Dish Will Supplement Its 5G Service With AT&T Wireless Network
Dish Network's mobile customers will use AT&T's wireless network in addition to Dish's 5G network under a network services agreement announced by the two companies Monday. The agreement says AT&T will be the primary network services partner for Dish mobile…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
virtual network operator customers. They said AT&T will also provide transport and roaming services to support Dish's 5G network. "Teaming with AT&T on this long-term partnership will allow us to better compete in the retail wireless market and quickly respond to changes in our customers' evolving connectivity needs as we build our own first-of-its kind 5G network," said Dish Chief Operating Officer and Group President-Retail Wireless John Swieringa. Under the terms of the 10-year NSA, Dish will pay AT&T at least $5 billion and AT&T can deploy portions of Dish's spectrum to support Dish customers on the AT&T network. New Street Research's Jonathan Chaplin, in a note to investors, said presumably AT&T would pay Dish for use of the spectrum or Dish would get a reduction in what it's paying AT&T under the MVNO. He said the deal was likely driven by Dish's issues with T-Mobile shutting down the Sprint CDMA network that many of Dish's Boost customers rely on. Chaplin said the Dish/AT&T deal could indicate a DirecTV/Dish DBS deal could be more plausible since it indicates a willingness for AT&T and Dish to work together. He said such an agreement would face regulatory challenges "though we see it as a hurdle; not a barrier."