Ergen not content to sit on sidelines with pay-TV

[yaz96]

Ergen not content to sit on sidelines with pay-TV
By Andy Vuong
The Denver Post

Posted: 02/20/2011 01:00:00 AM MST

Dish Network and EchoStar chairman Charlie
Ergen may be a satellite-television pioneer, but
these days, his children are wondering about his
line of work.

"My kids think I'm crazy for being in the pay-TV
business because they don't pay for TV," Ergen
said during an earnings call with analysts in
November, according to a transcript. "They don't
pay for movies. But they watch an awful lot of TV
and movies."

Those remarks were part of a long answer
addressing whether the video business has
changed.

With growing competition from cheaper
Internet-based alternatives like Netflix, and as
viewers look to access TV content while on the
move, the landscape clearly has changed.

Ergen isn't sitting idle, adding features such as
GoogleTV and Sling to enhance Dish's service.
And in recent months, he has proposed
multibillion-dollar moves that could reshape the
satellite-TV company he co-founded three
decades ago.

If successful, the deals would give Ergen control
of a big block of wireless spectrum at a time
when such frequencies are in short supply and
high demand.

They also would make Dish an attractive
acquisition target for telecom giants AT&T and
Verizon Communications, according to analysts,
because wireless carriers will need more
spectrum as mobile broadband usage grows.

Analysts, though, say Ergen's strategy with
wireless spectrum isn't clear.

"Is it a purely financial investment, and he's just
going to turn around and sell it over the next
couple of years?" asked Bryan Kraft, an analyst
with Evercore Partners in New York. "Or it is it an
investment . . . he might be able to use in a
partnership with a wireless operator to give him
wholesale access to a wireless network on
attractive terms?"

Ergen also may choose to build his own wireless
network, though Kraft says that scenario is
unlikely.

Ergen declined to comment for this story, with
Dish spokesman Marc Lumpkin noting that E
choStar and Dish, both based in Douglas County,
have not publicly discussed the proposed deals.

 

[CK SatGuy]

I read that same article earlier today. It'll be interesting to see what Charlie is gonna do with all of that wireless spectrum (or if he's going to do anything with it at all) I would like to see him create some kind of mobile broadband internet service for people who only can get dial-up or for others who don't like their DSL or satellite internet. But in reality, I know that's most likely not gonna happen.

 

[Claude Greiner]

I will say this, the myth that you need to bundel your internet with your TV is killing sales. It used to be before the customer wanted internet, we could sell them a Dish and they would call AT&T and order just internet.

Now the customer calls AT&T and they are being pushed into Uverse, and ultimatly call back and cancel their Dish order.

What Dish needs is an internet solution that can be sold everywhere simmilar to satellite TV

 

[JosephB]

Wireless won't be it, because wireless--even if it's terrestrial wireless--will require bandwidth caps, quotas, etc. And sure, cable is putting in place quotas; but a wireless service's caps will be draconian compared to what Charter and Comcast are doing.

Does the Echostar spectrum number from that article include terrestrial spectrum, or is that their existing satellite capacity + Hughes? Because if they're counting satellite spectrum, they just need to forget it.

 

[Frank7004]

I will say this, the myth that you need to bundel your internet with your TV is killing sales. It used to be before the customer wanted internet, we could sell them a Dish and they would call AT&T and order just internet.

Now the customer calls AT&T and they are being pushed into Uverse, and ultimatly call back and cancel their Dish order.

What Dish needs is an internet solution that can be sold everywhere simmilar to satellite TV

Around here, people bundle because "its one less bill". Seriously, they are worried about sending a check to one more company. UVERSE is sill few and far between for my area.

 

[Ronnie-]

Kind of off topic, but it says T-mobile is the 5th largest wireless provider. I thought they were fourth.
I thought it was :
Verizon
AT&T
Sprint
Tmobile.

 

[Ghpr13]

Around here, people bundle because "its one less bill". Seriously, they are worried about sending a check to one more company. UVERSE is sill few and far between for my area.

I had a bundle when I was with Insight. I had phone, cable and internet bundle together. I found it to be more of a pain sometimes to pay because when the bill came, I had this one large amount that had to be paid, instead of 3 amounts that were at different billing dates. If things were extra tight one month, you didn't have the ability to "float" a payment for a week or so after the due date.

