Adding to the bucket of scenarios that could happen if AT&T’s proposed T-Mobile acuiqisition falls through, Dish Network is apparently very interested in striking its own deal.
The satellite company, which has long played second fiddle to DirecTV, wants to joing up with T-Mobile to expand its presence in the mobile space.
Unlike the AT&T deal, Dish Network has no intention of buying out T-Mobile, but it does want to branch out and, like Verizon, become a company that provides TV and mobile services together.
In addition, “We want to use it to create a national wireless network, video, voice and data. We’ve got expertise in satellite-TV, and we will in satellite broadband,” said Dish Network CEO Joseph Clayton in a Bloomberg interview.
Dish Network scooped up a handful of wireless spectrum around the country earlier this year thanks to a couple of smaller telecom companies that declared bankruptcy and sold all their assets.
So in addition to offering wireless data to customers, Dish is looking to expand into actual mobile phone services. The company has no experience in that field, and Clayton admitted in the interview, “The voice part, we’ll need some help with.”
This of course hinges on whether or not T-Mobile is not swallowed by AT&T. Though as far as many are concerned, the question is not if the AT&T buyout deal will fail, but when.
Even if the merger happens, AT&T will no doubt need to make some concessions, such as selling off big chunks of its wireless spectrum, and if that is the case, Dish Network can still jump in.
“We feel if the AT&T-T-Mobile deal goes through, we win. If it doesn’t go through, we still win,” said Clayton.
