Following LightSquared, Dish ups the ante in spectrum speculation

August 24, 2011 at 10:38 am | Posted in Telecommunications | Leave a comment

by Sara M. Langston with the blog faculty

by Stacey Higginbotham

Do we really think that Dish wants to build an LTE-Advanced mobile broadband network? I know that last night it filed a waiver asking the FCC to grant it the ability to use its satellite spectrum to deliver a combo terrestrial and satellite network, but let’s get real for a moment. This isn’t about mobile broadband, it’s about the spectrum. Charles W. Ergen, the CEO of Dish is making a huge gamble on the hyped-up spectrum crisis, the FCC’s failure so far with LightSquared, and a realization that satellite television is going to become an increasingly niche product. [more]