DirecTV-DISH consortium all but dead in spectrum auction

As the historic federal auction for wireless spectrum heats up and the proverbial wheat begins separating from the chaff, the first major victim of the escalating bidding war seems to be the satellite TV consortium composed of DirecTV and DISH-parent EchoStar. Combining their resources in the Advanced Wireless Services auction as a limited liability corporation known as Wireless DBS, the two companies were hoping to pick up a chunk of spectrum that they could use to offer WiMax broadband services to customers and compete directly with telcos offering so-called "triple-play" packages; currently, the two sat TV providers have only been able to offer Internet service through partnerships with established broadband carriers. Apparently the billion dollars that Wireless DBS was willing to spend ended up not being enough to cover the requisite regional licenses they would need to offer nationwide service, as the cost for such such complete coverage is now anticipated to be at least $4 billion. The next move for the satellite providers could involve either partnering up once again with a company like Clearwire, or waiting until next year to bid in the 700MHz auction -- but that auction could see even higher bids, and the resulting spectrum would be unavailable for use until 2009. Sorry guys, we know how badly you wanted this one, but when you come to a gun fight equipped with nothing but a pocketknife, well, things are bound to end pretty poorly.

[Via Techdirt]

[Totalfixation @ Aug 16th 2006 9:31PM]

Who cares(i know many but i dont) =), I need HSDPA badly real badly, go t-mobile go.

[Uchendu Nwachukwu @ Aug 16th 2006 10:16PM]

I don't understand why the DBS companies don't just offer video-on-demand over existing internet connections, as opposed going out and creating its own internet service. Anyone who can get broadband will have it anyway before long, so why not leverage that instead of trying to sell your own broadband?

Sky does this in the UK with its Sky By Broadband service.

[greenlight @ Aug 17th 2006 3:41AM]

These spectrum auctions are insane. And you guys wonder why everything wireless is so overpriced.

[Steven @ Aug 17th 2006 8:22AM]

I have clearwire a6t home or rather used to until last week. the ping is good for wireless. about the same for any type fo broadband connection which means I could play ut2k4 without getting ym ass handed to me because of latency. There Terms of Service thou purly SUCK. they threatened to block all ports (outbound) cept for port 80 cause I use trillian, you aren't allowed to download from ftp or are you allowed to download over a cetrtain amount, also no streaming audio up and down and oh yea they block you from using bit torrent, what a great service!! *sarcasm*

[Sponge @ Aug 17th 2006 10:10AM]

My wireless ISP is great, it's faster then the DSL out here(I live inn a rural area) and I have unlimited uploads and downloads. AND unlike Steven, I can basically do whatever I want.

[hackedbyjoe @ Apr 12th 2007 4:22AM]

test

[hackedbyjoe @ Apr 12th 2007 4:22AM]

test