Satellite TV

[bdhsfz6]

We've been Dish customers ever since their startup in 1996. Only one service call in all that time. Like everything else, the price has gone up over time. We now pay $107/mo for two receivers and everything but the premium movie channels. That price also includes all our local channels. Dish also has an OTA adapter which lets us connect our antenna for local channels when there is a blackout due to a Dish/network contract dispute.

Our neighbor had Direct TV but switched to Dish when he saw our system. That was 8 years ago and they've also been satisfied customers.

If the price gets much higher though, we may do as others in this thread suggest and stream the programs we want. This depends on when and if we ever get Starlink.

 

[rgr33]

was a dedicated Direct TV customer for 17 years, but they refused to carry the the sports network that includes the local college teams.
Finally dumped them, and went to Dish TV.
Wish I hadn’t waited so long. Much better pricing and customer service.

 

[jyoutz]

We had Dish for 20+ years. The receiver crapped out and we decided to drop it. Our town has fiber internet so we went for streaming. So far it works well and we ended up paying less than half what Dish cost.

Nice but not available in many rural area’s.

 

[jyoutz]

We've been Dish customers ever since their startup in 1996. Only one service call in all that time. Like everything else, the price has gone up over time. We now pay $107/mo for two receivers and everything but the premium movie channels. That price also includes all our local channels. Dish also has an OTA adapter which lets us connect our antenna for local channels when there is a blackout due to a Dish/network contract dispute.

Our neighbor had Direct TV but switched to Dish when he saw our system. That was 8 years ago and they've also been satisfied customers.

If the price gets much higher though, we may do as others in this thread suggest and stream the programs we want. This depends on when and if we ever get Starlink.

Starlink is dependent on ATT cell service. In the Rocky Mountain region where I live, ATT only serves urban areas.

 

[jyoutz]

We've been Dish customers ever since their startup in 1996. Only one service call in all that time. Like everything else, the price has gone up over time. We now pay $107/mo for two receivers and everything but the premium movie channels. That price also includes all our local channels. Dish also has an OTA adapter which lets us connect our antenna for local channels when there is a blackout due to a Dish/network contract dispute.

Our neighbor had Direct TV but switched to Dish when he saw our system. That was 8 years ago and they've also been satisfied customers.

If the price gets much higher though, we may do as others in this thread suggest and stream the programs we want. This depends on when and if we ever get Starlink.

I wonder how our Dish programs differ? My service is only $60/month and I’m not on the introductory rate. I did call and go to a cheaper plan a few years ago, and don’t miss the more premium channel package. Most of those we didn’t watch anyway.

 

[ponytug]

Starlink is dependent on ATT cell service. In the Rocky Mountain region where I live, ATT only serves urban areas.

I am not sure what you meant to write, but Starlink has nothing to do with AT&T.

 

[PILOON]

I'm on Bell Canada 4 TV.--then a private internet provider and need a land line due to poor reception so no packages 4 us.
As to TV, the actual 40 mins of programing (20 of commercials) are now looking like the internet as they all have scrolling messages and they now have frequent pop up adds.
Only saving grace is PVR as U can 'fast forward'.
Adding insult to injury all packages insist that we have a French portion (that we never look at).

Then you learn that ma Bell is greatly subsidized as they always cry 'poor' only to find out they have a private jet and a tropical hideaway, (naturally in a subsidiary's name), note they are not alone as many 'fortune 50's' also ship profits (and perks) offshore.

 

[jyoutz]

I am not sure what you meant to write, but Starlink has nothing to do with AT&T.

I found that out. There is a ATT service with a similar name. Is starlink another satellite service with a dish type receiver?

 

[kcflhrc]

I found that out. There is a ATT service with a similar name. Is starlink another satellite service with a dish type receiver?

Are you living in a Cave?

 

[ponytug]

I found that out. There is a ATT service with a similar name. Is starlink another satellite service with a dish type receiver?

Starlink is a system of low earth orbit satellites delivering ~100Mbit/s service globally, but especially focused on service rural areas (It can only service very low densities of users, perhaps less than 1 per square mile at the moment.)

There is a thread in Rural Living on it, if you want to read up on it. Or head over to Reddit.com for their Starlink discussion.

All the best,

Peter

 

[jyoutz]

Are you living in a Cave?

Probably. Rural area with only Dish or DTV as options.

 

[jyoutz]

Starlink is a system of low earth orbit satellites delivering ~100Mbit/s service globally, but especially focused on service rural areas (It can only service very low densities of users, perhaps less than 1 per square mile at the moment.)

There is a thread in Rural Living on it, if you want to read up on it. Or head over to Reddit.com for their Starlink discussion.

All the best,

Peter

Just went to the starlink website. My area can’t get service until 2023 and the service is $99/month. I see no reason to pursue this.

 

[Hughman]

I've never understood the concept of paying for tv broadcast (cable, satellite or otherwise). I can find better things to spend $100+/mo on. (But that's just me I guess)

Don't get me wrong, I like watching TV. One of my pandemic projects was to build a home theater in the basement. I simply provide my own content or stream it from the internet.