Ghpr13

 

[Steve Mehs]

I don’t care about the convenience of having one bill. Everything gets billed to my credit card on auto pay, I don’t pay for anything with cash or checks so I could careless about how many bills I have or what is due when. For me, Time Warner gives me the best of everything, that why I bundle. I can’t get 15Mb and soon 50Mb internet access from anyone else in my area, Verizon DSL at 3Mb doesn’t even come close and is a joke. TW has a better selection of HD content then either Dish or DirecTV and better HD On Demand content. DirecTV lacks many many HD channels I’ve been enjoying on cable for a while now and Dish Network, we’ll they can bite me as if it was bad enough I couldn’t get my Sabres in HD, they no longer carry MSG at all so, Dish Network is useless to me. And as for phone, TW gives me the same reliability I had with a traditional landline from Verizon, only I get more feature and I don’t have to give my money to Verizon.

Cable service has treated me well. The main reason I went back to TW for TV and switched to them for phone was because at how impressed I was with their reliability when I had internet only. Almost zero downtime, other than a few issues on my end which they fixed free of charge. No more having to go outside in a blizzard to sweep off the stupid dish to continue to watch TV or wait for the rain storm to pass. And no, it wasn’t my signal. On clear days I had 115+ on all CONUS TPs with Dish and 90%+ on all CONUS TPs with my miserable two years with DirecTV.

 

[Yespage]

Wireless "Internet" is the future, I'd bet Bob Haller's left foot on it. It is obviously easier to hook up to a wireless signal than a wired one. We already have a massive cellular phone system. It is just going to be a matter of time before wireless will win out for its massive mobility. Right now 4G is slowly spreading across the nation. 5G, if that is what it'll be called, will make just about anything available over the air... until they develop the next gen Definition television signal.

 

[whatchel1]

I don’t care about the convenience of having one bill. Everything gets billed to my credit card on auto pay, I don’t pay for anything with cash or checks so I could careless about how many bills I have or what is due when. For me, Time Warner gives me the best of everything, that why I bundle. I can’t get 15Mb and soon 50Mb internet access from anyone else in my area, Verizon DSL at 3Mb doesn’t even come close and is a joke. TW has a better selection of HD content then either Dish or DirecTV and better HD On Demand content. DirecTV lacks many many HD channels I’ve been enjoying on cable for a while now and Dish Network, we’ll they can bite me as if it was bad enough I couldn’t get my Sabres in HD, they no longer carry MSG at all so, Dish Network is useless to me. And as for phone, TW gives me the same reliability I had with a traditional landline from Verizon, only I get more feature and I don’t have to give my money to Verizon.

Cable service has treated me well. The main reason I went back to TW for TV and switched to them for phone was because at how impressed I was with their reliability when I had internet only. Almost zero downtime, other than a few issues on my end which they fixed free of charge. No more having to go outside in a blizzard to sweep off the stupid dish to continue to watch TV or wait for the rain storm to pass. And no, it wasn’t my signal. On clear days I had 115+ on all CONUS TPs with Dish and 90%+ on all CONUS TPs with my miserable two years with DirecTV.

Luck Man. No such luck for most of the US though. Here the cable has fewer & cost more than E* Can't say about D* as I don't have it. I just dropped cable net as the co was a royal pain in the A to deal with and went to DSL. It's speed is very close to the cable net & is 10 per mnth less for next 12 months. Will reconsider all options at that point as my pricing w/ E* will also be going up to.

 

[Liquidforce88]

Yea Comcast here. No HD, internet at 6megs (3 untill Frontier came in and gave them some comp and they wanted 60 a month for it).

 

[goaliebob99]

Kind of off topic, but it says T-mobile is the 5th largest wireless provider. I thought they were fourth.
I thought it was :
Verizon
AT&T
Sprint
Tmobile.

You forgot US Cellular unless they are counting clear.

 

[HanoverPretzel]

Wireless "Internet" is the future, I'd bet Bob Haller's left foot on it. It is obviously easier to hook up to a wireless signal than a wired one. We already have a massive cellular phone system. It is just going to be a matter of time before wireless will win out for its massive mobility. Right now 4G is slowly spreading across the nation. 5G, if that is what it'll be called, will make just about anything available over the air... until they develop the next gen Definition television signal.

Is there enough spectrum to support the possibility of, say, 97% of the population of the country using cellular phone type connectivity for true broadband speeds as their only Internet connection (Hooked up to their computer, etc.)? Is there any upward limit at all to total OTA spectrum that can theoretically be used for that sort of stuff?

I'm using a Virgin Mobile 3G card and I like the simplicity of no wires or installs or credit checks or anything like that. Just literally bought the thing, plugged it into my computer, used it to do a 5 minute online sign-up process, and was set. But Virgin is the only one that ever offered it at an affordable rate ($40/month) and now new customers or customers who miss a bill or whatever don't have that plan available to them (I was grandfathered in). They also throttle past 5 gigs and even the regular connection is very slow relative to cable, etc. (Good luck streaming anything that won't let you massively buffer -- Netflix, hulu, etc. are basically unusable).

