US DTH giant Dish Network faces smaller competitors for a swathe of the country’s spectrum in January, according to regulator FCC’s list of bidders.
The list includes regional telcos such as nTelos, Piedmont Rural and James Valley Cooperative…
US DTH giant Dish Network faces smaller competitors for a swathe of the country’s spectrum in January, according to regulator FCC’s list of bidders.
The list includes regional telcos such as nTelos, Piedmont Rural and James Valley Cooperative Telecom, as well as America Movil’s subsidiary in Puerto Rico.
A total of 14 parties submitted complete applications to take part in the sale of 1,900 MHz frequencies on 22 January, known as the H Block. A further 20 bidders handed in incomplete applications that they have until 18 December to amend.
Another notable bidder is Mast Capital, which is also planning to buy part of satellite/terrestrial venture LightSquared’s spectrum out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Sprint, the third-largest mobile operator in the US, had widely been expected to take part in the H Block auction because it is near spectrum it already owns.
However, CFO Joseph Euteneuer was cited saying his company would rather focus on buying frequencies that are in lower bands.
Number four US mobile player T-Mobile had earlier revealed it too had decided against bidding in the auction, which has a reserve price of US$1.564bn.
Dish has agreed with that reserve price, although it has said it needs certain rule changes on the spectrum it already owns to meaningfully participate.
Commenting on the auction’s other bidders, BTIG Research analyst Walter Piecyk said: “These companies would not appear positioned to materially impact Dish’s US$1.5bn bid for this spectrum block.”
