DISH continues to be in the news. Beating the betting odds, DISH has successfully met both an initial and interim performance requirement to deploy their spectrum portfolio as a condition of the T-Mobile/ Sprint merger. More recently, they successfully renegotiated the purchase of 800 MHz from T-Mobile and DISH has continued to be a spectrum success story.  

However, a question continually posed by many analysts is “what if”. More specifically, should DISH be unsuccessful in their mobile network aspirations, for whom would their spectrum portfolio be most valuable? This is a fair question which deserves thoughtful answers. 

While the authors of this report do not wish to opine on DISH’s ultimate success – DISH has achieved an impressive series of milestones -- the question does provide a platform to help industry analysts, investors, vendors, and partners better understand the DISH portfolio and how to think about utility and, ultimately, value. 

Thus, this report discusses DISH’s major mobile Frequency Range 1 (FR1) bands and considerations of who might find these valuable. A discussion of the specific transactional mechanism to transfer that spectrum (e.g., federal auction, individual transactions, partnership, etc.) is outside the scope of this report. However, the authors highlight who are the operators to most likely find value in a specific band.   

The authors assembled the report from the unique insights and tools available from Spektrum Metrics to demonstrate holdings at a national and individual market level and by band. Further, using the Spektrum Metrics web tools, we will compare holdings on a geographic basis via map or in total for comparison with other operators. The authors use this information to provide an analysis of potential band opportunities based on positioning and holdings by other incumbents in those markets. 

The contents of this approximately 60 page document are intended to aid financial analysts, investors, and management consultants in developing perspectives to aid their individual firms and clients. It also is of benefit for anyone in the industry with curiosity of how to think about spectrum value and potential “what if” scenarios to support their own planning efforts. The analysis and graphics contained in this report are obtained from authentic sources, analyzed, and cross-validated where possible.  

This report will be available for download after purchase.