I agree with you on what actually happened. I was commenting on what Rex Povenmire said happened, which doesn't seem entirely accurate. It was poorly worded.
He should have said something like: "As of 11:59pm EST, 12/1/2006 Echostar stopped selling distant networks to all subscribers and issued commands to every satellite receiver to stop receiving network signals outside their designated market area."
So if you have a service address in NY, Chicago, Denver, or LA, then you are still getting the very same distant network signal as local into local over CONUS.
Seems like a big waste of bandwidth.
I suggested this a while back as an alternative to losing the distant nets. Just "move" to a service address in New York,L.A., Chicago ,Denver and you will keep your distants since they are on conus beam .