Dish Network with no phone line?

[hoopsbwc34]

Dish Network finally has my local broadcast networks, and I'd love to get the PVR 721 and start my life without cable! However, I have one little problem. I don't have a home phone line!

My wife and I have managed to avoid the $40 a month fee by using our cell phones exclusively and signing up for broadband internet access. So that brings me to my question...

Has anyone figured out a way to get around having a home line? Some ideas I've had, but I don't know if they exisit or work are:

- Voice over IP hardware to use to "dial up" via my broadband connection.
- Hardware to connect my receiver to my cellphone each night to allow for updates (probably way too slow)
- Asking a neighbor to somehow tap into their phone line (I think I've seen it in the movies :D )

Anyone done this or have any other ideas? Or am I just cheap and should I just shell out the $40 a month :p

Thanks!

[HTguy]

1st of all, you don't report your location but it's surprising that it would cost you $40 to get a land line. I pay less than half of that for a month including all taxes, local LD, LD connection, etc.

But you don't need a phone line just to have a DISH Network system.

They want you to have it for 3 reasons:[list=1]
Interactive applications on the DISH Home Channel
PPV billing for events ordered by RC
To prove that the receiver is in your home, particularly when you have more than one
[/list=1]

But they will not keep any of the above from making you a customer if there is no land line available.

[hoopsbwc34]

I'm in Tucson, AZ... and unfortunately, the price is between $35-$40 plus another $50 for "installation" for a basic line without caller-id, call waiting etc.

I have a friend who has DirecTV. He said he moved to a home where there was no phone line and they discontinued his service because as far as they knew, he could run up unlimited PPV charges. The only way they can track that is through the phone line.

Also, without a land line how would I get software updates for my PVR 721? Seems like a necessary addition to be a subscriber.

In fact, I remember seeing in ads that it is REQUIRED to have a phone line.....

[HTguy]

Just contact a good local independent full-service retailer. He will get you signed up & installed w/o a problem.

If you order PPVs w/the RC at a certain point you will not be allowed to buy anything else until the bill is paid. This is controled by the "Smart Card."

SW updates are downloaded from the satellite (110 in the case of the PVR721).

Yes, the small print in the ads say phone connection required for the reasons I listed above. But again, they won't keep you from becoming a cust if you don't have one. Believe me, there are many, many, many DBS subs w/o phones hooked up to their IRDs.

The only suggestion I have is that you might want to wait a bit for the next production run of 721s (actually, you probably will have to anyway) because of some SW issues in the 1st batch.

[Timco]

You don't need a landline. Both my receivers have never been hooked up to the phoneline. Of course, I never order PPV either.

[Doug E]

I echo Timco. I have both D* and E* and do not have a phoneline connected on either. Nor do I order PPV either, so they have no knowledge that no lines are connected.

All software is downloaded from the satellite, NOT a phone line.

[Steve Mehs]

Don't blame you for getting rid of your landbased phone line, i'd drop it in a heartbeat if I could. In 4 years never had my recievers connected to a phone line as I see no purpose to.

[Bill Mullin]

We have phone lines here but no hookup to the PVR. I told Dish during the installation that I would never order PPV so saw no need for a phone line hookup - he agreed. FWIW, I had C-band from 1994 through about a month ago, again I never hooked up the phone, and again there was no problem.

- Bill

[hoopsbwc34]

So it sounds like as long as I don't order PPV, it's not a problem. What happens if I do? Does the SmartCard lock me out of the system at some point? (Maybe this is what happened to my friend).

Thanks for the info guys.

[Steve Mehs]

The IRD wont let you order unless is phone connection is detected, when you goto order and press OK twice, the IRD will check for a phone line, if no phone line is detected you get an error. If you wanna order PPV you can always call the automated 1-800 PPV phone#, but an additional $1 will be tacked on to the PPV purchase price. Additionaly, the phone number of the phone that you call to order a PPV with must match the number on your account. Lets say the phone# of your cell is the one listed on the account, you go out, and your wife wants to order a PPV, she can't unless you leave her your phone. She could always call 800-333-DISH to order the PPV but that would result in an additional $5 change, and is really not worth it, IMO.

