DISH Network Wants to Offer Nationwide LTE service

[Mike_H]

Hmmm. I don't think wireless speeds will keep up with wired, or Fios, speeds. Or reliability. But I still think it's a great field for Dish/Echostar to enter.

It really is a question of if the wired groups are willing to provide more bandwidth for a reasonable price. Thus far they are not. This is leaving a massive door open for an aggressive wireless provider. Currently the cable companies and the wireless companies are happy with the pies they are carving out as evidenced by their unwillingness to compete against each other. (both setting artificial caps on bandwidth, both using similar pricing models). If a player would come to the market with an aggressive pricing strategy and they are able to have wide national coverage, they have a good opportunity to acquire significant market share. 1st generation LTE services today are providing data rates of over 7Mbps and some reports regular 14-18Mbps rates all with low ping times. Price it right and that beats cable easy and way beyond DSL. Fios is too limited to be in the comparison.

 

[navychop]

I would be pleasantly overwhelmed if in the real world, with buildings, weather, distance, conflicts, # of users, etc, a data rate of 7Mbps could be sustained. But I see your point.

 

[TheKrell]

I would be pleasantly overwhelmed if in the real world, with buildings, weather, distance, conflicts, # of users, etc, a data rate of 7Mbps could be sustained.

Well, I wouldn't! Dish "streaming" to my receivers peak at over 8Mbps. So if "7" is all it can do, we will be choking down the data stream. with concomitant loss of PQ.

 

[GaryPen]

Cox has caps...

Mine does. Looks like a helmet.

 

[chicagonettech]

This is all part of the vision for Dish according to my Regional Operations Manager. Dish owns the 3rd largest wireless spectrum behind att and verizon. But ours is completely unused because of an fcc requirement that you must be a telephone company to use the wireless airspace. This is why dish bought liberty bell. To not only open the realm of dsl but more importantly wireless.

Dish eventually wants your whole home....tv...internet...phone to all run wireless together. Thats there vision.

No way in hell I am ever going to give the master of rate increases that capability!

 

[clnsmn13]

Looks interesting. But with dish a few years away.

 

[Ghpr13]

Dish has a good plan, but Dish has to remember it's not enough just to be first with things, but to be first and have products that are solid performers. Think back to when Chrysler brought out the minivans. It wasn't just because they were new and different, they were well made and really fit a niche at the time. More up to date comparison would be Apple. 99% of the time Apple's products are not just something really different, but they are well made. Competition will copy whatever comes out, but you don't want the competition to come out with a better product, just so you could say we had it first.

Ghpr13

 

[rajmarie]

If its offered in PR at a good price & speed & caps that are high enough (unlimited will be better).....I will jump to it in a blink.

 

[Laddyboy]

The problem with all of this is that Dish is never able to get things out on time. They are big on the plans and the announcement of products and services and woefully poor in execution of same. They don't have the BBMP available for all their receivers yet nor have they fixed the 722 slowdown problem. Still waiting for the whole home DVR as well. They either have not enough technical people or people who don't know what they are doing, likely the former. The only way I can see this working is if they actually partner with a major wireless provider.

 

[Ghpr13]

The problem with all of this is that Dish is never able to get things out on time. They are big on the plans and the announcement of products and services and woefully poor in execution of same. They don't have the BBMP available for all their receivers yet nor have they fixed the 722 slowdown problem. Still waiting for the whole home DVR as well. They either have not enough technical people or people who don't know what they are doing, likely the former. The only way I can see this working is if they actually partner with a major wireless provider.

This is basically what I was trying to say. I think you stated it better.

Ghpr13

 

[mike123abc]

The problem with all of this is that Dish is never able to get things out on time. They are big on the plans and the announcement of products and services and woefully poor in execution of same. They don't have the BBMP available for all their receivers yet nor have they fixed the 722 slowdown problem. Still waiting for the whole home DVR as well. They either have not enough technical people or people who don't know what they are doing, likely the former. The only way I can see this working is if they actually partner with a major wireless provider.

This is an area I do not really expect them to have technical delays. After all they would buy components off the shelf, not make them themselves. Remember in the satellite area they make their own hardware (well now via Echostar), and it is a proprietary delivery system. LTE is a standard with global deployment and compatibility. They will probably partner with someone to gain access to towers. I do not see Dish running out and putting up 30k towers for nationwide coverage.

 

[Tampa8]

If Dish can pull this off, have reliable, relatively fast service, with no usage or speed caps they will change the landscape. If they just become another provider much like the others, no big deal. I have to admit they are moving towards being a major player in streaming/movies/content faster than I thought they would.

 

[nelson61]

They are just shopping it around and need the varience (satellite/terrestial) to jack up the price.

When was the last time you saw a company declare a ~800 million special dividend when they were leveraged to the gills and then say they intend to spend billions more rolling out a national network?

Only have to look at AT&T and Version costs and roll out schedules to get an idea of the money involved in large scale networks.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Even though DISH blasts Sprint in their letter, I keep hearing that it will be a big DISH / Sprint Deal in the end.

Keeps things interesting anyways...

 

[nelson61]

Even though DISH blasts Sprint in their letter, I keep hearing that it will be a big DISH / Sprint Deal in the end.

Keeps things interesting anyways...

Exaactly. This is what they need - a partner with deep pockets that understands the communications industry.

 

[navychop]

Might be Sprint's ace up their sleeve.