DISH Network has reshuffled its top management – promoting Erik Carlson as president and COO, replacing the current COO Bernie Han, who will become EVP of Strategic Planning.
As part of the major restructuring, DISH Chairman and CEO Charlie Ergen is relinquishing the role of DISH President. The realignment will strengthen DISH’s strategy to enter the wireless space competing with AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint.
DISH Network earlier responded to American telecom regulator FCC asking to block the proposed merger between Charter Communications and Time Warner Cable.
DISH Network and wireless dreams
DISH Network on Thursday announced that the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), the global wireless standards body, approved Band 66 which enables interoperability for AWS spectrum.
DISH has approximately 75 MHz of spectrum nationwide, covering over 23 billion MHz-POPs.
Band 66 includes DISH’s current AWS-4 downlink spectrum, as well as AWS-1 and paired AWS-3. With this approval, 3GPP specifications will enable devices with Band 66 to support carrier aggregation, which will combine the downlink capabilities of AWS-4, AWS-1 and AWS-3.
Tom Cullen, DISH Executive Vice President of Corporate Development, said: “Interoperability of different spectrum bands increases network capacity and is an important priority for the FCC. This is a critical step forward on the path to deployment and commercialization.”
The cable and broadband company in a statement said that Band 66 includes AWS-1 spectrum, which is designated as Band 4 and a key LTE band in the U.S. The standardization of Band 66 clears the path for DISH’s upper AWS-4 spectrum to be included in the network and device ecosystem for both operators and consumers.
New team at DISH
Erik Carlson, as the president and COO, will be responsible for revenue-generating, operating and administrative units, including Customer Acquisition and Retention, Finance and Accounting, Human Resources, Marketing, Media Sales, Programming, Operations and DISH’s newly formed Technology Office.
Bernie Han will step down as COO to become EVP of Strategic Planning. He will continue reporting to DISH Chairman and CEO Charlie Ergen.
Vivek Khemka has been promoted to chief technology officer and formerly served as DISH’s SVP of Product Management.
Brian Neylon has been promoted to EVP of Customer Acquisition and Retention and formerly served as DISH’s SVP of Sales.
Warren Schlichting has been promoted to EVP of Marketing, Programming, and Media Sales and formerly served DISH as SVP of Programming and Media Sales.
John Swieringa has been promoted and will assume Carlson’s role as EVP of Operations. Swieringa formerly served as DISH’s SVP and CIO.
Rob Dravenstott, who most recently served as DISH VP of IT Application Development, has been promoted to SVP and CIO and will report to Swieringa.
Erik Carlson, president and COO, has held numerous roles throughout the company. Most recently, he served as executive vice president of Operations looking after DISH’s In-Home Services, Customer Service Centers, Customer Billing, and Information Technologies organizations, as well as Manufacturing.
DISH faces revenue pressure
DISH Network reported marginal increase in Q3 revenue to $3.73 billion from $3.68 billion for the same period in 2014. Subscriber-related revenue increased to $3.7 billion from $3.65 billion. Net income increased to $196 million from $146 million.
DISH activated approximately 751,000 gross new Pay-TV subscribers, compared to 691,000. Net Pay-TV subscribers declined 23,000 in the third quarter, compared to a loss of approximately 12,000 in the third quarter 2014.
The company closed the third quarter with 13.909 million Pay-TV subscribers, compared to 14.041 million Pay-TV subscribers at the end of third quarter 2014.
Pay-TV ARPU for the third quarter totaled $86.33, compared to the year-ago period’s Pay-TV ARPU of $84.39. Pay-TV subscriber churn rate was 1.86 percent versus 1.67 percent for third quarter 2014.
DISH added approximately 13,000 broadband subscribers, bringing its broadband subscriber base to approximately 608,000.
Baburajan K
[email protected]
