Do you bother with your satellite dish anymore?

[Parrot Face]

There seems to be quite a few funsters relying on just phone/iPad to stream onto tv. Being someone just about to order a mi/fi installation, can someone give me an opinion on whether it will be money well spent ?

Well here's what I spent....£5 on a mifi on offer in Currys, then £16 a month with the 100gb Vodafone offer with cashback discounts. I use my laptop from home or small smart tv from home. I get about 80 channels with no buffering and unlike the guy on the next pitch to me in L'Estartit I didn't have to go out in the wind to realign a dish every 10 minutes. Its not just the tv but also internet access that I get.. I also don't have to carry around with me a big dish. I agree its horses for courses but with a limited payload I much prefer my method which will only get better and cheaper. I know others will disagree but the days of satellite dishes I believe are numbered.

 

[colyboy]

Colyboy, from another Mr Simple to another, it’s really easy and straightforward.
We have phone packages with vodaphone and E moblile, with data packages of 45 and 40 g of data a month, both cost around £25 a month and include unlimited calls and texts.
We are also signed up with BBC iPlayer, itv, channel 4 and have home subscriptions to sky and Netflix and amazon prime.
When away from home we watch all of the above on our iPads , or by using a cable can connect to our tv, all by using personal hotspot on your phone, it’s like magic!!!
Now in Spain and watching Scotland , men and women’s teams, live games, amazing if a bit painful!!
Get yourself signed up, it’s wonderful!!
Bill

All I need now is a Smartphone!!

 

[Landy Andy]

Jim lea

All depends where you go. I have 1-2 bars of signal on 3, and zero-1 bar signal on Vodafone at my house. Fitted mifi and get full signal 4G on both. So it certainly makes it more likely I will get signal, and at a better, and faster rate.
If you know where you go is and always will be good signal then it not needed.

 

[ShaKen]

Jim lea

All depends where you go. I have 1-2 bars of signal on 3, and zero-1 bar signal on Vodafone at my house. Fitted mifi and get full signal 4G on both. So it certainly makes it more likely I will get signal, and at a better, and faster rate.
If you know where you go is and always will be good signal then it not needed.

...and the best bit about an “unlocked” mifi is that you can stick another networks sim in it if you have poor coverage from your “main” network - for example I generally use Vodafone for mobile coverage - but I also have a EE data sim that I can top up and use for areas where Vodafone have no coverage (such as in some areas of the West Coast of Scotland).

And if you are on the continent you can buy a local pre-paid sim if needed as yet.

 

[BillandHelen]

We find that with Helen being on E and me on Vodaphone that we haven’t yet been anywhere where one of us hasn’t had decent data coverage, so for us no need for a mifi (yet!). Streamed the live Scotland match last night from Sky here in Javea with1 bar on 4g. ( still don’t really understand how as I thought Sky sport was blocked abroad).
Bill

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[Anthony OysterTech]

Well here's what I spent....£5 on a mifi on offer in Currys, then £16 a month with the 100gb Vodafone offer with cashback discounts. I use my laptop from home or small smart tv from home. I get about 80 channels with no buffering and unlike the guy on the next pitch to me in L'Estartit I didn't have to go out in the wind to realign a dish every 10 minutes. Its not just the tv but also internet access that I get.. I also don't have to carry around with me a big dish. I agree its horses for courses but with a limited payload I much prefer my method which will only get better and cheaper. I know others will disagree but the days of satellite dishes I believe are numbered.

With respect Parrot Face I feel that when giving people costs you need to offer the full story otherwise it can be a little misleading to others.
Yes we are a Satellite company and would prefer that people used our systems over wifi (obviously we're in business to make money) however our main focus is to make sure that people are informed of the options and that they get what's best for them.

That being said the £16 a month contract mentioned is not £16 a month.

There are two contracts offered by a third party company called Mobiles.co.uk
Firstly they have a £23.50pm contract which offers a £198 cashback by redemption.
The terms are..............

Send your claim in line with the Cashback Claim Process below and we will credit you by cheque with £39.60 each time.
This will save you £198.00 over the 1 year of the contract. In effect this means that your average line rental per month over the contract period is £23.5 per month.
Cashback Claim Process:
Claiming your cashback couldn't be simpler. You will need to send in your mobile phone bill at months 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12
It's so simple to workout when you need to claim your cashback, please see the below table on when you should send your bills to us.

Bill	Claim Amount
Bill Dated September 2019	£39.60
Bill Dated November 2019	£39.60
Bill Dated January 2020	£39.60
Bill Dated March 2020	£39.60
Bill Dated May 2020	£39.60

The required bill needs to be sent to Cashback Claims, PO Box 376, Southampton, SO30 2PX and must be received within 60 days from the date on the bill. The bill must show your name, address, mobile number and tariff you are connected to.
We recommend you send this by recorded delivery as we cannot be held responsible for lost items or claims that arrive outside the qualifying period. We also recommend you keep your proof of postage.
Alternatively, you can submit an online version of your bill via your My Account area by clicking here.
Please note: the above calculations are based on the basic line rental of the tariff and do not include itemised billing.

The second option is £27.50pm contract which offers £150 automatic cashback.
The terms are................

