DirecTV, Echostar (Dish Network) to merge?

In article ,
"Thomas T. Veldhouse" wrote:

In alt.dbs.echostar Cold Coffee wrote:
On Thu, 20 Jul 2006 19:34:42 GMT, John Lodge wrote:

Okay, but Fios is available to roughly 5 percent of the US. That is
NOT
much of a change. FIO's will take years to be available to even 50
percent of the US.

I'll concede that point. Additionally there will be areas that will never
see FiOS. However, with regards to the merger, a case can be made that
Verizon will become a viable competitor in the TV media delivery business
and the satellite companies' one defense is to combine resources.


Don't forget AT&T. They are also delivering fiber to the home. They even
have an agressive interim solution that involves combining a dsl modem with a
Dish Network receiver.

They're such a lousy company now. I signed up for the $5 a month long
distance, which actually costs $13! It took me months to cancel it
(they kept saying they would and just wouldn't) and when they finally
did, charged me a bunch of money to do so. I wouldn't deal with them
again, period.

In alt.dbs.echostar Anim8rFSK wrote:

They're such a lousy company now. I signed up for the $5 a month long
distance, which actually costs $13! It took me months to cancel it
(they kept saying they would and just wouldn't) and when they finally
did, charged me a bunch of money to do so. I wouldn't deal with them
again, period.

I had a similar experience with them with similar results. I didn't like
their fee they charged to bill me ($3 / month if I recall). If you want me as
a customer, you need to bill me to get paid, so it is rediculous to charge
somebody to be billed. If they want to put it in the price of the service,
fine, but that line item simply ****ed me off and I quit and haven't been back
since. BUT ... that is AT&T long distance we are talking about. AT&T is now
an ILEC in many areas and that is a different can of beans altogether.

--
Thomas T. Veldhouse
Key Fingerprint: 2DB9 813F F510 82C2 E1AE 34D0 D69D 1EDC D5EC AED1

In article ,
"Thomas T. Veldhouse" wrote:

In alt.dbs.echostar Anim8rFSK wrote:

They're such a lousy company now. I signed up for the $5 a month long
distance, which actually costs $13! It took me months to cancel it
(they kept saying they would and just wouldn't) and when they finally
did, charged me a bunch of money to do so. I wouldn't deal with them
again, period.

I had a similar experience with them with similar results. I didn't like
their fee they charged to bill me ($3 / month if I recall). If you want me as
a customer, you need to bill me to get paid, so it is rediculous to charge
somebody to be billed.

Oh, yeah, that crap. That's what flagged me in the first place.

If they want to put it in the price of the service,
fine, but that line item simply ****ed me off and I quit and haven't been back
since. BUT ... that is AT&T long distance we are talking about. AT&T is now
an ILEC in many areas and that is a different can of beans altogether.

ILEC?

In alt.dbs.echostar Anim8rFSK wrote:
In article ,
"Thomas T. Veldhouse" wrote:

In alt.dbs.echostar Anim8rFSK wrote:

They're such a lousy company now. I signed up for the $5 a month long
distance, which actually costs $13! It took me months to cancel it
(they kept saying they would and just wouldn't) and when they finally
did, charged me a bunch of money to do so. I wouldn't deal with them
again, period.

I had a similar experience with them with similar results. I didn't like
their fee they charged to bill me ($3 / month if I recall). If you want me as
a customer, you need to bill me to get paid, so it is rediculous to charge
somebody to be billed.

Oh, yeah, that crap. That's what flagged me in the first place.

If they want to put it in the price of the service,
fine, but that line item simply ****ed me off and I quit and haven't been back
since. BUT ... that is AT&T long distance we are talking about. AT&T is now
an ILEC in many areas and that is a different can of beans altogether.

ILEC?

I believe it is "Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier". That would be your age
old phone company ... very often the baby bells. QWest, Verizon, AT&T now,
etc. They are the companies that own the copper pairs for your telephone
[traditional].

--
Thomas T. Veldhouse
Key Fingerprint: 2DB9 813F F510 82C2 E1AE 34D0 D69D 1EDC D5EC AED1

On Fri, 21 Jul 2006 07:47:32 -0500, "Thomas T. Veldhouse"
wrote:

In alt.dbs.echostar Mark Lloyd wrote:

If you want HD from DirecTV, it's probably a good idea to not wait too
much longer. The HD DVR they have now uses TiVo, and can be expected
to be a lot better than the new one that's supposed to come out
sometime.


True, but locals and new programming will likely be delivered as an MPEG4
stream and the current HD DVR can not decode MPEG4 ... the new one WILL be
able to do this.


Have you seen any programming using MPEG4, other than local channels?

