VZ eyeing Dish (well at least its spectrum)

mike123abc

Too many cables
Original poster
Supporting Founder
Sep 25, 2003
25,233
4,469
Norman, OK
http://nypost.com/2014/06/19/verizon-wireless-eyeing-dish-network-spectrum/

The rumor mill of Dish and a phone company never seems to die, but now the New York Post has an article speculating that VZ wants Dish - well a part of it anyways!

Verizon Wireless is very interested in buying Dish Network’s spectrum, The Post has learned.

A top Verizon executive told a group of insiders in the last few weeks that the country’s No. 1 wireless carrier was eyeing the lucrative spectrum owned by Charlie Ergen’s satellite-TV company, a banker with direct knowledge of the conversation said.

Analysts have estimated Dish’s spectrum could be worth as much as $17 billion.

A second source close to the companies said the two companies have held informal, early talks about the spectrum.

Too bad if VZ just gets it without Dish trying to disrupt the market with an affordable LTE to the home broadband network.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TheKrell
What was also interesting was the note at the end of the article:

Separately, in recent days Dish has postponed its annual meeting — and Ergen, in a little-noticed June 2 regulatory filing, updated his trusts. The update will allow, among other things, Ergen to dispose of his Dish shares in a change-of-control situation.

Interesting that Charlie made a trust update to allow the sale of Dish, maybe he is getting serious about a sale. Yes it is something he could have done at any time over the years of sales rumors, but he did it earlier this month...
 
I think a lot of folks are forgetting something...

If Charlie sells DISH he is still in control... this is why all his satellite assets were transferred to EchoStar. If someone buys them, they will still need EchoStar who owns the satellites, uplinks the programming and makes the equipment DISH uses.

I am expecting more news to come out from this and the NFL Sunday Ticket within the next few weeks. I think Charlie is playing an excellent hand of poker... one that could tie up the assets of DIRECTV for years.

Sit back and watch.

(And no I don't think Charlie would just sell his spectrum... it would be for all of DISH.)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Teehar
Sounds like a bogus article. The spectrum would make it very hard for Verizon to pick up dish.

Verizon would have to offload a lot of spectrum to someone else to make the government happy. Might have to do something similar to Comcast who is selling off subscribers to Charter to gain merger approval.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Tampa8
Would Amazon be interested in the TV provider market at all? I see they have a new cell phone out now. They also have tablets and an instant video service. We all know they have lots of money too.
 
  • Like
Reactions: navychop
Of course it would be a fishing boat. For $17b then if it were me, I'd make it a shark fishing boat. Just to have.
 
Sounds like a bogus article. The spectrum would make it very hard for Verizon to pick up dish.

Verizon would have to offload a lot of spectrum to someone else to make the government happy. Might have to do something similar to Comcast who is selling off subscribers to Charter to gain merger approval.

Dish's spectrum is not really going to be a problem for VZ. It is not low frequency (i.e. 700-800 Mhz) that penetrates structures, but 2Ghz which is much harder to use. This is why it was speculated that Dish was going to use it for fixed LTE service vs mobile. If you can have an outdoor antenna or at least an antenna that is not moving around you could get/hold a good signal.

Now if Dish were to pick up 600Mhz in the next auction, then there would be a problem.
 
Dish's spectrum is not really going to be a problem for VZ. It is not low frequency (i.e. 700-800 Mhz) that penetrates structures, but 2Ghz which is much harder to use.
If it was THAT hard to use, that spectrum wouldn't be worth many billions of dollars. I'm skeptical that the government will just let Verizon hoard spectrum to eliminate future competitors. They're already unhappy with Sprint/T-mobile.
 
***

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 1, Members: 0, Guests: 1)

Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 1)

Latest posts