Satellite Changes Coming - May 31st, 2015

[navigates]

The longer they put this off, the less it will cost them. With customers just upgrading on their own and disconnecting, eventually everyone gets the newer hardware.

When was the last time you saw a Dish300 system on just 119? That migration to a Dish500 took 10 years.

I have the dish 300. I use it to get 72.5. My setup goes, 110, 119, 118.5 from dish 500 plus with a built in switch for a wing dish. I give it 72.7 from dish 300 with dp plus lnb. Works perfectly fine with good numbers. The dish sign is a little faded though but I keep cleaning it since it’s in my patio. I couldn’t get the eastern arc 1000.4 dish with lnb to give out only 72.7 even though its on its first port. Two lnb’s with switches don’t play well. J so long story short I have the dish 300 in use.

 

[DishSubLA]

We would like to make you aware that, in preparation for the launch of a new satellite, certain existing DISH customers will be required to complete equipment migrations in order to ensure that they do not experience any service interruption once the new satellite is operational. This migration will be taking place over the next year and DISH will be reaching out to customers to inform them of any necessary changes beginning next week.

So, if this notice is recent or still in effect with no word of changes, then thank you very much for the clarification. The change out is for upgrades to 8PSK, just as Dish officially announced a LONG TIME AGO. Most unfortunate that it is now delayed until mid 2015. The Star Wars series has started on Disney XD and XD is still in SD. Good grief! Let's get this 8PSK change out done ASAP! Now, I wonder why Dish payed extra $$$ to change out all 8PSK boxes to HD for two subscribers who do not have nor are interested in HD?


Attached are the letters that will be sent in this first round of communication to impacted customers. As we move forward, additional communication may be sent to customers who have yet to migrate. DISH will be handling all migrations, so if a customer calls a Sales Partner, the agent should transfer the call to DISH as they usually would for existing customer upgrades.



Below is an overview of the two types of migration that DISH may be performing for the customers involved:



QPSK Migration

• Existing customers with one or more QPSK receiver on their account will be asked to upgrade to a more current receiver.
• QPSK receivers include:
  • 301, 2800, 3700, 3900, 4900, 1000/1500, 3000/3500, 4000/4500, 5000/5500, 501, 508, 510
• The customer’s QPSK receivers will be upgraded at no upfront cost. The customer will also not be required to enter into a new commitment. An upfront cost and a new commitment may be required if a customer requests an upgrade to a Hopper system.
• These migrations must be completed by May 2015.

Eastern Arc Markets Migration

• Existing customers in certain DMAs will be required to upgrade to all MPEG-4 (HD) receivers and have their antenna flipped to the Eastern Arc.
• The customer will be upgraded and their antenna flipped at no cost. The customer will also not be required to enter into a new commitment. An upfront cost and a new commitment may be required if a customer requests an upgrade to a Hopper system.
• The migrations in the below DMAs must be completed by the end of 2015. Additional DMAs are being migrated on a reactive basis only, but these customers will not be receiving migration letters at this time.

DMA

1

Albany Plus

2

Boston Plus (has Burlington)

3

Buffalo, NY

4

Burlington Plus

5

Burlington, VT/Plattsburg, NY

6

Chattanooga, TN

7

Evansville, IN

8

Jackson, MS

9

Jacksonville, FL/Brunswick, GA

10

Lansing, MI

11

Madison, WI

12

Northeast Portland-Auburn

13

Panama City, FL

14

Portland/Auburn, ME

15

Portland-Auburn Plus

16

Presque Isle, ME

17

Quincy, IL

18

Rockford, IL

19

Springfield, MO

20

Tallahassee, FL

21

Wheeling, WV/Steubenville, OH

 

[DishSubLA]

As far as the cost of staying with 8PSK instead of Dish going for all MPEG4 on the WA: let's remember, Charles himself was a Cost Analyst, and he probably did some of the work himself, as he was known to do for many big decisions at Dish. The business decision to go all 8PSK on the WA instead of all MPEG4 has got to make financial sense to people at Dish. so it is probably the best business decision. Wall Street would not like the costs and Dish would have to be defensive about such a high cost of an all MPEG4 migration on the WA, which could hurt Dish's stock price and hurt the value of the company. I could see the view, as pointed out, to let as many people upgrade to HD and especially the Hopper to have as much MPEG4 boxes that are paid, at least in part, by the subscribers and save $$$ when Dish decides to go all MPEG4 (maybe even H.265 rather than the current H.264 by the time another change out makes sense) at Dish's expense.

 

[whatchel1]

To answer which mpeg2 receivers are still out there, 311, 512, 522, 625, and 322.
EA used to be mpeg2 also till about 3 years ago, when it became mpeg4 only, and they forced all customers to either have hd equipment or upgrade. That was fun to field calls for.

EA has always been MPEG4 from day one. Unless maybe you are thinking of VOOM having MPEG 2.

 

[ChadT41]

Until late 2011 we were activatingn receivers on EA accounts that were mpeg2 receivers. While the intention and public knowledge on it may have always been 4 only, it served the capability to have SD receivers. Once they made us stop doing that(I wanna say September 2011), we treated it just the way it is now. The system we used would not even allow us to activate Sd receivers in EA accounts and even deactivated some that were there. It was similar to customers that currently have the DA pckage. Cannot have any SD receivers on a dish America pckage.

