off Base Living

[Alana]

my DH and i are seriously entertaining the idea of living off base, but i am curious how Cable TV & Internet work. i doubt Mediatti broadcasts off base. so what are my options? what are the cost estimates? we are looking in the Gushikawa (sp) Courtney area. anyone have any other pointers?

[Sex Wax]

my DH and i are seriously entertaining the idea of living off base, but i am curious how Cable TV & Internet work. i doubt Mediatti broadcasts off base. so what are my options? what are the cost estimates? we are looking in the Gushikawa (sp) Courtney area. anyone have any other pointers?

Well TacoRice, for starters, Cable and T.V. are based on Alien Technology. Sometime ago, and Alien spacecraft crash landed on earth, and in the 40's and 50's, we figured out how some of the stuff works. Them funny "signals" and "airwaves" and such. Of course the government can only let a little of the technology be released to the public over time.

[Alana]

okay i probably deserved that...

[Sex Wax]

I use sunny-net (www.sunny-net.ne.jp) for my internet needs though. I dont have cable, but i guess you can get one of the black dishes I see all over the place in Sunabe for your cable tv.

:thumbup1:

[DoctorP]

Only choice up there is an AFN dish with decoder. If you are SOFA, then they are free.

For internet, you can use most anyone. As SexWax said you could use SunnyNet, but it would be cheaper and just as good to use NTT. The only difference is SN would be able to give you English support.

[L Boogie]

We got our AFN dish and stuff from the furnishings warehouse for free - you will have to go through the housing office to get on the list for them. It's only about 10 channels though, and to be honest we don't even watch it, so it really wasn't worth the hassle. Plus you have to buy the mounting bracket and have someone install it for you. If we weren't leaving so soon, I would go for the SkyPerfect Satellite...you have to pay for it but you get a ton of channels from the states.

As for internet, we have fiber optic from Sunny-Net. Love it. It's about Y8000/mo

[P_chan]

As Boogie said, the dish really isn't worth the hassle. The only person who watches TV in my house is my wife and she doesn't watch AFN. On top of that, I was under the impression that you got the mount with your dish. No you gotta buy it yourself, and I'm really cheap.

I got fiber for internet as well. I believe it's NTT and it's about 6,500 a month.

[Old guy]

my DH and i are seriously entertaining the idea of living off base, but i am curious how Cable TV & Internet work. i doubt Mediatti broadcasts off base. so what are my options? what are the cost estimates? we are looking in the Gushikawa (sp) Courtney area. anyone have any other pointers?

Here's an offbase cable company but i don't think it runs as far as Gushikawa yet. http://www.nirai.ne.jp/english/
They also offer cable internet.

[thomasz]

I hope i will help from you.

[OtisPMerriweather]

Somebody told me they called the place for the free sat. dishes and they are no longer offered for free...can anybody confirm?

[OtisPMerriweather]

Found it here: http://kadenaservices.com/afn.html

Where/how do I get an AFN satellite dish and decoder?
The Direct to Home (DTH) free satellite program has ended.
You can still get a dish and decoder from the AAFES BX/PX. They will rent you a decoder for $13 per month.
You will have to buy a dish (normally around $150 available on or off base), a mount, cable and connectors and have it installed yourself. The Power Zone at the BX/PX has a list of contract installers.

The contract installers are a one-stop-shop that will will provide ALL mounting hardware and connection parts as part of their install package. Packages are anywhere from $100 to $200 per install. Be sure to talk to friends and colleagues who have had recent installs to gauge which installer is reputable, reliable and just plain "any good". Some can be quite sloppy.

I wonder does this mean I can sell the one I got for free at the warehouse???

[P_chan]

No, once you leave the island you have to give everything back.