I can definitely see the potential of something like this if it can be done affordablely at faster speeds with higher usage caps. I just wonder if the actual arial spectrum is there to really support it replacing cable and DSL Internet for everyone.

 

[navychop]

The top cell phone companies can be found here.

 

[Stargazer]

There is no way that wireless can totally replace land-based systems. There is not enough spectrum for that. There is not enough line of site / signal to the towers to support it in mountain areas full of trees.

 

[tom231]

I will say this, the myth that you need to bundel your internet with your TV is killing sales. It used to be before the customer wanted internet, we could sell them a Dish and they would call AT&T and order just internet.

Now the customer calls AT&T and they are being pushed into Uverse, and ultimatly call back and cancel their Dish order.

What Dish needs is an internet solution that can be sold everywhere simmilar to satellite TV

I have Dish for T.V. and ATT for internet, and I have experienced what you are saying. When I called AT&T to negotiate a lower internet price, the guy says," I can bundle you with U-Verse and give you an even lower price". But U-verse isn't available in my area yet, otherwise I probably would have listened to what he had to offer.
And I've always been happy with Dish, But U-verse has always kinda been intriguing to me. Oh well, at least I got $5 a month off my bill for a year.

 

[yaz96]

Ergen: No grand plan yet on wireless spectrum

By Andy Vuong
The Denver Post

Posted: 02/24/2011 12:50:43 PM MST

Updated: 02/24/2011 12:54:18 PM MST

Dish Network chairman and chief executive
Charlie Ergen shed some light today on his
recent moves to acquire wireless spectrum, but
said he does not yet have a grand plan for the
assets.

"We think spectrum has value. If you can do
something with it strategically, it'd have more
value," Ergen said during a conference call with
analysts.

Dish has proposed to acquire DBSD North
America, a bankrupt satellite technology
company that owns 20 megahertz of spectrum,
for about $1 billion. Dish's sister company,
EchoStar, is trying to gain control of TerreStar
Networks, which also owns 20 MHz of spectrum.

Analysts say the two contiguous blocks of
spectrum owned by DBSD and TerreStar could be
deployed in a high-speed wireless network
buildout.
"There's not a grand strategy at this point," Ergen
said.

Dish is the nation's No. 2 satellite-TV provider
with about 14 million subscribers. EchoStar
makes set-top boxes. Ergen is the chairman of
both companies, which are based in Douglas
County.

Ergen said the proposed DBSD acquisition is
being viewed as a separate deal at this point.

"We're trying to get the company moving in the
right direction," Ergen said. "They have a
management team. They have the satellite. They
just need some capital to improve the business."

DBSD is developing hybrid technology that uses
ground-based and satellite communications
systems for wireless voice and Internet services.

Tom Cullen, executive vice president of product
development, said during today's call that Dish
plans to bundle services from recently acquired
Liberty-Bell Telecom in some test markets in the
next several months.

Liberty-Bell is a Denver-based competitive
local-exchange carrier, or CLEC, that buys
wholesale access to Qwest's network and resells
the service to 6,000 residential and 4,000
business customers in Colorado, New Mexico and
Utah.

"We feel it is an opportunity for us test our
ability to bundle wholesale broadband and voice
as part of the CLEC contract with Dish video

 

[mike123abc]

Today another tid bit popped up:

AT&T Argues Flo-TV Spectrum Bid Makes Sense | Wireless Week

The spectrum in question would cover approximately 300 million people across the United States. Dish Networks has suggested that if the FCC approves the transaction, it should do so under the condition that AT&T be required to divest the lower 700 MHz E block spectrum.

Sounds like Dish is eying the block? Is Dish going to set up an LTE network?

 

[TheKrell]

I say "Yes". I don't believe Ergen's earlier statement that they have no plans for their existing spectrum holdings. I think he was trying to misdirect the competition's attention until he is ready.

 

[Juan]

Wireless won't be it, because wireless--even if it's terrestrial wireless--will require bandwidth caps, quotas, etc. And sure, cable is putting in place quotas; but a wireless service's caps will be draconian compared to what Charter and Comcast are doing.

Does the Echostar spectrum number from that article include terrestrial spectrum, or is that their existing satellite capacity + Hughes? Because if they're counting satellite spectrum, they just need to forget it.

Not 4G Its exempt