It's a tradeoff between (possibly) a few more channels, and a better
DVR.
--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.laughingsquid.com

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what
to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb
contesting the vote." - Benjamin Franklin

"Thomas T. Veldhouse" wrote in message
...
In alt.dbs.echostar Anim8rFSK wrote:
In article ,
"Thomas T. Veldhouse" wrote:

In alt.dbs.echostar Anim8rFSK wrote:

They're such a lousy company now. I signed up for the $5 a month long
distance, which actually costs $13! It took me months to cancel it
(they kept saying they would and just wouldn't) and when they finally
did, charged me a bunch of money to do so. I wouldn't deal with them
again, period.

I had a similar experience with them with similar results. I didn't
like
their fee they charged to bill me ($3 / month if I recall). If you want
me as
a customer, you need to bill me to get paid, so it is rediculous to
charge
somebody to be billed.

Oh, yeah, that crap. That's what flagged me in the first place.

If they want to put it in the price of the service,
fine, but that line item simply ****ed me off and I quit and haven't
been back
since. BUT ... that is AT&T long distance we are talking about. AT&T
is now
an ILEC in many areas and that is a different can of beans altogether.

ILEC?

I believe it is "Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier". That would be your
age
old phone company ... very often the baby bells. QWest, Verizon, AT&T
now,
etc. They are the companies that own the copper pairs for your telephone
[traditional].

In other words, the new AT&T is rapidly emerging as the old AT&T (the very
company the government had to break up as a monopoly). I heard BellSouth is
next in line to be merged.

On Fri, 21 Jul 2006 07:11:25 -0700, Anim8rFSK
wrote:

In article ,
"Thomas T. Veldhouse" wrote:

In alt.dbs.echostar Cold Coffee wrote:
On Thu, 20 Jul 2006 19:34:42 GMT, John Lodge wrote:

Okay, but Fios is available to roughly 5 percent of the US. That is
NOT
much of a change. FIO's will take years to be available to even 50
percent of the US.

I'll concede that point. Additionally there will be areas that will never
see FiOS. However, with regards to the merger, a case can be made that
Verizon will become a viable competitor in the TV media delivery business
and the satellite companies' one defense is to combine resources.


Don't forget AT&T. They are also delivering fiber to the home. They even
have an agressive interim solution that involves combining a dsl modem with a
Dish Network receiver.

They're such a lousy company now. I signed up for the $5 a month long
distance, which actually costs $13! It took me months to cancel it
(they kept saying they would and just wouldn't) and when they finally
did, charged me a bunch of money to do so. I wouldn't deal with them
again, period.

I guess the "new AT&T" isn't really any better than the old one. I
know someone in an area that used to be served by "Southwestern Bell",
and doesn't like the fact that it's now AT&T.

I had trouble with AT&T wireless. They canceled the wireless service I
had had for a little over a year, but forgot to cancel the billing. I
called again (and had to say exactly the same thing to about 6
different people). Next month they gave me a credit... as well an next
month's billing. I had to call again, saying exactly the same things
as before to several more people.

BTW, I had no trouble quitting AOL (except they required a single
fax).
--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.laughingsquid.com

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what
to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb
contesting the vote." - Benjamin Franklin

In alt.dbs.echostar Mark Lloyd wrote:

Have you seen any programming using MPEG4, other than local channels?

It's a tradeoff between (possibly) a few more channels, and a better
DVR.

Well, it is likely to be all new channels after a certain point in time. I
have given up on a future that contains both Tivo and DirecTV in the same box.

--
Thomas T. Veldhouse
Key Fingerprint: 2DB9 813F F510 82C2 E1AE 34D0 D69D 1EDC D5EC AED1

In alt.dbs.echostar Jude Cormier wrote:
In other words, the new AT&T is rapidly emerging as the old AT&T (the very
company the government had to break up as a monopoly). I heard BellSouth is
next in line to be merged.


Rapidly? No, I don't think so. For one, they are still quite regional in
nature [Verizon and QWest alone account for a significant portion of what used
to be AT&T in the early 80's]. And second, AT&T has been posturing to divest
or sell its long distance business and to get out of it altogether.

--
Thomas T. Veldhouse
Key Fingerprint: 2DB9 813F F510 82C2 E1AE 34D0 D69D 1EDC D5EC AED1

"Thomas T. Veldhouse" wrote in message
...
In alt.dbs.echostar Jude Cormier wrote:
In other words, the new AT&T is rapidly emerging as the old AT&T (the
very
company the government had to break up as a monopoly). I heard BellSouth
is
next in line to be merged.


Rapidly? No, I don't think so. For one, they are still quite regional in
nature [Verizon and QWest alone account for a significant portion of what
used
to be AT&T in the early 80's]. And second, AT&T has been posturing to
divest
or sell its long distance business and to get out of it altogether.

--
Thomas T. Veldhouse
Key Fingerprint: 2DB9 813F F510 82C2 E1AE 34D0 D69D 1EDC D5EC AED1


Rapidly is a fair assessment. SBC just acquired AT&T and changed the name of
the whole thing to AT&T.

SBC was already pretty big.

That's a pretty substantial "regional" operation.