Satellite and phone connection question (1 Viewer)

[BrianTwig]

I have Dish Network for my satellite service and after several months of service they decided to start charging me $5 a month because I don't have the receiver hooked up to a phone outlet. The reasons they want this are obvious (pay per view, etc...)

They, nor the phone company (who the Satellite is provided through) never disclosed to me that it had to be hooked up to a phone jack or that there would be a charge if it wasn't. So they waved the charges and had given me several months credit toward the future to give me time to get a jack to hook it up to.

Here is my problem. My downstairs, where it is, has 1 phone jack, its in the kitchen way away from the receiver. The phone guy came out today to hook up a jack near the receiver. Problem is, as noted, the other jack is way across the house. There wasn't a way for him to install a jack on an interior wall without doing great amounts of "tearing up" the wall from what he said.

So, what I am looking for and hopefully it exists is some sort of "wireless" phone jack thingy. Is there such a thing out there that would plug into an existing wall jack, your phone plugs into that, and then another "box" for lack of a better term could be placed elsewhere in the home for a phone to plug into.

With todays wireless technology it seems that such a thing should exist, but with todays wireless technology, such a thing really isn't needed.

Basically I need to have a phone jack that I can plug my satellite receiver into in my living room on the wall behind the TV without running a big long wire across my floors and without having to do a retrofit type of thingy.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[Robert_J]

You mean something like this - http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_disp...p?PROD=RCPX441

-Robert

 

[BrianTwig]

Bingo! Thanks!

 

[Mary M S]

"I have Dish Network for my satellite service and after several months of service they decided to start charging me $5 a month because I don't have the receiver hooked up to a phone outlet

Had not heard that...there goes DISH* out of the alternative choice pile for me.

 

[BrianTwig]

I wouldn't be surprised if DirectTV does the same thing. The reason they want you hooked to a phone line is so you can order movies and stuff like that from your remote.

 

[NeilO]

I just got Dish Network installed this weekend and they mentioned the charge and that it had to use a land line. They coopted the phone line where we have our answering machine. I would not sign the paperwork until they brought in an adapter so I could use the phone & answering machine as usual as well as have it hooked to their receiver. They didn't have one in their truck, so had to drive off to get one later.

Just looking at the pay per view channels I saw how amazingly easy it is to order something by mistake. Luckily it is easy to locked those channels out with a password.

Neil

 

[Rhoq]

Nope. I've got DirecTV and no landline at home. On the day of my install, while speaking with a DirecTV customer service rep who was activating my service told me that a landline is not necessary and I can simply order PPV through their website. She told me that it's main purpose (besides PPV) is to send text-messages to their subscribers to alert them of upcoming events, etc.

She also mentioned that there is no "penalty" fee for not having their receivers hooked-up to a phone line because "DirecTV recognizes that a lot of people have moved onto VoIP or no longer have a landline at home".