 

[jyoutz]

I've never understood the concept of paying for tv broadcast (cable, satellite or otherwise). I can find better things to spend $100+/mo on. (But that's just me I guess)

Don't get me wrong, I like watching TV. One of my pandemic projects was to build a home theater in the basement. I simply provide my own content or stream it from the internet.

Some of us in rural areas don’t have fast enough internet to stream.

 

[deserteagle71]

Some of us in rural areas don’t have fast enough internet to stream.

^ This. When your internet speeds are measured in kilobytes per second instead of megabytes you don't stream much of anything.

Just saw another report that there are 120,000 people in rural Nevada who have no access at all to broadband of any sort. I'm one of them.

 

[Smokeydog]

DTV parting shot after 25 years of service was to charge me $147 for less than one day of service. After >1 hour on the phone blaming “billing cycle” nothing they can do except a $10 credit for taking so long. Sad they feel they have to screw leaving customers.

As for getting ATT fiber I had 10 technicians say no for every one that said yes. It took a lot of calls, visits, patience, getting canceled and perseverance to get them to run 2600’. Using me and my truck or tractor to shuttle equipment and pull stuck vehicles. One supervisor said I should have been made to pay $3/foot. Mix of union, non-union and contract labor. Wife and I dug a hole for one connection box because union technicians don’t do shovels. They were ready to quit, put in another service request for a contractor and then wait to get another service request to do their part. No shame in watching two old gray haired people dig 15-20 minutes for their ATT box! Already 4.5 months into this back and forth with nobody accountable to get the job done. Had to buy another in ground box $40, from Home Depot and install for the last 100’ run to the house. Just as entertaining or disappointing as any reality shows on TV except you are a participant.

 

[Dftodd]

We ditched dish several years ago and never looked back. Started with "Trees" in the way impeding installation.

I knew there were trees that were gonna be in the way, so we got with the installer, saw which ones were gonna impede the dish and had a tree service remove them while there for a couple other nuisance trees.

I scheduled the install once the tree's were down. Tech no called no showed. The reason "Trees were impeding the view" I had just spent $2,000 to get the trees taken down.

Called customer service and they said they would call the tech. Then called back and said trees were in the way. Well at this point I hit the roof. Said the trees your installer said were in the way have been removed. Either get the tech out here in the next our or direct TV is gonna be here first thing in the morning.

Customer service talked me into staying with them. Assured me the tech would be out soon. Just to get no called no showed a second time.

Called customer service again. They said the reason was trees.

At this point I had them escalate the call to management. Explained what was going on. They assured me tech would be there first thing in the morning.

At noon, he finally showed up. Was the same bloody idiot that no called I showed twice the day before.

I got sick of the having to call them back after a rate increase to get them to bump it back down.

Told them the next time they bumped us up, they could come get their equipment.

In the mean time we had the option of upgrading our internet speeds to where we could stream TV.

They bumped our rates up and I canceled the service and never looked back. Put an amplified antennae on the roof for local TV and streamed Netflix and prime.

If your internet is fast enough, you can stream TV and get better results. Even local channels through some of the different apps.

 

[Dftodd]

Same here - DISH. DirecTV, owned by AT&T .... fired them and regret ever signing up with them. Have AT&T cell phone coverage - wish I did not ! My experiences with ATT have been poor to say the least. They constantly change prices and will take you for every cent they can.
My DISH satellite saves me about $30-$40 / month and I am not missing any channels I care about. So far (1 year) so good.

We just switched back to ATT for cell service. I'll have to get back to you on the experience. They offer a special plan for Doctors, nurses, and emergency responders. Wife's a nurse so she qualified for the plan.

Her phone will work anywhere and take priority over the general public. As well as getting a 25% discount. We get the 25% discount on my line as well. So it dropped the price down to pretty similar to what we were paying with straight talk.

We've had an issue with our phones for a couple weeks now. After doing the tech support circle jerk with straight talks tech support, getting bounced around for tech to tech. And them wanting to keep trying the same useless techniques that we have already established did not work...... after losing 12 hrs of my time over a week and endless frustration we decided to bail on them.

 

[Ken45101]

Some of us in rural areas don’t have fast enough internet to stream.

Or the bandwidth limits. The best we can currently do s 50GB/month of moderate speed (5-15 Mbps.) $110/month. Cellular internet not available. I'm signed up for Starlink. If we get it i will be sllghtly cheaper with no limits and 30 times faster. IF we get it.

 

[jyoutz]

Or the bandwidth limits. The best we can currently do s 50GB/month of moderate speed (5-15 Mbps.) $110/month. Cellular internet not available. I'm signed up for Starlink. If we get it i will be sllghtly cheaper with no limits and 30 times faster. IF we get it.

I’m going to stick with the slow centurylink DSL I have. Not great, but only $40/month. My Dish Network bill is $60/month and I’m happy with the service and selection.