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Is Dish “desperate” to look for ways to finish building its standalone 5G network? There are reports that suggest Dish is working hard to look for funds to meet its obligation with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to cover the country with a 5G signal after the June 2023 deadline. Even though Dish is expected to meet this obligation, there are reports that the cable company may have trouble meeting the next deadline, which will be in 2025.
According to The New York Post, Dish’s CEO, Charlie Ergen, is desperate to look for assets that he can sell. The source, said to be “close to the situation”, shared that Ergen is “trying to sell everything that is non-core and to finance assets that are financeable. The problem is there are only very small things to sell. It’s a drop in the bucket.”
To recall, Dish needs to fulfill its obligation to the FCC. Otherwise, it will need to make a “voluntary” contribution of $2.2 billion. The source revealed that the CEO has been meeting with regulators to get the deadline to be extended.
This coincides with the analysis done by New Street Research (via PhoneArena) that “the most likely path forward for Dish near term is to negotiate an extension on its 2025 FCC coverage requirement” once it meets its June 2023 deadline. The analyst group believes that a 1-2 year extension should be enough for DIsh “to conserve or at least delay $2 to $3 billion of capital spending that would give it more runway to grow its consumer and enterprise subscriber base.”
PhoneArena also reports that there is a circulating rumor that the Dish CEO is in talks with a three-way merger between DirecTV, AT&T, and Dish. If this were to happen, Dish will be able to split the costs of building an SA 5G network. But at this point, there is no confirmation on this.
We’ll have to know what move Dish plans to do next by the end of June. Hopefully, the decision it makes will help them meet their 2025 deadline.
Source: The New York Post, PhoneArena
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