FCC: Echostar Nearly Has National Reach For Wireless Broadband

[hellokris]

Echostar partner Frontier wins E block airwaves

NEW YORK, March 20 (Reuters) - Frontier Wireless, a partner of U.S. satellite television company EchoStar, has won wireless airwaves in the "E" block spectrum auction covering almost all of the United States, the Federal Communications Commission said on Thursday.
EchoStar recently split into two companies EchoStar Corp (SATS.O: Quote, Profile, Research), a provider of technology such as set-top boxes, and DISH Network (DISH.O: Quote, Profile, Research), the satellite television provider. (Reporting by Peter Kaplan in Washington DC and Sinead Carew in New York, editing by Leslie Gevirtz)

How is this going to effect dish network??

 

[navychop]

Velly Intellesting.
<takes puff>

 

[HeavyC]

It's extremely interesting.

 

[mike123abc]

Dish needs internet to bundle with service to compete. I wonder if they will do phone and internet with this.

 

[stogie5150]

IMO this would certainly make VOD more palatable, because if the same holding corporation owns the satellite division and the internet division, you wouldn't think the customers would have to worry about throttling of their internet access.

A satellite,internet,and phone option from one company could be good...COULD BE.

 

[grydlok]

IMO this would certainly make VOD more palatable, because if the same holding corporation owns the satellite division and the internet division, you wouldn't think the customers would have to worry about throttling of their internet access.

A satellite,internet,and phone option from one company could be good...COULD BE.

Why they won a spectrum in certain places. They didn't win in overall areas like VERIZON did.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Verizon was bidding and won different blocks of the auction. Echostar won almost all of the E Block

 

[mloebl]

Interesting... They already have a dish outside, why not create an antenna that can be attached to an existing installation for receiving 700mhz and use the existing cable to bring it into the house. I like the possibilities

-Mike

 

[sA :: Shaggy]

Mhh maybe att will be even more interested in Dish now. lol.. sorry I had to lol.

 

[bongohawk]

I would say along with wireless, why not IPTV? Do I hear unlimited bandwidth? Unlimited HD channels?

 

[hrxtreme]

Sounds like the E block is best suited for one-way comm only. Two-way would be difficult.

 

[JohnH]

Here is the 8-K:

Item 8.01. Other Events.



A wholly-owned subsidiary of DISH Network Corporation participated in the auction of 700 MHz wireless spectrum designated by the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") as Auction 73 (the “Auction”). On March 20, 2008, the FCC disclosed that the subsidiary was the provisional winning bidder of 168 E Block licenses in the Auction totaling $711,871,000 and representing coverage of 76% of the U.S. population. While the bidding in the Auction has ended, the FCC has not yet awarded any of the licenses to winning bidders nor is there any prescribed timeframe for the FCC to review the qualifications of the various winning bidders and award licenses.

EchoStar Communications Corporation - Current Report

 

[wolfjc]

From the Swanni

By Swanni

Washington, D.C. (March 21, 2008) -- Dish Network's win in the federal wireless spectrum auction makes it unlikely it will be purchased by AT&T or perhaps even satellite rival DIRECTV.

That's the conclusion of an analysis from Citigroup, as reported by Bloomberg News.

Dish Network, a sister network of EchoStar, has been rumored for months to be considering buyout deals from telco AT&T. The satellite TV service has been struggling to keep pace with better-financed competitors such as DIRECTV on services such as High-Definition TV.

However, Citigroup says Dish's decision to pay $711 million for 163 licenses for wireless spectrum indicates that it wants to go alone in the battle against DIRECTV and cable services.

`'This level of investment seems to signal that Dish plans to compete with the cable and telco firms on a standalone basis rather than sell to a rival,'' the report said, according to Bloomberg.

"It most certainly lowers the odds'' (of an AT&T deal), the report added.

The deal could also nix the possibility that Dish will merge with DIRECTV, another frequent rumor.

Citigroup said Dish may use the wireless spectrum to offer mobile video services.

Comment on this article!

 

[Cyclone]

I still think that Charlie could still sell Dish off and just keep E* for continued growth. Lets face it. When you start a business, you grow it. When you've grown it about as much as you can, you sell it off and pocket the $$$ as a great reward for your hard work.

The trick is to sell if off just before it stops growing. Hold on to it past that point and it begins to lose value. Dish is likely reach its high water mark. Their growth was fueled by adding new customers in new markets when locals became available. HDTV won some customer, but only until the "next best thing" comes along (ie D*).

 

[shanewalker]

I'm fascinated by the implications of this story--read about it this morning on my commute in to work.

I posted a question to Scott on this topic in Pub for all you members...hopefully he can dig up some tasty intel for us.

 

[Primus]

DISH may plan mobile TV with new airwaves: analysts - Yahoo! News

Here's another good article on it. It would appear that this spectrum is not good for two way communications and is most likely to be used for the afore mentioned mobile television.

Or it could just be a move by Charlie to obtain something that is currently available that could be sold at a premium later.

 

[Poke]

Mhh maybe att will be even more interested in Dish now. lol.. sorry I had to lol.

No right now this is a bigger sign Dish will be doing their own thing so really this is a sign that Dish is on their own.

 

[Jeffro34tx]

How nice that would be.... Take your Archos with you... you don't have to watch pre-recorded shows... you could watch live shows as well... I'd be all over that.

 

[BobMurdoch]

This is a head scratcher... At first look, it looked like a way to combat the Triple Play packages from the Cable cos. and Verizon....

Then I thought they might do an XM and have receivers that can receive both wireless video and satellite video to help supplement the signals in weak areas when they put Eastern Arc into play.

Now I don't WHAT this is for. Never a dull moment with this crew...

 

[Poke]

Well from what I have read it seems like their going to use it for a mobile television service. Which could be kind of cool like where you could watch your Dish TV Service on your cell phone while traveling. My guess would be as long as your phone as a net connection that you could possible get their service to pull in..