Google says it’s not in talks with Dish Network to create a fourth U.S. wireless carrier by buying spectrum assets from T-Mobile. Dish has been linked with a potential deal to buy Boost Mobile from T-Mobile so the Justice Department would clear T-Mobile’s acquisition of Sprint.
The New York Post noted Google parent Alphabet has entered talks with Dish.
Sources told the Post that former Ford Motor CEO Alan Mulally, who is currently a director at Alphabet, has been leading the talks. Google, however, denies the report.
The FCC has okayed the T-Mobile-Sprint deal, but the DOJ seeks to exert further conditions – including the sale of Boost. Selling assets to help facilitate the creation of a fourth operator could help the deal’s chances of being approved.
A move into mobile could make sense for Dish, given that it already holds significant spectrum assets having built up its holding over several years. In 2017, the firm spent $6.2 billion on spectrum in the 600 MHz band.
In a tweet earlier this year, T-Mobile CEO John Legere criticized Dish for allegedly having “warehoused $11 billion of spectrum for years and missed every build deadline,” reported ibc.org. Legere’s company also wrote to the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, claiming the regulator should reallocate Dish’s spectrum.
July 10, 2019
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