[skogan]

Good friends, I'm in dire need of your help. You don't need to tell me everything, I just need to know if there's any hope, and if so, where do I start looking.


Here is my problem:


I live on a island in the Pacific ocean called Palau. We have really, really, bad television here. My condo complex owner is willing to switch to satellite television, except there isn't a local DTV or Dish dealer.


I think there is a satellite in Guam I could reach, and maybe the ones who services Australia. We can get Guam or Austrialian billing address, if necessary. We're not afraid of C-band, whatever it takes to get some television. We would prefer American channels, because there are some college football fans here. But would take whatever we could get.


So the question is, is it possible to get Dish or Dtv out here, if I use a Guam address? If not, is there any other way of getting good television out here? Our budget is $6k or less for equipment and install. Is that possible?


Help me folks!

 

[sneals2000]

Looking at a map (I knew Palau was somewhere in the Pacific North of Australia but wasn't quite sure where!) I don't think you are going to be anywhere near the foot print of any US satellite services - unless there is a lot of overspill from footprints of services aimed at Hawaii. I doubt it though...


My first thought would be that Foxtel or Sky New Zealand might be more suitable pay TV packages to try for, though these will be "out of region" which may be illegal. In the UK Sky TV require UK phone line connection for some of their set-ups (though not all - and many Sky subscribers have deals that don't require a phone line and are based outside the UK in mainland Europe, with just postal addresses for billing in the UK). The phone line is particularly required for multi-room (where multiple receivers share a single subscription with a small extra room supplement rather than a full duplicate subscription payment) and these use Caller ID when the box phones Sky UK to confirm that the box is where it is supposed to be, and people aren't selling on their extra room subscriptions to other households. I don't know if Foxtel or Sky NZ have similar "phone line" requirements.


Looking at Lyngsat.com for the footprints of the Optus satellites that provide these services to Australia and NZ it isn't clear if there is enough overspill North of Papua New Guinea to provide reception - though I guess the Aus/NZ services are designed for small domestic 45-80cm dishes, and with a 2m or larger dish you may pull in something?


The only other thought is satellite packages aimed at the Philippinnes, which appears to be much closer to you geographically, though whether the content is what you want...


Foxtel in Aus have just announced some more HD channels I believe. (A BBC HD service is one of them)

 

[Tower Guy]



Quote:
Originally Posted by skogan /forum/post/14163047


I live on a island in the Pacific ocean called Palau.


So the question is, is it possible to get Dish or Dtv out here?

How about a good broadband connection and a friend with the programming that you want? Buy them a Slingbox.

 

[skogan]

Thanks for the answers!


I think I'll look into the Australian options. The "out of region" may or may not be illegal in Australia, but I don't think there's anything illegal about it here in Palau

(The internet on this island isn't much better than 56K at it's best, so I think the slingbox would be out of the question. Thanks anyway though.)

 

[sneals2000]

Good luck - be worth seeing what other islanders are doing... Suspect Aussie and NZ stuff may be an interesting "big dish" challenge...