A Fifth Major U.S. Carrier

“Should things pan out in Dish’s favor, we could very well see a fifth major carrier here in the US, something that would certainly shake things up in the wireless market. Whether or not Dish is able to accomplish that with Clearwire or by pursuing another deal will have to be seen, but we wouldn’t count the satellite provider out just yet.”

In episode sixty-four of The Critical Path, Mano a Mano, Horace Dediu and Benedict Evans discussed, among other things, the state of the cellular carriers throughout the world, with special focus paid to networks in the United States and the myriad difficulties an entrant would face against the incumbents.

Not surprisingly Horace and Benedict both made very insightful observations as to the impracticality of the move Dish seems to be making, and yet Dish nevertheless appears intent on becoming the fifth major carrier in the United States. It will be very interesting to see how this unfolds.