Charlie Ergen flew to Dubai to fundraise for satellite TV giant

[dtgoodtonid]

DISH and DirecTV are, and always have been, aimed at different markets. Just look at the ads, back all the way to Day One.

Good TV, Better TV, DirecTV. Or today's (best they have had in years) Stop compromising.

Get DISH, you won't miss _______ all that much. SAVE!!! SAVE!!! SAVE!!!!

Different sorts of customers. Different goals. And, in a three-way market both had their roles to play. Now, with multiple yet thinner bundles from new linear TV providers like YTTV plus the alure of cord switching, i.e. living with only paid streaming services, or even true cord cutting i.e. living with only video that is free on the internet, the cost conscious market is very crowded.

So who is the DISH customer today, or tomorrow? Rural people who cannot get good internet, and often cannot get good, or any, cable and who want the minimum.

Is that a viable number? I don't think so.

The 5G stuff was foolish. The cell phone carrier market is already full.

I am a Dish customer of today. I am not rural. I have internet options of cable and fiber, with Spectrum being the cable option. I have the top 250 plan plus some add ons. It's rare that I can't find the sports event I want to watch on Dish, so then some of the truly pain in the rear options from the cord cutter cyber space come into play. I have Roku and Apple TV devices and I consider myself pretty competent using those devices that are absolutely inferior to Dish. I am not ready to take on the Hopper Plus.

I have had Roku since the 1st generation player. It had 3 options; MLB network, Amazon Prime, and a very meager Channel store. My son has You Tube TV. I hate it. You can get used to living next to train tracks, the flight path of an airport, or an interstate. No judgement for those who do, simply a comparison.

Getting into the 5G cellular market, way above my head. Charlie Ergen is who he is. I have nowhere near his acumen to look past face value. What are you going to say if he's able to make it work? Savannah Guthrie said in her commencement address to the Georgetown University Law School graduates that their future success will not be found in their comfort zone. I don't think Charlie has one, but his success, credibility, and genius are undeniable. I guarantee he has a better grasp than most, if not all, of the commentors on this forum.

Just my humble opinion.

 

[navychop]

I believe that network is more designed for commercial use, such as providing connectivity to vehicles.

 

[HipKat]

Worth mentioning that T-Mobile (and Sprint as well because of the merger) now has the majority of the country covered in band 71, which is 600mhz. The old TMo/SPT concept of them only being appropriate for urban conditions does not really apply anymore, I’m personally a Google Fi customer (T-Mobile MVNO) and have not seen a dead spot in years, and that’s really good for rural Texas.

I switched to T-Mobile last year from Verizon, concerned about coverage, living in central Illinois, which is more rural than anything, and I have to admit, I’ve been pleasantly surprised with very few dead spots

 

[Almighty1]

Worth mentioning that T-Mobile (and Sprint as well because of the merger) now has the majority of the country covered in band 71, which is 600mhz. The old TMo/SPT concept of them only being appropriate for urban conditions does not really apply anymore, I’m personally a Google Fi customer (T-Mobile MVNO) and have not seen a dead spot in years, and that’s really good for rural Texas.

It's not just the frequncy even though 600Mhz will travel longer distances and penetrate buildings better but remember that the traditional cellular networks known as System A Wireless Carrier and System B Wireline Carrier has the bigger footprint when it comes to towers since they would have already built towers closer to where the people are located before all the NIMBYs came in as T-Mobile and Sprint are 1996. T-Mobile in San Francisco where I live atleast is a dead spot because earlier this year, I was a Nielsen Ratings panelist for exactly 2 days as they said the devices they provided which uses T-Mobile only were able to get back garbage data. So it depends on the area.

 

[bookworm370]

I believe that network is more designed for commercial use, such as providing connectivity to vehicles.

You know you might be on to something there. The data connectivity part of the Dish 5G RAN implantation of 5G would appeal to commercial vehicles regardless of Trucks, Trains (passenger WiFi and commercial trains). Etc.

 

[Josephinelcajon]

MSN

 

[bookworm370]

MSN

Smart move. No one has ever called Charlie dumb. Tight-lipped and tight assed, yup, but dumb no.

