No landline - what options?

[dogday]

Been with Dish for 7 years now, and will be upgrading to a 942. Never had my system attached to a phone line and never had any problems. Now they're telling me there will be an additional $4.95 a month fee if I'm not connected to a phone line at all times.

Problem is, I don't have a phone line. I am a cell-only house.

Apparently, the phone line is used to "verify" ppv orders and for some Dish Interactive features - neither of which I ever use. So it would appear that I am going to be charged for a feature which I don't use or need.

Is there any way to use a VOIP solution as the "phone line"?? Any other suggestions?

thanks.

 

[Texanmutt]

Well, I guess you can get a land line for $40+ a month or live with the $4.95 dishnet fee. This rule applies to any dual tuner receiver with no exceptions, even if you never plan to order PPV programing. As far as VOIP, if it work for your house phones, then it should work for the receiver.

 

[dfergie]

Or Upgrade to AEP

 

[cclement]

Or Upgrade to AEP

That won't help the additional programing fee because of no phone line, you always have to pay that fee if the receiver's not hooked up to a phone line. However, the AEP will save you from paying the DVR fee.

 

[nsafreak]

Depends on your VoIP provider. I'm able to successfully dial into Dish with my 510 receivers with Vonage by adding the *99 prefix to my dialout for the receivers. Other VoIP providers may not even need the prefix. Some folks have also reported success with freeworldialup.

 

[Kandiru]

Nuvio, my VOIP provider has an $15/mo plan with 500 minutes/mo and unlimited US/CAN/PR. What is awesome about this residential VOIP is that it is piggibacked into their business network with triple redundant circuitry. No dropout ever since i had it. Worldwide calls about c3-8/min.

Welcome to the new world order, bye bye xxxxing SBC.

 

[Stonedtone420]

I've installed thousands of systems and rarely, (depending on the csrs knowledge) has the phone line connection ever been an issue-

 

[riffjim4069]

Landline: $30-40, VOIP $15-25, Dish fee $4.95. I have 942 and still maintain a landline...been ready to yank the landline since summer, but decided to wait.

 

[KE4EST]

Welcome to Satellite guys Dogday. However there is no way around the 4.99 fee for dual tuners.(without phone line) If you had two single tuners, you would pay an extra 4.99 for the extra tuner. So its the same fee. They just figure you can't cut a dual tuner in half and let your aunt mary use it with out her own account. However they need to come up with something else since a lot of people are going cell only.

 

[T2k]

1. Get VoIP - it should work.

2. If #1 doesn't work, get a landline, make the connection, then get rid of the landline. My unit never ever called in again after I activated once.

 

[rcwilcox]

This rule applies to any dual tuner receiver with no exceptions, even if you never plan to order PPV programing. .

Actually not true. You are forgetting 721's---- had one that was never connected to land line for two years till this rash of crap of audits so connected now even though it was a hassle

 

[SimpleSimon]

Actually not true. You are forgetting 721's---- had one that was never connected to land line for two years till this rash of crap of audits so connected now even though it was a hassle

Ditto for the 921. Texanmutt just misstated slightly - he meant dual-tuner, dual-output receiver.

 

[Rlanham]

Our phone was left off the hook last night. Turned on our 522 this morning and it had the message, unable to dial out, $4.95 fee etc. So my 522 apparently dials out every night.

 

[JohnTenn]

2. If #1 doesn't work, get a landline, make the connection, then get rid of the landline. My unit never ever called in again after I activated once.

This solution no longer works. Dish has it set up to dial out every few days even if you don't order any PPV.

The 4.99 simply eliminates an additional outlet fee. As previously posted, before dual tuners, you would have needed 2 tuners to do the same thing that one is doing now.

You do have the option of placing the reciever in Single Tuner mode, which gives you all the features of a Dual Tuner, without the additional outlet fee. It turns off the 2nd tuner feed on the reciever, but you can record and watch other channels, use the PiP features, which seem to disappear in dual tuner mode.

It's not like the 2nd tuner is High Definition, so you really lose nothing. I have seen several customers who think that having a 942 gives them dual HD on 2 HD tvs, but the HD display can't be transmitted on a Coax cable wire.

 

[digiblur]

Been with Dish for 7 years now, and will be upgrading to a 942. Never had my system attached to a phone line and never had any problems. Now they're telling me there will be an additional $4.95 a month fee if I'm not connected to a phone line at all times.
Problem is, I don't have a phone line. I am a cell-only house.
Apparently, the phone line is used to "verify" ppv orders and for some Dish Interactive features - neither of which I ever use. So it would appear that I am going to be charged for a feature which I don't use or need.
Is there any way to use a VOIP solution as the "phone line"?? Any other suggestions?
thanks.

Get a Sipura 1001 and put FreeWorldDialup on it. No monthly fees. It will give you a dial tone and let you dial all the toll free numbers you want. I've set up 2 dish accounts with these.

 

[SimpleSimon]

You do have the option of placing the reciever in Single Tuner mode, which gives you all the features of a Dual Tuner, without the additional outlet fee.

Wrong. You're still going to get charged the $5 unless you've got a phone line hooked up.

It turns off the 2nd tuner feed on the reciever

No it doesn't, it just makes both TV outputs the same (one HD, one SD, of course).

 

[UglyFatKid]

I did a little searching because I may run into this problem if I ever decide to upgrade from my 811 to a DVR. This is kinda pricey but...

http://ez-living.com/osb/itemdetails.cfm?ID=91

 

[digiblur]

I did a little searching because I may run into this problem if I ever decide to upgrade from my 811 to a DVR. This is kinda pricey but...
http://ez-living.com/osb/itemdetails.cfm?ID=91

Little cheaper...

http://store.voxilla.com/customer/product.php?productid=16136&cat=251&page=1

 

[cth3]

Nuvio, my VOIP provider has an $15/mo plan with 500 minutes/mo and unlimited US/CAN/PR. What is awesome about this residential VOIP is that it is piggibacked into their business network with triple redundant circuitry. No dropout ever since i had it. Worldwide calls about c3-8/min.
Welcome to the new world order, bye bye xxxxing SBC.

According to their website, you cannot use Nuivo and Dish or other Dial up service together - how did you get this to work???

Does Nuvio support FAX machines, modems, TIVO boxes, or DirectTV boxes?
Due to inherent difficulties with internet technology today, faxing is not 100% reliable. Because of this, Nuvio recommends it not be used as a primary fax line. However, Nuvio is currently developing a solution that will make faxing as reliable as your standard phone line.
This service does not support TIVO, Direct TV, home security systems, or any other application that uses a dial up modem.

 

[OoTLink]

I just use vonage for our "landline", thus defoiling dish's plan by being able to hook that box up to the dish box anywhere and still be "home".

Not liking their stupid new support people though. They know next to nothing and it takes lots of forwarding to get to someone that actually knows what you want