Dish May Seek Sprint Aid for Mobile Internet, Credit Suisse Analyst Says

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Dish Network Corp. (DISH), the second-largest U.S. satellite-television provider, may seek help fromSprint Nextel Corp. (S) to offer wireless Internet service rather than build its own network, Credit Suisse Group AG said.
Dish sought government permission this week to use airwaves it has acquired to offer mobile high-speed Internet to millions of users. The Englewood, Colorado-based company could save billions of dollars by working with Sprint, said Jonathan Chaplin, a Credit Suisse analyst in New York.
“It makes the most sense for Dish to partner with Sprint,” Chaplin said yesterday in a telephone interview. “It gets Dish into the market at a much lower cost.”
Sprint is open to other mobile-Internet partnerships after signing a 15-year, $9 billion deal with LightSquared Inc. last month to share network expansion costs and equipment, said Scott Sloat, a spokesman for the third-biggest U.S. wireless carrier. Marc Lumpkin, a spokesman for Dish, declined to comment.
Dish would need $6.1 billion to build its own national high-speed Internet infrastructure, compared with $2 billion to pay Sprint to set up a network, Chaplin said. Operating a network would cost Dish $2.7 billion a year, compared with $1.1 billion a year to pay Sprint to do it, said the analyst, who expects Sprint to outperform the broader market and has no recommendation on Dish.
Chaplin has been at Credit Suisse for two years and previously covered telecommunications for seven years at JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Dish rose 20 cents to $22.19 at 2:05 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. Overland Park, Kansas-based Sprint fell 8 cents to $3.51.

 

[Laddyboy]

One analyst says Sprint, another MetroPCS. Sprint might make more sense.

 

[CK SatGuy]

One analyst says Sprint, another MetroPCS. Sprint might make more sense.

I agree. I think Dish, Sprint and Lightsquared are all going to team up to build this this new LTE Advanced network. MetroPCS could help too but I don't think they have the money. Clearwire could help too but they seem to working with all the other cable companies.

 

[navychop]

So would a Dish system be "just" LTE or also use GSM or CDMA while LTE is built out? If they go with Sprint, sounds like CDMA. That will keep me from considering them. I don't go abroad often, but I want my phone to work. And for most of the world, that means GSM.

 

[Laddyboy]

So would a Dish system be "just" LTE or also use GSM or CDMA while LTE is built out? If they go with Sprint, sounds like CDMA. That will keep me from considering them. I don't go abroad often, but I want my phone to work. And for most of the world, that means GSM.

I just borrow or re-activate a GSM phone I already own if I go OOC. It doesn't happen often enough that I base my phone decision on that alone. Where I live, ATT has the worst service of all the major providers. I'm just in an area where the signal gets blocked by something. Go a few miles in any direction and you're golden for ATT. Verizon's tower is a mile from me, and though Sprint's is over 20 miles away, I still get OK service given the price I get from Virgin Mobile.

 

[Stargazer]

Dish Network needs Sprint to get this thing rolling in many areas like they want otherwise they are probably wasting their time and money. I don't think MetroPCS is in enough areas to make it viable without a lot of build out required.

 

[mike123abc]

The advantage of working with an existing cell company like sprint is that they gain access to all the tower infrastructure. Adding Dish's frequencies to a modern cell tower is down just to a board addition. If the tower has adequate back haul (like fiber) it can easily handle it. Given that clearwire has had to enhance their backhaul and modernise all the towers in the areas they service to cover their existing 4G, working a deal with Dish will be a nice revenue addition. I do not see Dish running out and putting up 30,000 of its own towers or try to negotiate 30k worth of leases.