Dish’s Airwaves Play Needs US Buy-in to Pay $5 Billion

Dish Network is on its way to creating $5 billion or more in added value from a series of airwaves gambits that position the satellite-TV provider as a force in mobile broadband. It just needs a little help from US regulators.

Dish paid $2.78 billion in 2012 for two satellite companies’ airwaves that it’s readying for use by ground-based smartphone networks, and pledged to bid $2.2 billion at an auction for bankrupt LightSquared Inc.’s mobile frequencies. Now Dish is offering the Federal Communication Commission a deal: It will ensure the success of a U.S. airwaves auction in January, by setting a price floor of $1.56 billion, if it’s allowed to alter uses for airwaves it already has, which would make them more valuable. “It’s elegant,” said Paul Gallant, Washington-based managing director for Guggenheim Securities. “It aligns most of the politics needed to push through the proposal, and improves the company’s spectrum position.”