Dish Switching Network To AT&T After Calling T-Mobile Anticompetitive (arstechnica.com) 25
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Dish Network has agreed to pay AT&T at least $5 billion over 10 years for network access amid a feud between Dish and T-Mobile. Dish is in the early stages of building a 5G network and in the meantime is serving customers as a reseller using network capacity that it purchases from T-Mobile. But Dish and T-Mobile are fighting over T-Mobile's plan to shut down its 3G CDMA network earlier than it originally intended, with Dish accusing T-Mobile of anticompetitive behavior. Against that backdrop, Dish today announced "the signing of a transformative, long-term strategic Network Services Agreement with AT&T, making AT&T the primary network services partner for Dish MVNO [mobile virtual network operator] customers."
The AT&T network capacity will serve customers on Dish's "retail wireless brands, including Boost Mobile, Ting Mobile, and Republic Wireless," Dish said. Dish also said the agreement will accelerate its "expansion of retail wireless distribution to rural markets where Dish provides satellite TV services" and that AT&T will provide transport and roaming services to support Dish's future 5G network. Dish revealed the $5 billion price in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that also notes that the roaming and transport services from AT&T will not be limited to areas where Dish doesn't build 5G infrastructure. The deal "provides Dish's retail wireless customers with voice and data roaming services throughout the US on the AT&T network and access to AT&T's network, even within the markets where Dish is deploying its own 5G network," Dish told the SEC. Today's deal between AT&T and Dish is nonexclusive, so Dish can use both T-Mobile and AT&T capacity to serve customers. But Dish's statement that AT&T will become the "primary" network provider for Dish MVNO customers shows that Dish is trying to minimize the use of T-Mobile's network. Dish's MVNO deal with T-Mobile lasts until 2027. As part of the T-Mobile/Sprint merger-and-divestment proceedings, Dish committed to the government that it would build a 5G network serving 70 percent of Americans by June 2023.
The AT&T network capacity will serve customers on Dish's "retail wireless brands, including Boost Mobile, Ting Mobile, and Republic Wireless," Dish said. Dish also said the agreement will accelerate its "expansion of retail wireless distribution to rural markets where Dish provides satellite TV services" and that AT&T will provide transport and roaming services to support Dish's future 5G network. Dish revealed the $5 billion price in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that also notes that the roaming and transport services from AT&T will not be limited to areas where Dish doesn't build 5G infrastructure. The deal "provides Dish's retail wireless customers with voice and data roaming services throughout the US on the AT&T network and access to AT&T's network, even within the markets where Dish is deploying its own 5G network," Dish told the SEC. Today's deal between AT&T and Dish is nonexclusive, so Dish can use both T-Mobile and AT&T capacity to serve customers. But Dish's statement that AT&T will become the "primary" network provider for Dish MVNO customers shows that Dish is trying to minimize the use of T-Mobile's network. Dish's MVNO deal with T-Mobile lasts until 2027. As part of the T-Mobile/Sprint merger-and-divestment proceedings, Dish committed to the government that it would build a 5G network serving 70 percent of Americans by June 2023.
3G shutdown (Score:5, Informative)
Dish and T-Mobile are fighting over T-Mobile's plan to shut down its 3G CDMA network earlier than it originally intended, with Dish accusing T-Mobile of anticompetitive behavior.
T-Mobile is shutting down their 3G network on Jan. 1, 2022 [tmonews.com].
AT&T said they're going to shut down their 3G network by Feb. 2022 [att.com]
So Dish switched to AT&T so they can have an extra month of 3G service?
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My Maserati does 185.
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I lost my license, so now I don't drive.
(All seriousness - for all the cr*p Tesla gets, they're better at this kinda stuff than anyone .... $200 to upgrade your car from 3G to LTE. Seems fair.)
https://www.tesla.com/support/... [tesla.com]
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Re:3G shutdown (Score:5, Informative)
Even funnier, the January shutdown is T-Mobile shutting down Sprint's old EVDO network. Their UMTS 3G network will keep operating until April 2022, so T-Mobile's 3G will actually last longer than AT&T's UMTS.
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The important part here is the “CDMA” descriptor. Boost has always been kind of a low-income prepaid provider, and I’d venture a guess there are more than a few of their customers still using phones that aren’t compatible with T-Mobile’s GSM network.
Going with AT&T as their wholesale network provider is mostly just Dish giving the middle finger to T-Mobile, as in “if you’re going to require most of our customers replace their phones, we’re just going to g
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He can hoard all he wants but he's desperately running out of time that anyone would actually want to buy his spectrum for a reasonable price rather than wait out the demise. Worked there years ago and when upper management failed to give a proper explanation of their future plans, much of the engineering talent jumped ship, a lot of us took that as the writing on the wall that they had no real plans to compete or to stay competitive in any arena and were just hoping for some sort of merger or buy out whic
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BINGO! Or, as they say in the Wikipedia world:
and
That this even went through with Ergen's Dish being what it is shows a continual spectacular failure in the FCC (due to the revolving door, of course). If the FTC had fangs they would get involved. DoJ doesn't care since it isn't drugs n stuff.
Re: Ergen maneuvers (Score:3)
Unless he knows he has enough corrupt pull to make the FCC just completely roll over this should do nothing. He can only license out a small part of the spectrum and what AT&T does with it won't satisfy his build out requirements.
Frying pan v fire (Score:2)
AT&T though? (Score:5, Informative)
If their primary argument is that t-mobile is anti-competitive ( a weird argument to make given how many resellers use it, including mint ), then going with AT&T seems...unwise. Has any company ever NOT been burned by AT&T? I know I've regretted every single interaction I've had with them ( to the extent that I simply won't work with them anymore. It's always a mistake, there are always better alternatives. Always ).
Re:AT&T though? (Score:4, Insightful)
AT&T owns DirectTV and there is an interest in a DirecTV-Dish merger.
This deal is likely related to nurturing the business relationship to further that goal, throwing T-Mobile under the bus for the benefit of AT&T to make a merger more likely.
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AT&T owns DirectTV and there is an interest in a DirecTV-Dish merger.
This deal is likely related to nurturing the business relationship to further that goal, throwing T-Mobile under the bus for the benefit of AT&T to make a merger more likely.
The FTC might view a DirectTV-Dish merger as "anti-competitive" and block it on those grounds.
It does not matter that satellite TV is "so 80s" for many people out there that would rather stream of the Interwebs.
And for those whose only choice for TV is satellite...we know the FTC will not say "So what", but the FTC won't do much of anything for them either.
forced out of internet (Score:4, Informative)
Time to say good bye to my collection of unkillable iPhone 4s in the drawer.
Hedgefunds trying to strip Dish’s assets? (Score:2)
When did Dish become a phone company? (Score:2)
Sounds like they were obsolete by T-Mobile standards, hehe.
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AT&T shares immediately drop (Score:2)