Two partners to Dish Network Corp., the nation’s third-largest pay-TV provider, had been poised to reap more than $3 billion in small-business discounts after the two companies picked up around $13.3 billion in spectrum during an auction earlier this year. The agency has unanimously voted to cap the total amount of discounts that small businesses would be entitled to during the auctions of spectrum.
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The sources said Tom Wheeler, chairman of the FCC, circulated a draft order to that effect to his fellow commissioners earlier this week.
Bloomberg reported Thursday that Dish Network has not presented the kind of offer Deutsche Telekom is looking for in terms of a Dish merger or wireless partnership with T-Mobile US.
The FCC voted 3-2, with Democrats in the majority, to limit the discount for small businesses to $150 million and for rural service providers to $10 million for the next auction scheduled for 2016. The FCC now questions whether the two companies are eligible for small business discounts, given they are both backed by Dish Networks.
Dish will likely appeal the FCC decision in federal court, analysts say, if the reports are accurate.
SNR Wireless and NorthStar Wireless both applied for the 25% small business discount on spectrum, or airwaves, when the government held its recent spectrum action. “However, Dish said in earlier filings prior to the auction with the FCC that it could take over the spectrum entirely, dropping the complex structures of the designated entities”.
DISH declined to comment.
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“A rejection of the discounts would leave SNR and Northstar [Dish’s subsidiaries, or “designated entities”] on the hook to pay the additional billions”, the Journal also wrote.
