LAND LINE REALLY NECESSARY?

[DAVEGTESTR]

huh?

...DN needs to just give up their $5 charge (which is costing them subscribers, and ultimate revenue potential)....

Cmon, speak of something you know of ...instead of what you've heard somewhere...
Ethernet works just fine for me. NO $5 charge. :rant: <insert reasons why DISH DVR's are so superior> In fact, the Ethernet works better with DISH than the phone line connection on my 612.

 

[DodgerKing]

Cmon, speak of something you know of ...instead of what you've heard somewhere...
Ethernet works just fine for me. NO $5 charge. :rant: <insert reasons why DISH DVR's are so superior> In fact, the Ethernet works better with DISH than the phone line connection on my 612.

Don't they still charge you if you do not have either connected?

If so, then that is the difference he is speaking of. With Direct, you do not have to have your DVR connected at all and you will not be charged.

 

[jspeeney011480]

I used to install Directv and the only thing the phone line is used for is to call the box once a month to check the access card for purchases such as ppv. If you don't order ppv you don't need it and even if you do, you can order online or over the phone. No need for phone line for receiver. They just tell you that you need it for updates. But that is done through the satellite.

 

[DAVEGTESTR]

Don't they still charge you if you do not have either connected?

If so, then that is the difference he is speaking of. With Direct, you do not have to have your DVR connected at all and you will not be charged.

Yes, DISH charges for DVR's. That is a known. ..sorry misunderstanding :

 

[ParvoPup]

To clarify the statement about people dumping landlines - as a recently early retired Telco employee - - I can you assure that the numbers of "cell only" households is growing.

And yes - the Telcos are suffering - especially VZ.

The last set of internal study numbers I saw about a month ago had the national average at 21% with the under 35 age group as high as 48% in select markets.

I currently work for D* and our local unscientific "study" puts our area close to the 40% no landline zone.

 

[Joe Diamond]

To clarify the statement about people dumping landlines - as a recently early retired Telco employee - - I can you assure that the numbers of "cell only" households is growing.

And yes - the Telcos are suffering - especially VZ.

The last set of internal study numbers I saw about a month ago had the national average at 21% with the under 35 age group as high as 48% in select markets.

I currently work for D* and our local unscientific "study" puts our area close to the 40% no landline zone.

About a year ago I saw a study in the New York Times that stated 1 in 6...no land line.
My little phone fixing side line is dead in the water. You can get a prepaid cell phone for the cost of one land line repair or jack install @ $60.00 hr.

Joe

 

[sudnshok]

STILL,

The Home Service Provider (HSPs) that DTV uses for installations insist that their installers connect phone lines or face deductions in pay. So the installer has to choose between connecting existing lines, installing phone runs for free OR finding some way to dump your installation and move on to the next job WITH an easy phone situation.

SO it depends who you ask. All above statements are accurate.

Joe

Had it installed about 2 years ago with no land line and the installer didn't hassle me one bit.

 

[PMKS]

I've been a subscriber since 1995...

In the early days it was a big deal to DirecTV if your phone line was connected. My first IRD was always hooked to a phone line, as IRD prices went down and I added more boxes some of them weren't hooked to phone lines. ( My house was built in 1961 and it's a PITA to run wires )

I had a box shut off in the late 90's once because the phone line wasn't hooked up. I had to run a long phone line overnight once a month to that IRD so it could "phone home" and keep DirecTV happy.

Lately they seem to not care at all.... only about half of my boxes are hooked to phone lines now.

 

[Almighty1]

Considering that some very high percentage (don't want to quote a number off the top of my head and get flamed) of US households have abandoned landlines for better cellular deals, both "majors" needs to just accept that fact.

Have heard of no Directv consumer issues with it and DN needs to just give up their $5 charge (which is costing them subscribers, and ultimate revenue potential).

Welcome to the new paradigm.

Just curious but what is the $5 charge that you're referring to? I am a recent Directv customer after buying a new house and then installing it on May 15, 2009. I did not have phone service because all the inside telephone wires were disconnected inside the wall which the telco can't fix. So I asked Directv if the landline was needed for installation on atleast 6 occassions prior to install and they said no and the installer just installed without even asking about the phone line, the only thing is that the installer said was for the first 90 days, to call one of the three numbers on the sticker on the side of the box if there are any problems and he'll be back out to fix it and not to call Directv, otherwise they will take money away from him so it seems like even with the Service Plan according to him, don't use it until 90 days after installation. As for alarms, those don't need landline anymore since if you use something like nextalarm.com, it can all use your internet connection and you can even view the status of all the sensors as well as the logs. As for faxing, I use Verizon Wireless so all I do is use a scanner and a printer and use my cellphone to fax with fax software so basically I get to fax for the same rate as voice. free on nights and weekends and it just uses minutes during the daytime. Other people have used things such as magicjack voip service which is $19.95 per year but the first year is included with the $39.95 devide and has unlimited anytime calls to the US and Canada.

 

[srenker]

Just curious but what is the $5 charge that you're referring to?

Dish Network charges $5 a month if the box is not connected to a phone line. (He abbreviated it DN so it was easy to overlook.)