Dish Investors Are on Ergen's Road to Who Knows Where

Most know Dish Network Corp. for its satellite dishes affixed to the exteriors of millions of U.S. homes. But the $30 billion company is betting its future on something investors can't see: licenses for airwaves used to transmit data between smartphones and other wireless-connected devices.

The strategy sounds good in theory: For better or worse, our days do increasingly revolve around smart devices. However, Charlie Ergen, Dish's billionaire founder and leader, has yet to provide a clear plan for how exactly the pay-TV company will make money from all the spectrum licenses it's purchased over the years. Unlike Verizon Communications Inc., AT&T Inc., T-Mobile US Inc., Sprint Corp. and soon Comcast Corp., Dish doesn't operate a wireless network that can make use of such spectrum. Not yet, at least.