Dish Is Facing Questions From FCC on Network Build-Out Plan
- Company faces accelerated use-or-lose deadlines on airwaves
- CEO Ergen pressured to capitalize on $40 billion in spectrum
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Dish Network Corp. is being asked by federal regulators to provide details about its wireless network plans, a not-so-gentle reminder that the company has less than two years to use some of its $40 billion in airwaves or lose them.
The Federal Communications Commission wants specifics like what network equipment and chips Dish will use, which wireless frequencies it will operate on and what types of devices it plans to sell, according to a July 9 letter from the agency. Dish missed three earlier deadlines and faces an accelerated timeline to have a network built by March 2020, a year earlier than originally.