Dish Network has signed a 10-year wholesale agreement with AT&T allowing Dish (especially the mobile virtual network customers) to use the AT&T network. Dish MVNO customers are supported under a wholesale agreement with T-Mobile that expires in 2027.
In part, the new deal allows Dish more years to operate its 4G MVNO business and also support rural area customers for 4G and 5G.
It seems possible there are other benefits. The deal means Dish Network customers in rural areas might be supported almost indefinitely on AT&T’s network, freeing Dish to concentrate its own capital investment on urban areas.
It is possible the firms could also agree to allow AT&T access to some of Dish’s trove of spectrum. That would mean the additional AT&T network capacity needed to support Dish would be partially offset by new spectrum to serve those customers.
The deal reduces Dish’s reliance on the T-Mobile network and also could have other benefits later if Dish Network and the entity holding AT&T’s DirecTV assets are allowed to merge.
Though prior efforts to merge Dish Network and DirecTV satellite video networks have been thwarted, the market context is changing as satellite video steadily loses market share and customer volume. Where satellite once was viewed as competition for cable TV operators, that is less relevant now that linear TV is shrinking overall, and satellite receding faster than fixed network services.
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