US DTH giant Dish Network could wait until the end of the year before hearing whether it is allowed to offer terrestrial-only mobile broadband, after the FCC announced it would delay its decision on the matter.
Dish had hoped for a waiver on certain…
US DTH giant Dish Network could wait until the end of the year before hearing whether it is allowed to offer terrestrial-only mobile broadband, after the FCC announced it would delay its decision on the matter.
Dish had hoped for a waiver on certain rules governing its MSS spectrum that currently require it to provide an integrated satellite/terrestrial service. However, the FCC stated on 2 March that is to engage in a lengthy rulemaking process to set guidelines on the frequencies in question before it can make such a decision.
“We worked hard to demonstrate that the grant of those waivers was in the public interest, and we wish that we had been successful,” stated the Dish following the FCC’s announcement.
“We believe that the denial of those waivers will delay the advancement of some of President Obama’s and the FCC’s highest priorities – namely freeing up new spectrum for commercial use and introducing new mobile broadband competition. As we review our options, we will continue working with the FCC on the forthcoming 2 GHz Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to achieve those goals as expeditiously as possible.
“Dish is committed to helping the Administration and the FCC solve the existing spectrum crunch, and Dish believes that new competition is particularly critical given the expanding world of bit caps and restrictive data plans.”
The FCC’s decision to delay a ruling that would allow Dish to provide terrestrial-only services comes in the wake of the debacle surrounding another MSS-ATC licence holding venture, hedge fund manager Philip Falcone’s LightSquared.
A similar waiver was granted to LightSquared in January 2011, only for the venture to be prohibited from launching commercially because its spectrum interferes with GPS technology. LightSquared is currently searching for a workaround that would allow it to launch commercial services in some other form.
Although Dish’s 40 MHz of 2GHz S-band frequencies does not suffer from the same interference issues that have plagued LightSquared’s spectrum, the FCC is likely more cautious about granting such waivers as the LightSquared/GPS row continues to court significant public interest.
The regulatory delay, however, pushed Dish’s stock down 3.5% to close at US$28.25 per share in extended trading on 2 March. Reports pointed to comments made by Dish chairman Charlie Ergen in a conference call with analysts in February, when he was cited saying that, without immediate waivers for the group’s LTE network, it would likely write down the value of its spectrum assets. Ergen reportedly added that without the requested waivers the spectrum would not be worth the US$3bn that Dish paid for them.
It is also unclear what impact the FCC’s recent waiver decision will have on previous speculation that Dish could become a bid target for US telco AT&T, which is on the lookout for spectrum assets after regulators blocked its US$39bn takeover of local mobile operator T-Mobile USA in December.
Dish’s spectrum holdings are derived from assets held by mobile satellite operators TerreStar Networks and DBSD North America, both of which were acquired separately out of bankruptcy protection last year. Dish filed its request for regulatory waivers, and its associated plan to merge DBSD and TerreStar’s spectrum, back in September 2011.
