Will the phone lines ever be enforced?

[PILMAN]

I read another thread here (was closed due to piracy) and although i'm not supporting of piracy the question the person brought up was interesting relating to phone lines. Will DISH ever enforce (or any other DBS provider) that you HAVE to have a phone line connected? I myself don't have a phone line, I used Voice Over IP (broadband phone) due to the fact it's cheaper. Many other users use Cell phones and are again completely against landlines. I see landlines as an obsolete technology (just my opinion). Do you think DISH will enforce this or any other DBS provider and if so what do you think those of us that don't use phone lines should do? Should we just spend the money to get a phone line or what? I'm hoping one day a receiver will be made that accepts at least RJ45 connections or wireless router support.

 

[korsjs]

i don't think it will ever be mandatory. they might add a five dollar charge like they do now for some receivers.

 

[drod]

If the auditing department determines that the recievers are in different physcial locations then yes they will require having a phone line on all recievers temporarily for purposes of enforcing the 1 location rule. Mods, lock this thread, he's asking the same thing a different way.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=57950

 

[Mr Tony]

I don't think he is. He is just asking about it. I am in the same boat, as I am cell phone only. I have only one receiver, but use to have 3. Dish called me one time and had them read some info off the system info screen (the location ID). I asked them why and they were calling people with multiple receivers to verify they were in the same location. This was about a year or so ago.

So they do make calls.

 

[BobMurdoch]

I've got one of my machines plugged into a phone line. The other three are inaccessible to a phone jack. If backed against a wall, I could get wireless jacks, but why go through the expense if I don't need to. I don't use any of them for PPV and my primary is the only one I'd be concerned about having access to them and I have that one hooked up to my fax line.

 

[n0qcu]

I'm hoping one day a receiver will be made that accepts at least RJ45 connections or wireless router support.

Doing something like that would NOT be secure at all. Its real easy to make several locations all appear to be only one.

 

[PILMAN]

If the auditing department determines that the recievers are in different physcial locations then yes they will require having a phone line on all recievers temporarily for purposes of enforcing the 1 location rule. Mods, lock this thread, he's asking the same thing a different way.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=57950

Whoa there I'm not sharing receivers with other people, I own all my receivers. I'm stating that I'm not going to drill a hole in 5 of my rooms just to have satellite service that's outrageous. With where I live if that were the case I'd be better off with cable so I don't have to have more holes just for satellite. All I was asking is if the phone lines will ever be enforced. Are the phone lines for location purpose or to make sure people aren't using pirated boxes? What is the real purpose of the phone lines as I know you can order ppv's online or over the phone.

 

[drod]

I'll tip my hat, I know customers that pirate the services all the time so I have started becoming paranoid/anal about it.

 

[kbohip]

The phone line rule sucks. I never had to bother with it when I had my 510. I got a 522 and had to run a line (outside) down to my basement where my only phone line is. I have a broadband phone.

 

[ken]

You may think the rule sucks but its been part of the rules since day one (for multiple receivers). If you don't like it you should not have gone to satellite. Just because they don' enforce it all of the time does not mean the rule is invalid. I think a lot of what E* does sucks but its the rules we have to live with if we want the service. BUT, if they change the rules after you buy into the service then you have a good gripe.

 

[PILMAN]

If you own your own receivers I don't think it should be a necessary. That's like Cell phones that you get free while under contract for a year. They don't require you to run a wire to your phone. They also don't rely on a 3rd party service. They just invoice you for it and if you don't return it bill collectors start calling you. I don't see whats much different with receivers especially those you own. Wouldn't it be cheaper for a 2 way satellite dish or would that end up costing more for the company or cause bandwidth issues?

 

[ken]

Pillman, get real. Can you think of a better way for E* to verify that you did not give one of your extra receivers to your brother that lives across town. They could care less about the receiver itself, its the programming you are only paying $4.99 that they care about. How you can compare a cell phone (a device meant to be portable) to a 2nd, 3rd, 4th satellite receiver (a device meant to be at a fixed location) is beyond me. Put yourself in the position of controlling the security of the signal that can be picked up anywhere in the country and then come up with a better way other than the phone connection. If you do I bet you would be a rich man.