We will automatically send you the advertised cashback amount within 38 working days of receipt of your phone. There is no need to claim!

Don't get me wrong, both are good deals and other than having to also purchase a mifi unit and either a smart TV or dongle you get web browsing and TV usage of up to 100gb per month.
The only thing I strongly advise is that the Vodafone terms and conditions clearly state that the data is for use abroad on during holidays. It is not intended for use on a permanent or semi permanent basis. This means that they have a fair use policy and if they deem that you have broken this they reserve the right to levy data charges against you.

All I am saying to anyone going down this route is to be careful and to make sure you read the terms and conditions relating to roaming on whatever provider you choose.

 

[Korgrocker]

Belt and braces for us - satellite when there's something worth watching and streaming through a Fire TV stick with EE MiFi when there's not. Good data package £20 per month - never use it all. But we never go abroad.

 

[Neil S]

All I need now is a Smartphone!!

trouble is that phone networks especially in the mountainous regions can be poor , certainly not reliable enough to watch TV without buffering as we found in the Alps last year
We could make and receive calls but 4G was patchy

 

[Parrot Face]

With respect Parrot Face I feel that when giving people costs you need to offer the full story otherwise it can be a little misleading to others.
I'm not misleading anyone I'm just stating what I pay. I've put my costs down on paper but I'm a fair person if you can convince me that your system would be better then maybe you can give me a quote on here so that I can consider if it would be better to change to a satellite system.

 

[TM59]

I still use the dish, I use the western satellite (while it lasts) and can get the four channels we are interested everywhere in Europe. Never find trees a problem just make sure I park in the right place to start with. I agree with a previous comment that the automatic Oyster is a great boon as we may only lift it to just watch the News or something Judy does not watch soaps and we don't watch sport so we get all we need and faffing about with a manual dish for a few minutes is a waste of time. I don't have data on my phone only a limited amount on the mifi for email and a little browsing. I tried a FireStick at Christmas at home but it ate my whole 200gB allowance so stopped doing that.
I am quite happy with my set-up along with a few films from the hard disk on the laptop when we fancy.
Steve

The western satellite? Can Old age traveller or someone elaborate.

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[OldAgeTravellers]

The western satellite? Can Old age traveller or someone elaborate.

Just Google receiving UK TV from Intelsat 907, very geeky and technically illegal but if you have the right skills or can find "a man or woman that can" it is very doable.
Steve

 

[Anthony OysterTech]

The western satellite? Can Old age traveller or someone elaborate.

There's a Satellite called Intelsat 907 which has what they call "Satback" channels on it.
It's a backup for the freeview service here in the UK so if there are any problems they can use the satellite channels to make sure people don't lose their services.
It's encrypted and obviously illegal to view without the proper authorisation however there are receivers out there that can be "adapted" to allow you to view the channels down in Spain, Portugal and some of Italy as well as up to the Arctic circle which people do use.

Channels on it are:

BBC One England

BBC One Scotland

BBC One Northern Ireland

BBC One Wales

BBC Two England

BBC News

BBC Four

CBBC

CBeebies

BBC Parliament

United Kingdom

BBC HD

BBC One HD

ITV 1 Central West HD

Channel 4 HD

Channel 5 HD

STV HD

UTV HD

BBC R5L. (R)

BBC R5SX. (R)

BBC 6 Music. (R)

BBC Radio 7. (R)

BBC 1 Xtra. (R)

BBC Asian Net (R)

BBC World Sv (R)

BBC Radio 1. (R)

BBC Radio 2. (R)

BBC Radio 3. (R)

BBC Radio 4. (R)

 

[Anthony OysterTech]

I understand that Parrot Face but the offer you have is no longer available (like I said, these prices change) so I just wanted to make sure people were informed.

We are a manufacturer and, as such, don't sell directly to retail. We're merely on here to give assistance and advice on the topics that are relevant to our expertise but if you would like a rough idea of the cost involved in changing to a Satellite system which would meet your needs please feel free to email me directly with your requirements and where you wish to receive TV. I can then give you an idea of the price you would be looking at. My email is anthony@oystersat-tech.co.uk.

 

[Ivory55]

If I was ok with buttons etc radio 2 in Europe sounds good even if it is on an illegal decoder. Not bothered about the tv.

 

[Stonemags76]

If I was ok with buttons etc radio 2 in Europe sounds good even if it is on an illegal decoder. Not bothered about the tv.

If it’s only radio you want, get Tunein radio app on your phone - uses very little data. We listen to radio 2 whenever we travel, and link my phone to the cab radio. I have 2GBs of data on my phone and very rarely use all of it in a month for the radio.
PS the BBC sounds app uses far more data for some reason!

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[Tude]

We always have choices satellite,Netflix.digital for us it’s the way to go

 

[Ivory55]

If it’s only radio you want, get Tunein radio app on your phone - uses very little data. We listen to radio 2 whenever we travel, and link my phone to the cab radio. I have 2GBs of data on my phone and very rarely use all of it in a month for the radio.
PS the BBC sounds app uses far more data for some reason!

Haha, data on a phone. I have not got hands free I have to stop and talk let alone data. I tend to get in a pickle with that stuff. My radio in the cab never changes station unless someone else does it. Cheers.