DISH discontinues Distant Network Service

Has anyone made the switch to the company that is now going to provide the Distant Network Service that DISH formerly did? Just quickly looking at their website, they appear to expect RV users to have permanently mounted antennas to qualify and pay for a minumum of six months (at thrice the price that DISH charged).

John.... What is distant network service?

The permanent attach rule for RVs is highlighted in bold on the FCC website. Complain to your congress critter.

http://www.fcc.gov/guides/television-broadcast-stations-satellite

Scroll down the page.


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I read Dan's link, now I know.

Invizatu said:

John.... What is distant network service?

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I think this "Distance Network Service" is for people beyond the 250 mile receiving radius of their home local TV station spotbeams. A package of some major network stations from East Coast or West Coast is offered to those people who request it, at an additional fee.

Looks like another fine example of why our government bureacrats couldn't find their way out of a wet paper bag with a blow torch. Being served by the local over-the-air station means losing the signal everytime a sparrow farts. Somebody, somewhere is making a profit because of this, just not us.

I'm not at all clear on what this means. All I do know is that when I travel to a new location, I call Dish and give them a new local address and I get the channels local to that new address.

I do the same thing. When I am going to be in one location, more than 250 miles away from the last one, I call Dish and they change me-at no charge- to local channels where I am.

Like others, I call DTV when we move for any length of time and they change the locals to our current location. As long as you are talking with a competent CSR you'll be on the phone a few minutes and be done.
I'm told this is only possible if you have one receiver. That may or may not be true any longer. If you aren't moving too far, you may still be able to get networks from your previous location. THIS LINK can give you a rough idea how far you can go and not lose your local networks.

We just gained access to the network feeds through Direct TV after sending in waiver requests and new Key Largo registration. Many times we are dry camped in areas without an address so the telephone calling doesn't work for us. The problem we have is since our RV is registered in Montana, we are only eligible for the West coast network feeds. That is very frustrating because as "senior," prime time is typically well past our bed time. Wondered about getting a group such as AARP to change the law (per Direct TV) to allow a choice or access to both coasts' network feeds. Anyone else thought of doing this or have an issue with it? Apparently the restruction was as a result of advertisers' influence. That seems silly because if we aren't in that location, wouldn't they prefer we have access to their advertising closer to where we are actually traveling? I know this issue seems trivial but then Congress is known to deal with a lot of trivia.

I wish the RV Industry would take this up. If I'm located where local stations will reach the dish, I don't see why there should be any restrictions on my viewing those stations. And why can't I pick whether to watch NY or LA stations?

When there's an emergency, like wildfires or severe weather, and no over the air stations are available, satellite is all you've got. In Colorado, a nearby Denver station is of a lot more use than a NY station.


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willie1019 said:

. . . Many times we are dry camped in areas without an address so the telephone calling doesn't work for us. . . .

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Willie:
Find a nearby address of ANYTHING - Gas station, ranch, whatever. If your GPS gives you address ranges for areas, make one up. I don't think the satellite companies check out the addresses you give them.

JohnDar said:

Has anyone made the switch to the company that is now going to provide the Distant Network Service that DISH formerly did? Just quickly looking at their website, they appear to expect RV users to have permanently mounted antennas to qualify and pay for a minumum of six months (at thrice the price that DISH charged).

Click to expand...

This is interesting. We switched to Dish about a year ago from Directv for a number of reasons - but mostly cost and ease of HD usage. At the time DNS was an option via Dish directly for $5 per month. This was a great deal because it had the flexibility to turn it off when you weren't using it (ie month to month) and the DNS was substantially less than what Directv was offering. Dish actually made a big deal out of this because they had just regained the option to offer the service after being banned from it (without using a third party) several years before. Now it looks like they've gone back to the old model, raised the price, and haven't figured out that it will be a problem for people on the flex plan (i.e. monthly plan) if you have to pay for the full 6 months of service for DNS and monthly/as need on the other.

I do have to say that the Dish receivers had have a pretty slick local network (antenna) integration that the Directv receivers don't have. This has actually reduced our need for DNS substantially especially when you factor in the digital broadcasts now available over the air. As others have said, you can also temporarily change the service address to where you are and get the locals from that area. This will save a little cash if you are going to be there for any period of time too.

As for the fixed dish mounting requirement, this has been a requirement for years and is the same for both Dish and Directv. Like many out there, we do have a fixed automatic antenna on the rig, but also carry a tripod and external antenna. I'll also say that no one ever checked when I applied for DNS that the antenna is actually fixed to the rig...

And, being a Washington bureaucrat, quickly point back to the fact that these laws/regulations don't exist without your elected officials. The local stations have convinced the politicians that the content they provide is copyrighted and that your local stations should have a monopoly. So much for free enterprise and competition! They are the ones to point the fingers at - not the people that actually work for a living! (and no, I don't work for the FCC)

Thanks for the idea although I think we're already screwed it up. We have to use Direct because Dish isn't "receivable." We are actually in Mexico and have a very large dish. I specifically asked about giving a Ga address we had and the guy said no, it is based solely on where your RV is registered, Montana. We took all three receivers from out home and pay $15 a month for the DNS. The large dish would probably pick up Tuscon although we've been told we need two dishes to do that, instead of using network feeds. Both services say it's illegal to broadcast outside of the US although everyone here picks up those stations. Feel like need genius IQ to maneuver through this maze. It is very difficult to find an specialist with Direct who is familiar with RV/trucker services, they always route you to a DNS expert for homes who gives wrong informatiom. We don't even live in Montana but legally set up an LLC to avoid sales tax and has one permanent registration requirement only rather than annually.

We are full timers and have a forwarding mail service out of South Dakota. But we use our sons address in New York so we can get East Coast Channels. We are on Direct TV. Only wish they could do HD on a carry out. If they would, I would trough this manual set up dish in the trash today. But that's another post.