[opendtv] AT&T, Dish Top AWS-3 Bidders | Broadcasting & Cable

From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2015 08:28:16 -0500
So Bert's new spin is that cable is winning the ISP wars, which is causing DBS 
subscribers to move to cable for ISP and MVPD services. But he is all excited 
about the Dish Sling bundle, which requires ISP service from a potential 
competitor in the cable or telco business. What a conumdrum!

But it looks like Dish is serious about evolving from a DBS service that offers 
MVPD bundles, into a VMVPD that also offers broadband. They just bid in excess 
of $13 billion in the AWS-3 spectrum auction, and the auction of broadcast 
spectrum looms just over the horizon.

It looks like the cable guys have the best infrastructure to deliver wired 
broadband, except for the rare cases where they have competition from telco 
fiber, Google Fiber, or a municipal broadband system. But wireless broadband is 
becoming a competitive reality. Our family now shares a 10 GB data pool among 
four smartphones, and it is likely that wireless broadband may become a 
competitive option within a few years.

The cable guys understand this, hence their aggressive buildout of WiFi hot 
spots to support their broadband subscribers. The WIFi buildout also offers the 
potential to compete in the wireless phone business as well. 

For Dish, the spectrum bids could play out several ways. They could get in the 
wireless broadband business. Or they could use some spectrum - like in the band 
some  broadcasters are about to sell - to deliver IP Multicasts for live linear 
streams to their OTT MVPD subscribers.

The evolution continues...

Regards
Craig


http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/washington/att-dish-top-aws-3-bidders/137582

AT&T, Dish Top AWS-3 Bidders

The FCC Friday released the names and amounts of the winning provisional 
bidders in the just-completed AWS-3 auction and it turns out that Dish ponied 
up more than Verizon, with both topped by AT&T.

The top provisional bidders for the 1,614 licenses auctioned were:

AT&T $18,189,285,000
Dish $13,327,423,700 (MoffettNathanson calculation)*
Verizon $10,430,017,000

T-Mobile bid $1,774,023,000 in the auction.

Dish's spectrum holdings had already gone up on the strength of the aggressive 
bidders in the AWS-3 auction, which turned out to include Dish to a degree that 
had not been anticipated.

The auction won't be official until those and other bidders make final 
payments, file the requisite paperwork and a comment period is opened for the 
public and any petitions challenging the auction. That means likely not until 
March at the earliest.

"At the conclusion of the FCC’s Auction 97, AT&T has successfully acquired 
licenses for a near nationwide contiguous 10x10 MHz block of high-quality AWS-3 
spectrum," the company said in a statement. "As a result of the acquisition, 
AT&T now covers 96 percent of the U.S. population with high-value contiguous 
AWS-3 spectrum."

* Dish bid as American AWS-3Wireless I L.L.C; Northstar Wireless, LLC and SNR 
Wireless LicenseCo, which co-owned by individuals and some investors



Regards
Craig
[opendtv] AT&T, Dish Top AWS-3 Bidders | Broadcasting & Cable

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