Sure, more and more Americans are signing up for broadband internet access through cable, DSL, or other high-speed networks. But there are still plenty of folks out there with dialup modems, or no internet access at all.So it's either inevitable or a bit unfair that TiVo has reduced the number of telephone numbers users can use to download data for their boxes.
TiVo says some customers might notice that they are running out of program guide data, or that their daily telephone calls are failing. There are two solutions. Either users can choose a new dial-in number, or they can connect their Series2 or Series3 boxes to the internet over a home network.
Does this signal the end of dialup? No. But it's not cheap to maintain telephone lines throughout the country. The more users TiVo can convince to connect their TiVos to broadband connections, the less money the company has to shell out in phone bills.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-15-2007 @ 6:13PM
MegaZone said...
Well, it isn't something TiVo has much control over. TiVo doesn't run their own dial-up network - even the big ISPs like AOL and Earthlink don't. That's all outsourced to network providers who build the dial-up POPs and resell the capacity wholesale.
But dial-up is dying, rapidly, in all markets - look at the contraction in the dial-up ISP market, AOL losing customers, etc. So these POP network providers are shutting down the lesser used POPs to cut costs.
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4-16-2007 @ 7:43AM
Tammy said...
Do you still need a phone line to do the initial set up? It's been two years since I've had to set up a new Tivo so I don't know if it's changed.
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4-16-2007 @ 5:33PM
Jennifer said...
I've kept the dialup going because I was told that if I have it on a network, then everything in my house will be vulnerable to any viruses that TiVo might pull in. Is this not true?
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5-15-2007 @ 6:47PM
Matt E. said...
@Tammy: No, you do not need a phone line for initial guided service. I still have my Series 1 SA with Turbonet ethernet card. I've had to rebuild it several times after disk failures. I just plug in the dialing prefix that tells the Tivo to use DHCP over the ethernet connection. Matter of fact, I have to do it this way, my Tivo's modem is fried.
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