[Bill Mullin]

PPV costs about $3.99/movie with DN. There's a video store a 5 minute walk from my door that rents new release DVD's for $3.50. Really doesn't make sense for me to pay for PPV when I don't feel like waiting the 6 months or so for a movie to move from PPV to the Premium channels! I'd guess others have similar good reasons for not hooking up the phone line to the PVR.

- Bill

[Steve Mehs]

another note- my orginal installer never hooked up our 2700s upto the phone line, and the guy that did my 501 upgrade didnt either. I suspect this may be the case is most other installations.

[MikeW]

Originally posted by Steve Mehs
The IRD wont let you order unless is phone connection is detected, when you goto order and press OK twice, the IRD will check for a phone line, if no phone line is detected you get an error.

Not entirely true, unless recent software revisions have been made. My four year old was playing with the remote and ordered 5 movies in 1 hour's time. I haven't had a phone line hooked up since day one and those five movies have been on my card for a year. I password protected PPV after that, but I know those movies were authorized.

[Steve Mehs]

Ive tried that many times on the 2800s and once or twice with my 501 and have never exerienced that. Each time I would get and I quote "Information 083- No Dial Tone. Your receiver is unable to dial-out. Select YES to try again."

Mike, what IRD do you have?

[MikeW]

4900

[Marcus S]

You can order PPV's on-line or call. No phone line connections is required. What I have seen after 2 years of no phone line connection, i.e. PPV orders via the receiver, no phone line connection, is the receiver simply locks up requiring an RMA. Expect to get a wonderfull suprise in your next bill after that.

[huzefa]

I never have my PVR501 hooked up, even when I order PPVs. They have online PPV ordering at the dishwebsite (takes 3 clicks and I'm done especially nice when you have a wireless laptop).

[Jacob S]

I believe if you do not connect 4-6 receivers and keep it 3 ore less receivers you should be fine without having phone lines connected, am I correct that they start requiring it on receivers 4 through 6 ?

[EdF]

Steve - not sure about the phone line number being important - the phone number of record with Dish is my cell phone. We recently watched a PPV to use a free coupon and connected the Dishplayer to an unlisted house line (used only for internet service). Dish has no record of this phone number. We just ordered a second PPV last night and there was no problem with the unknown home phone line calling.

Jacob - we have 5 dish receivers and they have never said anything about having the phone line connected. I've called Dish several times in the past year for service changes and additions and only once was I asked to read off the "Location ID" for each receiver to the rep.

[Cardini]

I've been a disk subscriber for about 5 years.

I only connect a phone line to my recievers when I want to watch a PPV. ( I don't have a jack in the closet where my reciever is housed.)
When I'm done watching I disconnect the line. The ordered movies que to about ten and after that you can't order any more until you connect a line to the reciever and allow the phone line to connect to dish and register the movies you've watched.

The bottom line. E* will want you as a customer with or without the line attached. The disadvantage to not being able to connect a line is that you wont be able to get SW upgrades to the reciever.

[Geronimo]

I don't think it needs to be connected at the moment of oedering. Tht, I believe, is all accomplished by satellite. It is only the dump from the card to DISh that si by phone line.

[Bill Mullin]

Originally posted by Cardini
The disadvantage to not being able to connect a line is that you wont be able to get SW upgrades to the reciever. Is this true?

[scooper]

Cardini - you do NOT have to have the phoneline connected to get S/W updates. It has been my experiance (and several others on this same thread, if you would go back and READ) that this is the case. All you will loose with no phoneline are
#1 - Remote ordering of PPV events
#2 - The new DishInteractive applications beginning to spool out on the OpenTV capable models.

[Jacob S]

What if you have a receiver(s) at a second home or cabin (vacation home) when they ask you to read off the location id's?

[Tony S]

I agree with what most of the others have stated. I have had Echostar for 4 or 5 years now, and I have never had any of my receivers connected to the phone line. This has never been a problem at all.

Jacob S, On past Charlie Chats, Charlie himself has said that it is OK to bring your receiver to a second home (vacation home), so I don't think that there would be any problem with the location IDs.

[spartanrob]

The only reason I have my phone line connected to my 501 is so I can get caller ID on the tv screen. It's really cool.

