T-Mobile CFO Braxton Carter had some lofty praise for Dish CEO Charlie Ergen on his approach toward building a large spectrum portfolio.
“Charlie Ergen’s done a masterful job of creating a very differentiated mid-band spectrum position,” Carter said at a Morgan Stanley investor conference.
Carter insisted he didn’t know what Ergen and Dish would do next with all its spectrum but said he knew that Dish wouldn’t try to deploy it on its own.
“He’s not interested in building his own network and we would be a very good partner for deploying his spectrum,” said Carter.
Carter’s comments today echo T-Mobile’s comments last week during Deutsche Telekom’s Capital Markets Day and CEO John Legere’s comments during carrier’s fourth-quarter earnings call.
It’s a sentiment T-Mobile has continually shared since the close of the FCC’s Auction 97, in which Dish spent $10 billion after $3 billion in Designated Entity (DE) discounts.
Ergen has been less transparent about what Dish plans to do with its spectrum. During a recent earnings call, he said that spectrum is vital for competing in the wireless market and that video will be at the core of any wireless offering the company puts forth.
While T-Mobile has lauded Dish and touted the idea of partnering with the satellite TV provider, AT&T and Verizon have taken turns criticizing Dish’s bidding tactics during the AWS-3 auction. AT&T slammed Dish for taking advantage of the DE program AT&T says was intended to help small businesses. Verizon said that Dish’s strategy of having its partners bid against each other artificially inflated prices during the auction.
Filed Under: Carriers
