A Verizon/ Dish Spectrum Deal Would Be Good for Verizon, But What About Dish?

The New York Post, citing unnamed sources, has reported that Verizon is talking with Dish Network about the possibility of buying Dish’s AWS spectrum.

But while such a deal would make sense for Verizon, the potential benefits for Dish are not so clear. AWS spectrum includes several different blocks in a relatively high frequency band in the 1700-2200 MHz range. High-frequency spectrum has less range but greater capacity than lower-frequency spectrum making it well suited to serving high-traffic urban areas.

What Dish would gain by selling its spectrum to Verizon is less clear. Of course the company would gain cash. But it would shut itself out of the possibility of building its own wireless network -- and with TV Everywhere expected to skyrocket, video providers without their own wireless networks could be at a disadvantage.