[Cardini]

Originally posted by scooper
Cardini - you do NOT have to have the phoneline connected to get S/W updates. It has been my experiance (and several others on this same thread, if you would go back and READ) that this is the case. All you will loose with no phoneline are
#1 - Remote ordering of PPV events
#2 - The new DishInteractive applications beginning to spool out on the OpenTV capable models.

Well, I did READ the thread before replying, but thanks for suggesting it. And I do realize that the upgrades are SENT down via sattelite. But, my understanding was that the receiver won't accept the upgrade without a phone line check. This may be wrong info, but thats the info I was given by 2 installers. Could it be that different recievers handle this differently?

[Geronimo]

It possibly varies by receiver but I have ordered with my phone line either not plugged in or the phone in use (no dail tone) with no problems.

[Tony S]

Cardini, Those installers gave you bad information. You do not need to have the phone line installed in order to get software upgrades. This is true for all of the receivers.

[MikeW]

Cardini-My receiver now has Dish Home. This was a software upgrade completed without having the receiver hooked to a phone line.

[ElJefe]

Actually, the location ID changes quite often, on my receiver anyway.

[MikeW]

Didn't know that...edited my previous post. Is the purpose of the location ID intended to verify receivers' locations then ?

[Jacob S]

The only purposes for phone line connection is for ppv movie downloads, dish home customer support, playing games against other dish network customers (in the future), and other dish home support, and for internet access (for those pvr units that support that).

[Jacob S]

Also I am wanting to ask if one would leave some of the receivers at one of the customer's homes, and then leave some of the receivers at the second home, so that way they do not get damaged (such as the hard drive pvr receivers) or so that way they do not have to go through the hassle of having to bring the receivers back and forth.

Does the customer have to take the receivers back and forth or can they keep some of them at the other location? What about the phone line connection at the other location being a different phone number? Most of them do not have a phone at the second home because they do not want to pay extra utilities that they do not need (or have a cell phone) but every once in a while a customer will have a phone at that location as well because some of the homes are seasonal homes. Some just stay in a camper and run a wire from the neighboring house which might already have Dish if relatives would live next door and someone was to spend time with their relatives at their second home.

[HTguy]

Originally posted by Jacob S
Also I am wanting to ask if one would leave some of the receivers at one of the customer's homes, and then leave some of the receivers at the second home, so that way they do not get damaged (such as the hard drive pvr receivers) or so that way they do not have to go through the hassle of having to bring the receivers back and forth.

Does the customer have to take the receivers back and forth or can they keep some of them at the other location? What about the phone line connection at the other location being a different phone number? ...but every once in a while a customer will have a phone at that location as well because some of the homes are seasonal homes.

It would not be very smart for a cust to connect a rcvr to a phone line at a vacation home because, technically, the rcvr is not supposed to be there. He is supposed to have a separate acct for each residence and put the one he isn't using into a seasonal downgrade mode.

Of course, this isn't practical for weekend cabins & the like. But for weekends there shouldn't need to be a phone hook-up. Even if you order some PPVs you can take the rcvr home to hook-up for uploading the PPV charges. ;)

[Jacob S]

Hmmm, never thought about that, the customer should not need a phone line connection anyways, should just wait to have them downloaded when he gets back to his first home. A person could put a second phone number on the count as well like they can put a second address, right?

[Cyclone]

You might want to check with the phone company. Besides their usual "unlimited" local calls dial tone service, they usually also offer cheaper dial tone where you are charged if you exceed a certain number of minutes. If I recall, these cheap lines can be around only $10 a month.

[Jacob S]

I have seen them for $6 a month for access then charge by the minute. Good for receiving incoming calls and for those that do not call out much at all, and just pay for all local or long distance calls. I believe its $15 for unlimited local within the own exchange here. There is an additional $5 fee for the Universal fund charge, and all the other etc. charges.

Does dish allow you to add a second home phone number for like the second home to the account? I know that they have been asking for the work phone number as well. How about the physical address? Can you have two on one account if the customer has a second home or a seasonal home? How about those that have truck driving jobs where they may have two or three homes or campers where they go one place then another? I ask about this phone line issue as well because of the pvr units such as dishplayer and 721 that are going to have internet access in it which would require a phone line.