Ok, I got the mssg that Arabic will be encrypted on 17th December!! So I went online and subscribed to UBI. <br /><br />The next morning someone from UBI office rang me and asked me if I had a Tarbs box! I said to her that my sister owns one but she is not gonna join UBI. I said that I have 3 other normal receivers and I would like to use one of those!! So she said NO. you either use Tarbs or you buy a special new receiver! They DO NOT sell the new receivers themselves!! They have negotiated with a supplier to supply the public with the receivers at a reduced price so in order not to put-off the coustmers from joining! She gave me a 1300 number to call and find out the price and to order the unit and then when it arrives, I need to call them again to continue with the subscribtion proceedures!!<br /><br />I asked her what type of encryption are they gonna use and she answered "signal encryption"!!!!!! how clever! lol. So i asked her why can't they send me a Smart Card and I use it in one of the boxes that I have! The surprising answer was that they will NOT send smart cards and that they will activate the old smart cards in the MDS boxes of Tarbs to receive the signal!!! At that instant I asked her to speak with one of the tech people who knows a bit more than she does, and she refused saying that they are not allowed to transfer me to tech unless I have a problem with reception of channels!!!! <br />So now my questions are:<br />1) I thought the $50 dollars activation fee is to send out new smart cards! What has happened to that rumour?!?<br /><br />2) What are these new special receivers that they are wanting us to use and how much are they!! If UBI themselves are not supplying them or making profit out of them, then why not let people use their own receivers if they can get the new cards to work in them?!?<br /><br />3) Why are we not allowed to speak with Tech guys from UBI if their telephone staff does not know WTF they are talking about!! If someone has more knowledge about satellites than a telephonist and wants to talk to the Tech people, they should allow him!!<br /><br />Sorry for the long post, but your answers will be appreciated greatly!<br /><br />Regards,,,