 

[Yespage]

MSN

Weren't they talking with Amazon a long time ago? Dish's aim here has been corporate for a while. You have the consumer side of it, but Ergen has been looking more at the data links than anything else. He's got a plan, and he is probably 1000% further in it, than anyone would have guessed remotely possible 10 years ago.

Also, 10% = "surges"?

 

[navychop]

MSN

Nice as far as I could read. But again, I am NOT going to install that MicroSoft app to read the rest. I’m sure details will come out elsewhere.

 

[dishdude]

Even if they sell Boost or Republic plans through Amazon, what's that really going to net them? There's a gazillion other MVNOs out there.

 

[navychop]

Surges? Isn’t that a motorcycle town in New Mexico?

 

[Josephinelcajon]

DISH and AWS Form Strategic Collaboration to Reinvent 5G Connectivity and Innovation

In a telecom industry first, DISH will leverage AWS infrastructure and services to build a cloud-based, 5G Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) that delivers consistent, cost-effective performance from core to the edge

press.aboutamazon.com

 

[dishdude]

DISH and AWS Form Strategic Collaboration to Reinvent 5G Connectivity and Innovation

In a telecom industry first, DISH will leverage AWS infrastructure and services to build a cloud-based, 5G Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) that delivers consistent, cost-effective performance from core to the edge

press.aboutamazon.com

That's from over 2 years ago.

 

[Josephinelcajon]

That's from over 2 years ago.

Yes, but shows they are working together for a while now and makes the talks with Amazon more likely to happen in a deal.

 

[Bruce]

Yes, but shows they are working together for a while now and makes the talks with Amazon more likely to happen in a deal.

It also has showed us, has anything really happened since that was announced 2 years ago?

They are still working on locations to cover the country, this really does nothing to combat the recent money issues.

 

[Yespage]

Surges? Isn’t that a motorcycle town in New Mexico?

You mean South Dakotia?

 

[Bruce]

Here is a more recent outlook, this was written before the flight to Dubai and echos what was said during the webcast for the 1st quarter report.

DISH Network: Could Be Short Of Expectations

DISH Network expects to gain a sizable market share in the enterprise business. See why we think DISH stock does not provide an attractive buying opportunity.

seekingalpha.com

 

[nelson61]

I would take a bet that dish and their wireless system will survive and grow into something quite large.
But the interest rate jump on debt refinancing may make them give up a significant amount of ownership and or control of the business

The Dish wireless network capital outflow is about 50 percent complete and covers 70 percent of the market so now money will start coming in as compared to the heavy cash outflow they have been enduring to get the network established.
They control the frequency bands - the gold they will be mining in the future.

Yes, it is going to take a few more years but is well on the way.

Amazon would be a good fit. The big boy in cloud services, Dish uses them, Amazon does not seem to have a problem expanding into new markets - medical services as an example. And, they have similar cultures - frugal, drive prices down, and fiercely competitive.

SpaceX would be another, integrating satellite and land service.

Whomever it is, Dish wireless of the future will be a cash cow, just like their satellite business was/is the cash cow that financed the start of their wireless enterprise.
And the "investor" will not be looking to get their money back for many years.

 

[man00]

You mean South Dakotia?

I went to Surges New Mexico once on my bike, there wasn't much going on there...highly overrated

 

[John2021]

I switched to T-Mobile last year from Verizon, concerned about coverage, living in central Illinois, which is more rural than anything, and I have to admit, I’ve been pleasantly surprised with very few dead spots

We switched from verizion to AT&T!!! with verizons crap signal and piss poor raw data speeds AT&T smokes em in our area. Verizons customer service has went to crap also i noticed as well as there network. years ago verizon had the best in class network csr's and engineers. not anymore. hans needs to go LOL. When we left verizon we was in the tech dept they never offered to troubleshoot our phones or there newtwork to try and find issues!!! we were just told good luck on finding a better provider. in todays world verizon sucks!!! were 2 blocks away from the verizon tower one bar of service is not acceptable we should have had full bars. the ATT tower is 2 blocks away also and it's much better than verizons service.