Back in January Dish announced that it would be offering antenna installation for both indoor and outdoor antennas. In April installation went nationwide in the lower 48 states. Starting at $99 and going up to $150, Dish will sell you an antenna and install it for you. (For the outdoor antenna, it sells the Televes DigiNova Boss UHF/VHF; for the indoor it offers the Winegard flat antenna.)
Last week Dish contacted Cord Cutters News to ask if we would like to test the Dish from antenna installation service from their Air TV brand. We decided to give the program a test, and this is how it went.
Want to get a antenna installed at your home? Just call 1-888-364-6055 to set up your installations.
Setting up the appointment and before the installer showed up:
Friday afternoon we talked with a Dish representative on the phone to set up the appointment. They gave us the option of the following Monday morning or Monday afternoon as earliest available appointment times. We set it up and received an email immediately confirming the installation.
On Sunday we received a confirmation email with a timeframe for the Monday installation.
On Monday morning we received a text message from the installer to introduce himself and let us know he would text when he was on his way. He called around lunchtime to say the installation was moved back one hour.
What Dish did to setup the antenna:
The techs arrived at my house during the updated 1-hour window provided on the phone. Work took just under 2 hours, and they cleaned up after themselves.
I asked them to install the antenna in my attic as opposed to my roof. (I live in an HOA with rules about roof-mounted antennas. Yes, I know it’s allowed, but I didn’t want to deal with any issues of getting approval. I also liked the idea of not worrying about weather and lightning.) They mounted the antenna in my attic, but we found out that the coax cabling for my house was not run through the attic but must have come up through the floor. They dropped a new line from my attic down into our second floor and put a new outlet next to the current cable TV outlet.
Testing out the Televes DigiNova Boss outdoor antenna:
I had never heard of the Televes DigiNova Boss antenna before it came with my installation. I already had an Antenna Direct 4V in my attic and was skeptical of the antenna sold by Dish. It looked small compared to the 4V, which struggled to get my local NBC.
I am happy to report after about 5 minutes of moving around the directional antenna the Televes DigiNova Boss antenna picked up all the channels that my 4V antenna did at the same strength of the 4V.
The Televes DigiNova Boss antenna sells for about $100 at several retailers we checked. It is listed with 60-mile range, which is much shorter than the range on the 4V from Antenna Direct; however, it was still able to pick up the same stations as the 4V in my house.
Remember location affects reception, and your experience will vary.
Cost
The outdoor antenna installation would have cost $150, but because I had no cable running from my attic down into my house they had to drop a cable. That cost an extra $50. So the cost of the work and the outdoor antenna totaled about $200. (Local taxes may apply.)
But this was a demo, so Dish covered the cost of installation.
Final Thoughts:
Although many will be happy to install their own antenna, I can see why others will be happy to have Dish do it for them. With the antenna alone costing about $100, it is only an extra $50 for installation. For anyone who is not physically able to or just does not have the time and wants to get it done right I highly recommend this service.
I did look around to see how the price compared to others and found Amazon also installs roof antennas in my area, but they charge $259.79 plus the cost of the antenna. I saved a little over $200 with the Dish installation and antenna vs the $259.79 price for the Amazon installation and the cost of a antenna.
Two thumbs up! I highly recommend the Dish antenna installation. You can learn about the Dish antenna installation by calling 1-888-364-6055.
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