The Federal Communications Commission has approved Dish Network’s request to build a 4G LTE wireless broadband network. Dish has been lobbying the FCC for the past year to lift conditions that require satellite phone chips to be embedded into any mobile devices that utilize Dish’s AWS-4 spectrum band.
Under the agreement, Dish will be allowed to use the AWS-4 band for 4G LTE services if they agree to use a portion of the spectrum as a buffer to prevent interference with the 1900 MHz PCS H Block. The FCC recently announced plans for a spectrum auction of the H Block next year and several companies, including Sprint Nextel, have expressed interest.
The agreement also requires Dish Network to build out at least 70 percent of its new network within six years.
