging me $1 extra.

Reason I don't use home phone is its not needed in my case.

 

[kavula]

-Laying down the line here-
For simplicity, let's just forget about one or two cents here or there. There is little difference between the $5 no phone line fee and the $5 additional outlet fee. All receivers have an outlet fee one way or another. In most people's cases, the first receiver outlet fee is included in their America's Top XXX package. If one does not subscribe to at least AT60, one then also has to pay a $5 "minimum programming fee" or "access fee". This can be considered a first outlet/receiver/tuner fee.

garn1973, you have two 301's. For those (I'm assuming you have an ATxxx package), the first receiver fee can be viewed as complimentary. For the second 301, you pay a $5 additional outlet fee. That's it, even if you don't have a phone line attached to either receivers.

You can view dual tuner receivers like the 942 like this: the 942 has two tuners, thus one could expect to pay two $5 additional outlet/tuner/receiver fees. However, since E* is so incredibly benevolent and generous, they offer to waive one of the $5 fees if you connect a landline 'continually' (what this means is debatable). Unfortunately, even E*'s magnificent benevolence can't save the customer from confusing language. You can either view the landline as a $5 refund if you have it or a $5 slap on the wrist "dual-tuner-phone-line-not-connected fee". Always look on the bright side of life, with the glass half full.

 

[Mr Tony]

- If one does not subscribe to at least AT60, one then also has to pay a $5 "minimum programming fee" or "access fee".

yep. Got that on my account. Just locals