Future of Dish Wireless, USCellular Top Wireless Questions: New Street

One of the big wireless questions for 2024 is whether Dish Network will succeed as a fourth national wireless provider, New Street’s Blair Levin said in a weekend note to investors. Another is whether another carrier will buy USCellular, he wrote. He added: “There is a question about whether any potential buyers would face a risk of a government rejection, particularly given the views of Democratic antitrust authorities and the results of the last major acquisition to face an FCC review (T-Mobile/Sprint)." Any buyer other than AT&T, T-Mobile or Verizon would likely see easy approval, he noted. “Lots of studies are in the pipeline” in the aftermath of the national spectrum strategy, but “these won’t lead to more spectrum coming online before 2025,” Levin said. No resolution appears likely soon on the lower 3 GHz band, but 12 GHz “is the one place” the FCC could authorize a new band for terrestrial use, he said: "Depending on if and how the FCC does it, it could be a boost for DISH.” Levin also predicted Congress could authorize the FCC to sell returned AWS 3 licenses. Congress could authorize a “targeted reauction” without addressing broader DOD concerns “that are blocking efforts to reauthorize spectrum auctions.”