Speculation Abounds On Dish Network’s Next Move In Mobile
By Tricia Duryee - Wed 26 Mar 2008 10:57 AM PST
In the spectrum auction, which closed last week, it wasn’t a surprise that some of the largest bidders were Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) and AT&T (NYSE: T), but one that is now catching attention is the bids by the Dish Network, which ended up purchasing $712 million in licenses. Now, there’s plenty of speculation on what Dish will do with those licenses. Forbes asks: “Will Dish start a mobile video service? Will it try to offer interactive services to better compete with cable companies? Or will it simply wing it?”
For now, the company isn’t saying anything, according to FCC rules, but here are details on Dish’s spectrum:
The licenses cover the entire country, except for New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Boston, Forbes reports. The price tag for such extensive coverage pales in comparison to what Verizon or AT&T paid, however, all spectrum is not equal. The WSJ reported that the spectrum by itself isn’t strong enough to power a full wireless network without tweaking. The spectrum is considered for one-way communication, which isn’t ideal for wireless broadband. But the spectrum could be used for providing on-demand content or interactive services. If that wasn’t sufficient, Dish could perhaps supplement its one-way communication with a customer’s DSL or cable service.
Whatever Dish ends up doing, it will likely be expensive. They may have to switch out their customer’s set-top boxes, or build a series of towers to send and receive signals. An analyst quoted by Forbes said a potential project could cost $500 million to $2 billion. The other possibility is that Dish won’t do anything. A consortium of cable companies led by Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) bought spectrum for $2.4 billion in 2006, and hasn’t yet said what it will do with it.
The question is an interesting one to ask right now given what else is going on. As of yesterday, rumors surfaced in the WSJ that Comcast and Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) are considering investing in a wireless broadband joint venture, including Clearwire (NSDQ: CLWR) and Sprint (NYSE: S) Nextel. If that occurs, Clearwire’s existing partnership with Dish and DirecTV (NYSE: DTV), which appears to be delayed already, is likely on the rocks, leaving the satellite TV companies once again to find a wireless alternative.
Posted in: Companies, Operators, Cingular-AT&T, Verizon, Technologies
Tags: dish network,
