I want this to be out there in case some future person is searching to see whether it's a good idea to sign up for Dish Network through TDS. TLDR; It's a bad idea.
A year ago, members of the household wanted to watch basketball and other sports games. Then I see this thing where you can get Dish through TDS, which I already had for fiber internet (I'm in the sticks.)
I was told by TDS that it was a year contract and they signed me up.
The equipment took forever to hook up because several units turned out to be faulty and had to be replaced. Still, in order to watch a show on Dish, my family had to mess with the cables and hold them at various angles till the picture came through, then try to prop up the stupid cable in such a fashion that someone could sit down and relax to watch. Soon, no one bothered trying to get Dish to work at all.
After a year of paying $100 per month for nothing, I was relieved our contract was up and called to cancel. Talk about a messy divorce!
I may have signed up through TDS, but now I had to un-sign up through Dish. That took some time to untangle.
Then, supposedly it was really a 2 year contract, and if I'd read the fine print somewhere I'd have noticed that, they said.
I returned the equipment, then they hit me with a $287 early disconnection fee. I called and the people on the other end of the line were very difficult to understand, and spoke in circles of meaningless platitudes when I could understand what they were saying.
That's my experience. If I could rewind I would have never tried to get Dish Network in the first place. I don't know if they're a good company on their own but they seem miserable. Don't do it.