Dish Network Interested in T-Mobile Should Deal with AT&T Fail (DISH, T, S)

The CEO of Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ: DISH) would be interested in some kind of unspecified partner arrangement with T-Mobile USA if the proposed $39 billion deal with AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) fails to get over regulatory hurdles. Dish would also be interested in buying any assets that AT&T or T-Mobile might have to sell in order to get regulatory approval.

The company’s CEO said in an interview reported by Bloomberg that Dish does not want to sell its spectrum licenses. Dish acquired the spectrum licenses in February when it purchased two bankrupt satellite companies, and rather than turn around and sell the spectrum, Dish has other ideas:

We’re not interested in making money on selling our spectrum. We want to use it to create a national wireless network, video, voice and data. We’ve got expertise in satellite-TV, and we will in satellite broadband. The voice part, we’ll need some help with.

Sprint Nextel Inc. (NYSE: S) has also been mentioned as a possible Dish partner, but that seems less likely now that Sprint has put all its eggs into an iPhone basket.