 

[dishrich]

Put yourself in the position of controlling the security of the signal that can be picked up anywhere in the country and then come up with a better way other than the phone connection. If you do I bet you would be a rich man.

I CAN - & it has nothing to do with a phone line. Actually, E* already did, or was going to. When they came out with the DP line of LNB's, switches & receivers, they were supposed to be made so that all receivers would talk to each other thru the switches & LNB'S. By doing this, you would NOT even need a phone line, since this would assure that ALL receivers in a house were actually there. The other advantage is, if you DID have a phone line, you would have only needed to connect 1 receiver & the rest could have communicated out the 1 connection. Alas, this didn't materialize. (probably because Charlie is so cheap)

Another way to do this would be to have the receivers talk to each other via power line technology - same difference as well, but sometimes this can be a problem in some houses.

 

[MikeD-C05]

The new 942 has a feature advertised on its instructional printout from the Dish website, that will be enabled in a future software update called DISH Comm. From the instructions it is defined as; Dish Comm Technology -will allow phone and audio data to be sent throughout a home over existing power wiring . Requires only one phone line connection among all DISH Comm -enabled receivers in a home. So you could only have one receiver plugged into a phone line and the others would work through that one. I don't know if that means that all receivers will be enabled by a software update to DISH Comm or if that means only the newer receivers will be .

If they do use the dishpro lnbs as the way to make the receivers talk to each other then all we would have to do is change your lnbs out to a legacy style to avoid them from talking to each other . What about homes that have a extended Garage apartment that is not connected to the same wiring as the main house but you have a sat receiver in it? Or homes that have a guest house not connected but on the same property?

I don't think that this solution will work for all situations.

 

[Marzen]

From the instructions it is defined as; Dish Comm Technology -will allow phone and audio data to be sent throughout a home over existing power wiring .

I would hope they would take into account existing power line communications protocalls so that they're sytem wouldn't conflict with my X-10 enable home control. I have way to much invested in X-10 already.
PS - thanks for explaining the phone line/location reasoning. I was griping about that myself just recently as I didn't understand why I needed a land line for SATV when even my alarm system uses my PC to txt msg my cell phone.

 

[Larry]

I would also hope they will give some thought to the strange things that happen with annoying regularity to anyone hooked up to the Florida power grid.

 

[jlhugh]

I think that they need to put GPS in the receivers then they can just look to see if they are at the same place. GPS works indoors right?

 

[dishrich]

I don't think that this solution will work for all situations.

Neither does powerline technology, but frankly, having the receivers communicate back through the coax/switch is probably MORE relieable overall than powerline. As far as your points about the legacy LNB, it's the same thing as legacy receivers - of course, this would ONLY work with EVERYTHING being DP as I pointed out. The legacy receivers DON'T do powerline, either - so does it really matter? The point is, you're going to have a problem with anything legacy, but as long as E* continues to charge $5 with or without the phone line, who cares?

 

[MikeD-C05]

Big Brother Charlie watching you at all times . Imagine the map and what it would look like with 11 million customer accounts bleeping at all times. Who could tell who had what ?

The answer would be a multi tuner dvr receiver with 4 sat tuners and 2 ota digital tuners. It would do both hd and sd at the same time and it could easily be hooked up in a subscribers home and run to 4 different tvs at the same time. This would eliminate the need for more than one box in most homes. They could have one that does up to 6 sat tuners as well with the same 2 ota tuners . They would share a common hard drive. It would have to be huge to take into account all the people in a home wanting to watch at one time. This would keep most people happy , since you can only have 6 receivers on your account at any time.

I think the Ucentric receivers that Directv will have come fall are like this , except they use smaller boxes that carry the main receiver signal to the other tvs in the home. They are supposed to be hd and sd and dvr as well. They have 4 sat tuners and 2 ota tuners as well. They all share a common hard drive like the 522/942 does. That is the way you can prevent stacking. Except maybe in homes in apartment building who could share the smaller receiver boxes.

 

[kevink]

GPS needs to see enough of the skies to see at least 3 sattellites. More for a better fix. So it won't work, in general, inside.

Probably why most cell phones don't have GPS yet, and many of the location fixes they do on cell phones are based on triangulation from the towers. Not enough people keep their cell phones in good view of the sky.