Do a search for 'Dish Of The Day' on Google and all manner of results pop up, many cooking related, but none more dishy than sexy chef 'Pinny Rollings' here on the right. But even Pinny's dishiness pales into insignificance compared to the downright deluge of dishes on the roofs of buildings in downtown Abu Dhabi as the picture below attests (click it to see the full version and look at each building - many have dozens of dishes on their roofs).

One can but wonder whether any of these dishes actually work, or even how a situation as silly as this came about. Presumably people installed a dish to watch satellite TV and then found the service provider had moved to a different satellite. So instead of re-pointing the dish towards the new service, they installed a second dish. And then they decided they wanted services on another satellite, and instead of installing an arm capable of holding multiple LNBs, they installed a third dish. Then they found that that one of their dishes didn't work because someone else mounted a dish in front of it, so they put up yet another. And so the story goes on.



Whatever the reason, with so many dishes in close proximity, it is almost inevitable that some won't work, some don't work and some haven't worked in a long time. Surely there's a business opportunity for someone here. Firstly to go around and remove all the unused dishes (and sell them on to other people) and secondly to install CATV type systems that allow the distribution of one dish to multiple households.

There is also another question... which of these dishes is in which satellite band. There is increasing pressure for regulatory to allocate the extended C-Band (3400 - 3800 MHz) for wireless broadband services. In Europe, this spectrum is already allocated for such services through Commission Decision 2008/411/EC. If even 10% of the dishes on the roofs of Abu Dhabi are for C-Band services, then the introduction of wireless broadband services in those frequencies is a complete no-go - not without causing harmful interference, and lots of it. So in the United Arab Emirates, there is little chance of the C-Band being used for anything other than satellite reception.

But probably the most disturbing thing, is that the proliferation of dishes means that it is unlikely that Lady GaGa will perform in the country any time soon. Ms GaGa likes to stand out and what with so many other dishes around, her own dishy outfit would go largely unnoticed...