Possible move to Middle East

[The Jazzman]

Hi All,

My work may be moving me out to UAE sometime in the next few months and I was just looking for any local knowledge that anyone may have of the area.

I've been looking at satbeams to work out what sats I may or may not be able to pick up, but am wondering if anyone has any specific local knowledge as to the ins & out of a dish installation, installers, local rules or laws etc?

There are local fibre TV providers, well actually two, but they seem to provide the same range of channels, but I'm guessing that they'll be heavily censored, so am thinking that an independent option will be needed.

Any help would be appreciated.

TIA

[Silent]

I moved to Dubai in April, but as I live in an apartment I don't know about getting them fitted. Some villas you pass have 7 or 8 dishes on them though so there must be plenty here! The vast majority will be Arabic though. From a bit of looking a while back the big ones are 7W, 9E, 10E, 13E, and 26E.

By the way, there is no competition between Du and Etisalat. They have designated areas, so you will never be able to choose which one to use.

In general the TV is pretty awful, but the sport is good and luckily, so is the weather so you won't watch it as much! :thumbsup:

[The Jazzman]

Thanks for the info.

Those positions are the same as my own research, so was thinking that there may be enough to keep me happy :)

I had thought that what you describe with Du & Etisalst was the case as their websites seem to almost have the same pricing structures etc.

Am thinking that if I do get moved out a pool is very high on the check list of things.

[Silent]

You can also get some of the Indian satellites as well I think.

Where to live will depend on your circumstance and what you want. If by yourself or if with family etc. A lot of villa complexes will have shared pools per 5 villas or something. Almost all apartment blocks have pools. I live in JBR in a complex which has 6 towers, 4 pools between them. Obviously if you're in an apartment, you'll either have to put the satellite hobby on hold for a while or you'll be restricted to 7W most likely. I've been here 5 months now and haven't really missed it, I only really watch sports and you can get it all for about 100 AED a month, so no problem.

Just as a side-note, I'm pretty sure if they find your enigma2 box on you, they will take it from you due to what happened to OSN a few years back.

[The Jazzman]

Thanks for your thoughts there.

Think a huge amount of what happens boils down the the package work offers, so we'll see what happens. I must admit that sport isn't high up there for me, normally WWE and TNA sitting on FFW with some plays on a "good" bit of wrestling, mainly a Discovery junkie! Love my educational channels.

Yes, glad you mentioned that about E2 boxes. I now recall reading about that somewhere, think it was here somewhere, the reason being that E2 boxes where taken was that they are too easy to pirate for TV. Not that anyone here would ever do that.

Would be a pain to be parted from my Ultimo as it gets used as a media centre hub as well as a freesat receiver :mad:

[Silent]

I would just pack it and plead ignorance tbh. I had my Xbox in my bag and it was never opened, surely would look the same on a scan.

The Discovery Channels and that are fairly cheap here on the IPTV's anyway I think and also have no commercial adverts, only adverts for their other shows. I'm not sure if that is a good or bad thing, because they repeat their own ads a hell of a lot as the programs are still only 45 minutes!

Also bear in mind in the last 6 months accommodation rents have gone up around 20%, so if you're looking to move in another 6 months, I would expect further rises. When you agree to a rental amount, the landlord cannot change it for 2 years.

[Stanman]

Unless things have changed last time I flew in to Dubai, there was no checking, so should be fine as long as its in your suitcase.

Should not have any problems taking it out of the UK.

I have to say place is over hyped.

[Silent]

I have to say place is over hyped.

For a holiday I couldn't agree more, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Living somewhere is very different to a holiday at the same place though. Plus, nobody can argue with a tax-free income ;).

Your liver will most certainly take a pounding, but I see you're from the North of Scotland so I'm sure you're used to it!

[Stanman]

lol south England mate.

Sent from my GT-I9305 using Tapatalk 4

[Silent]

Sorry the last line was meant for Jazzman, was a pretty lazy message :)

[The Jazzman]

Running behind a bit again!

I'm well conditioned to it, worked in the QA lab for United Distillers, as it was then, for my degree placement. If you can survive a year there, with the amount of raw whisky floating about, you can survive anywhere!!!! :smiley_yup:

Thanks for the pointer about the accommodation inflation, just another item to keep my eye on.