DISH's mysterious national wireless network plans

Look out, LightSquared. There’s a new maverick in the wireless industry — at least if DISH Network's recently announced plans to build a state-of-the-art nationwide wireless network are to be believed.

If the company follows through, it could bring more competition to the industry and help meet the skyrocketing demand for mobile broadband. But DISH’s endgame is anything but clear, and how it will proceed is raising a web of political and policy questions for both industry players and the Federal Communications Commission. Like LightSquared, DISH Network has amassed an impressive swath of satellite spectrum it would like to leverage for land-based transmissions. DISH, it said in a filing with the FCC last week, wants to “deploy the most advanced wireless broadband service using the LTE Advanced standard." The satellite TV firm requested permission to combine its $1.375 billion bid for TerreStar with an earlier $1 billion purchase of DBSD North America. That, and a host of alterations to its spectrum requirements, would allow DISH to emerge as a major player in the wireless space, the company claims. “We’re doing exactly what FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and what President Obama wants: Get spectrum used that is currently going unused,” a DISH executive said.