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- On Friday, the Justice Department reached a historic agreement to combine T-Mobile and Sprint, while Dish would become a fourth US wireless company.
- According to a new profile published in Charlie Ergen's CEO, The Wall Street Journal of Dish, serious discussions between the three companies began in May and continued until June. The Department of Justice then spent three weeks asking for better terms.
- Dishot will face challenges in creating a wireless business that rivals AT & T, Verizon, and a combined T-Mobile and Sprint company.
- Ergen ran into the networks regarding Dish's pay TV programming fees, is a notoriously frugal leader, and compared how he makes business decisions to "Indiana Jones" movies.
- Visit the Business Insider home page to read more stories.
On Friday, the Justice Department cleared T-Mobile's acquisition of Sprint for $ 26.5 billion, eliminating a major hurdle to the telecom buyout project by merging the two companies.
The long-desired deal has raised fears that T-Mobile and Sprint will have a monopoly in the telecom space with only AT & T and Verizon as competitors. As a result, AT & T and Sprint have agreed to divest part of their business to pay-TV operator Dish in order to create a fourth major wireless player.
According to the terms agreed by the companies, Dish must build a 5G network covering 20% of the United States by 2022 and 70% by 2023. If Dish is not able to do so, the company will have to United States. Cash 2.2 billion dollars. Dish will receive nine million Sprint prepaid customers, license fees in rural areas and access to T-Mobile's network for seven years to create its own national network.
Read more: The Department of Justice has approved T-Mobile's takeover of Sprint to the tune of $ 26.5 billion. Here are the big winners and the losers.
Charlie Ergen, CEO of Dish, leads the group, which plays a vital role in the successful acquisition of T-Mobile. Ergen has long criticized T-Mobile's mega deal, but the situation changed when T-Mobile President and CEO John Legere called Ergen in late May to ask for help, according to a new profile from T-Mobile. Wall Street Journal.
According to an interview with Ergen, Legere told him in May that "the court said we needed a fourth carrier, so we should discuss it if you're interested."
Ergen negotiated with Legere and Sprint President Marcelo Claure throughout the month of June. The Justice Ministry then asked for better terms for three weeks, the newspaper reported.
Ergen is a former professional poker player who compares his commercial decisions to those of "Indiana Jones" movies, because "the hero escapes a multitude of deadly threats," reports the newspaper.
With its Pay TV service, Dish has battled with networks like HBO and Disney for programming fees, causing power outages for subscribers, including the last season of Game of Thrones.
The profile also suggests that Ergen is not as frugal today as in the past. For example, he has stopped forcing management to share their hotel rooms and is now flying in a private jet, sources told the Journal.
Dish still struggling to compete with Verizon and AT & T
While Dish will acquire nine million Sprint customers to launch its wireless business, it faces the challenge of creating a wireless business that rivals AT & T, Verizon, and the combined T-Mobile and Sprint companies. Verizon and AT & T have 200 million subscribers, and the combined T-Mobile and Sprint would have more than 80 million subscribers.
The companies have spent decades acquiring customers and establishing wireless connections to cover the United States, and are deploying to deploy 5G technology.
Ergen said that Dish would focus on on-demand price offerings and target companies such as 5G automakers.
"With four people, there is always someone who will inspire enthusiasm," Ergen told the Journal during the interview. "Someone will say that I do not have enough market share, I only have 9 million subs and I want 10 million.This person is going to be more aggressive.The guy who in 100 million will hope that he will hold on to theirs. "
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