Dish Network, trying to get a 10-month extension on its option to buy T-Mobile’s 800MHz spectrum, has some competition for the airwaves,
If you’ve been following the story, you know that Dish Network has an option to buy low-band 800MHz spectrum from T-Mobile. The latter was told by the FCC to get rid of the spectrum in exchange for regulatory approval of the carrier’s merger with Sprint. Most of the low-band spectrum used by T-Mobile is the 600MHz airwaves that are deployed across the country for its nationwide 5G network. That’s because low-band spectrum travels longer distances than mid or high-band spectrum although it delivers slower download speeds than the other bands.The option that Dish has with T-Mobile requires it to pay $3.59 billion for the spectrum and therein lies the problem. The original deadline gave Dish until August 11th to exercise the option, and later that was extended to the end of this month. But without the ability to pay for the spectrum, Dish earlier this month went to the U.
