Lots of rumors now that AT&T could buy Dish just for the wireless spectrum

CK SatGuy

Formerly ckhalil18
Original poster
Feb 7, 2011
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The Motor City
So now that the AT&T/T-Mobile is now officially dead, everybody is now saying that AT&T could buy Dish just because Dish has wireless spectrum that AT&T wants. I know this isn't the first time we heard rumors of AT&T buying Dish, but do you guys think that it could realistically happen this time? I guess it depends on how serious Charlie wants to build his own wireless network. I see perhaps maybe a partnership with AT&T to be more possible than a complete buyout in my opinion. So, dare I ask, but what do you guys think of all of this now?
 
Rumors of AT&T buying Dish? That echo always seems to come back every year or so. If AT&T (SBC) couldn't buying T-Mobile, I don't see how they would be allowed to purchase Dish.

Besides, isn't Ergen running the show? The stuff he wants to do, he wants to do. If he wanted to sell out, he wouldn't be around anymore. I think Dish is his baby and no way in heck would he sell it.
 
Who owns that spectrum anyways is it DISH or Echostar?

I still say it wouldnt surprise me to see DISH purchase or partner with another provider such as Sprint. But I dont see DISH selling out to anyone.
 
Rumors of AT&T buying Dish? That echo always seems to come back every year or so. If AT&T (SBC) couldn't buying T-Mobile, I don't see how they would be allowed to purchase Dish.

Besides, isn't Ergen running the show? The stuff he wants to do, he wants to do. If he wanted to sell out, he wouldn't be around anymore. I think Dish is his baby and no way in heck would he sell it.

I would have to agree with this... The only way I could see this happening is if ATT Fired Randall Stephenson and hired Charlie in his place. That actually wouldn't be a bad move. But if that happened... I would urge charlie to run fiber in the last mile for every uverse installation and pump up that bandwidth.
 
Who owns that spectrum anyways is it DISH or Echostar?

I still say it wouldnt surprise me to see DISH purchase or partner with another provider such as Sprint. But I dont see DISH selling out to anyone.

I would assume it would be Dish who has the spectrum because it was Dish who bought DBSD and Terrestar. I know Echostar bought Hughes, but I don't remember reading about any spectrum involved in that deal.
 
AT&T had to give up some spectrum and $4 billion dollars for backing out of the deal

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i thought it was 3 billion cash and spectrum valued around 1 billion.

damn is the difference between 3 and 4 billion relevant to me ? probably not ;)

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Actually, it's more likely to see T-Mobile and Dish partner or even merge. T-Mobil's financials are not that great and it is struggling with its small market share, and they need spectrum; Dish needs to either partner (both Charlie and Joe have said this clearly) with a carrier or otherwise gain such assets (Joe has dangled the possibility of buying more companies if it fits right). Just as Charter Commnications and TimeWarner Cable have said they are now primarily ISP's, and the video business is just an additional offering, Dish won't just be a DBS company anymore, but is seeking to be (along with Google, Verizon--FiOS so yesterday:) --and Sony, and other companies I can't recall) to be an internet (or IPTV) video provider ("If I were building Dish Network today, I would not be investing in satellites." -Charles Ergan) with Dish also offering wireless services. T-Mobile and Dish is the match made in heaven, not AT&T and Dish.

AT&T may offer to buy Dish's spectrum (I believe Dish owns the spectrum, NOT Echostar), but they don't want a huge DBS company with its problems (that Joe Clayton is trying to fix) and redundancies to its own TV service using technology (DBS sats) that while more efficient, are far more expensive to operate than an OTT service or such via internet, considering Dish itself is moving away from DBS and its higher costs. Heck, I read where Verizon, as a consequence of slowing FiOS build out even more, are now trying to work with cable cos. to offer Verizon TV packages as an alternative to cable cos. high costs to provide the TV service they do now!

T-Mobile and Dish need each other, badly. We'll have to see how it all plays out.
 
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There's also Sprint which has a deal with Dish. Maybe Dish will partner with both, although I'm not sure if T=Mob's and Sprint's phone systems are compatible. Plus doesn't T-Mob have an LTE Light buildout while Sprint is pursuing a full LTE buildout? Sprint has to partner up with someone sometime to remain viable, I would think.
 
AT&T has the worst customer service period!Problem is there are no alternatives when it comes to dsl and there is no cable here so its AT&T or no dsl.Bellsouth was much faster at resolving issues,AT&T gobbled them up.So imho worst case scenario would be for AT&T to get their hands on Dish!
 
i heard it ATT & tmobile merge fails, then dish is putting in a bid for tmobile...they want more bandwidth for wireless system...
 
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