Steven Russolillo

A saturated wireless market has hindered giants Verizon Communications and AT&T even as competition from smaller rivals exerts a drag on subscriber and revenue growth. The carriers’ earnings reports are unlikely to offer much encouragement.

Dish Network currently finds itself on the outside looking in amid the deal mania taking place in the cable and telecom industries. AT&T agreed to acquire DirecTV for $49 billion, a deal that follows Comcast Corp's $45 billion agreement in February to buy Time Warner Cable, Sprint has also been forging ahead on a possible bid for T-Mobile US.

Dish, run by Chairman Charlie Ergen, is noticeably absent from those pacts. Analysts say the company, which has amassed valuable wireless airwaves, needs a partner to start putting that spectrum to use. The more that the industry consolidates without Dish getting in on the activity, the fewer options it will ultimately have when trying to make a deal.

“We’d be surprised if Charlie Ergen sat on the sideline for long,” Credit Suisse analyst Joseph Mastrogiovanni, wrote in a note. “This deal could be a catalyst that causes Dish to act sooner rather than later.”

Ergen has said that Dish wouldn’t compete for DirecTV because the price would be too high, but Mastrogiovanni said he doesn’t necessarily believe him. “We believe he could get involved,” Mastrogiovanni wrote. “If nothing else, a higher bid would force the price up on AT&T.” Still others said regulatory hurdles to such a transaction would be far harder for Dish to clear than AT&T.