Dish Network spurs mobile speculation

Posted March 24, 2008 at 11:36 PM by Debbie Cook

Section: Video, Portable Video, Video Providers

I have often passed a parcel of property that I’d love to buy knowing that sometime or another it would be a great investment. Immediate timing is not always right for an acquisition but down the road it could be perfect. This is just the position that Dish Network has found itself in. Was it by chance or was it a calculated bet? 

Recently, blocks of wireless airwaves came up for auction since the analog TV will soon go all digital. In a surprising turn of events Dish Network partnered with Frontier Wireless won a block of one-way communication licenses.

Analysts within the satellite television, mobile communications and investment industries are speculating why Dish Network would invest as much as $711 million dollars for a commodity that it is not completely compatible with their core business. Since the majority purchasers of these wireless airwaves were mobile phone companies it would seem that Dish Network have future plans to go “mobile” at least in some form.

Analyst Jason Bazinet of Citi, brings up an interesting point when he surmised that by Dish setting up a mobile TV network it would make it less likely for AT&T to take them over.

Read [Yahoo! News]