Dish Has No Need to Seek FCC 5G Rollout Deadline Extension, Says Ergen

Dish Network doesn’t think it needs to ask for an "extension” of its FCC deadline to bring coverage of its mobile 5G network to 20% of the U.S. population by mid-June, said Chairman Charlie Ergen on a Q1 earnings call Friday. “We’re still on track” to meet the deadline, he said, conceding “we’re not spiking the football yet.”

The Dish 5G team has “a can-do attitude,” said Ergen. The company wants to keep its “nose to the grindstone, and do what we said we were going to do,” he said.

Dish’s commitment to the FCC is “to do data to 20% of the population” by June 14, said Ergen: “It’s not going to be a robust offering, as robust as we’d like.” One impediment to robustness, said Ergen, is the delayed DOJ approval of Dish’s agreement with T-Mobile resolving their dispute over the shuttering T-Mobile's 3G CDMA network (see 2202240039).

DOJ has been reviewing the agreement since Feb. 22, and the delay “has materially negatively impacted our ability to compete” in the wireless space, said CEO Erik Carlson. “This includes our acquisition and retention efforts and our results of operations,” he said. “We hope to hear from the DOJ soon, and are optimistic” the settlement with T-Mobile will be approved, he said. DOJ didn’t comment.

“Without Justice approving” the T-Mobile agreement, “it makes it a little more difficult for us to have a robust offering in the marketplace,” said Ergen. “Obviously, we don’t have Band 70 and we have high-priced phones.” Its only handset in the Dish May 4 commercial 5G launch in Las Vegas is the Motorola Edge+, which retails for $899.99 (see 2205040057).

The main goal is getting “the network up and operating,” and “start running water through the pipes, see how it works,” said Ergen. “It’s new to our company, though most of our team has done it before." Dish's "ability to compete" ultimately will hinge on "the quality of the network,” he said. The “architecture” of Dish’s 5G network is “materially different than the legacy networks that are out there today,” he said. “It’s a modern network in a modern world.”

Band 70 combines three blocks encompassing Dish’s AWS-4, H-block and AWS-3 spectrum holdings. The devices Dish is deploying in Vegas and other markets in the early phases are “aggregating” Bands 66 and 71, said John Swieringa, Dish Wireless president-chief operating officer.

Dish has Band 70 devices “in the labs now,” said Swieringa. “We’re working with all of our major OEMs on that. We expect to be able to start launching commercially with Band 70 devices in late Q3, and that’s really when we can start hitting the gas in terms of loading retail subscribers on the network.”

Dish told the FCC that like most other wireless carriers it will transmit wireless emergency alerts to its customers. Dish will “transmit WEAs in a manner consistent with the technical standards, protocols, procedures, and other technical requirements implemented by the Commission,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 08-146.

Dish closed Q1 with 10.24 million pay-TV subscribers, including 7.99 million Dish TV accounts and 2.25 million Sling TV members. It lost 462,000 net pay-TV accounts in the quarter, roughly double the losses in Q1 a year earlier. The stock closed 19.1% lower Friday at $22.22.

In the Sling TV business, “bottom line, we simply didn’t execute to the level we expected,” said CEO Carlson. “Look, we had a tough quarter, but we’re optimistic that we can leverage the platform through our messaging, our high-value products and great experience to reach customers whose overall video content bills are too high, but still want the excitement of live TV.”