 

[whatchel1]

I came directly from VOOM and was directly moved over to an MPEG4 622. So I don't ever remember hearing that anything MPEG 2 worked on it. But you might be correct as I have not been SD w/ Dish.

 

[bobvick]

Until late 2011 we were activatingn receivers on EA accounts that were mpeg2 receivers.

I am not sure what you are saying, it would have been technically impossible to activate any receiver on a EA only setup, except for the 211, 222, 622, 612, 722, 922, or Hopper. The eastern arc has always been MPEG-4 since it launched in 2008.

 

[ChadT41]

We activated them, and they worked.

 

[bobvick]

Unless someone with more technical knowledge could explain how that could be possible, I have to believe you are mistaken.mI know for a fact that eastern arc has always been MPEG-4, perhaps you thought they were EA, but the SD only receivers were on a Dish 500 pointed at 110 and 119. There would be NO WAY a MPEG-2 receiver could get a MPEG-4 signal.

 

[ChadT41]

They were east coast customers. Their satellites were 72,77 and 61.5. According to their check switch matrix. With 625 and 311 receivers. The system we used allowed us to activate them, and they could watch the Sd channels
Just fine.

 

[bobvick]

SD was always MPEG-4, there is no way that is possible. They had to have something on EA, maybe like a 622, and the MPEG-2 box on 110 and 119. I will have to agree to disagree with you on that. NO WAY that worked.

 

[ChadT41]

Well it did. And dish stopped that. I'm not saying it didn't cause other issues later on. but everything that could be verified over the phone was, and it worked.

 

[bobvick]

I went back and looked at Lyngsat in late 2008. The only thing in MPEG-2 on those birds, E3, E4, E6, E8, and Rainbow 1 was international programming, maybe that is what was activated. Did not mean to make you out to be being untruthful, sorry if that was implied before. There was something they (MPEG-2 receivers) could have received at the time (internationals). I had not thought about those still being there at that time. The "english" programming was all MPEG-4 from the get go, however, even in SD.

 

[ChadT41]

That was back in the day when internationals were on both 61.5 and 118.7. Remember the transition to only 118? And they started moving more locals to the 61 sat. EA has had so many changes, it has been ridiculous. That's why I'm curious what the next big move is for the country. As much as I don't care about 4k yet, I want to know what they do for it and the changes for preparation for it. It's all intriguing to me. I know what you were saying, and I understood your position, I was just relaying what we did at one point. Since CSRs don't usually follow up(I had a list of interesting accounts I kept to see what ended up happening), we didn't know if they had trouble after everything was said and done. Just what happened at that moment.

 

[TheKrell]

My very first Dish install (c. 2001) was what would now be called "mixed arc". I had a D500 on 110/119, and another D500 on 61.5 for Russian language programming going to a 4900. Installed them all myself. Twice once my trees leafed out.

 

[ChadT41]

Besides our practice dish at the call center, I have never installed a dish. I would live to go out with a tech and help run cable and point. I did install my own node, but the tech knew about as much about it as I did when I initially got it. I'm gonna try and talk some neighbors into getting dish, so I can work on their install. Lol.

 

[rvvaquero]

Since CSRs don't usually follow up(I had a list of interesting accounts I kept to see what ended up happening), we didn't know if they had trouble after everything was said and done.

I was told that a CSR was not allowed to open an account without an inquiry. Are you saying that you could just go open an account to see what was going on without anyone requesting it?

 

[ChadT41]

You can enter the account number and view it. Like the notes. Now I have not been there since Feb, and major changes have taken place since I left, so it depends on when you were told that.

 

[navychop]

As far as the cost of staying with 8PSK instead of Dish going for all MPEG4 on the WA: let's remember, Charles himself was a Cost Analyst, and he probably did some of the work himself, as he was known to do for many big decisions at Dish. The business decision to go all 8PSK on the WA instead of all MPEG4 has got to make financial sense to people at Dish. so it is probably the best business decision. Wall Street would not like the costs and Dish would have to be defensive about such a high cost of an all MPEG4 migration on the WA, which could hurt Dish's stock price and hurt the value of the company. I could see the view, as pointed out, to let as many people upgrade to HD and especially the Hopper to have as much MPEG4 boxes that are paid, at least in part, by the subscribers and save $$$ when Dish decides to go all MPEG4 (maybe even H.265 rather than the current H.264 by the time another change out makes sense) at Dish's expense.

You may be right. WA might go straight to HEVC.

 

[dvrexpander]

The no cost to some cost amounts should be up to the tech making the visit for the upgrade. They don't realize that some people are still running on 20year old coax that could have been strung out 150feet to a pole under and over whatever that has grown or been put in the path like sidewalks over the years. I can't tell you how many times I've run into that situation that for an upgrade that should have taken no longer than 1 hour took 3-4 if that and perhaps a return visit to put another pole in the ground some where. You just cost the company all that time in wages and parts and lost time for other jobs when they should have just charged based on the job.
Dish won't do that though out of fear they will lose the customer when Direct does this and they are #1...hmm.