Dish Wants to Buy a CLEC

Dish Network wants to acquire a competitive local exchange carrier, Liberty-Bell Telecom, that would give Dish the ability to bundle telephone service in 10 states, the Denver Post reports.

Liberty-Bell serves 6,000 residential and 4,000 business customers in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. More important though, is that it is licensed to offer services in 10 states and has applications pending in four other states.

The historic take on the satellite TV providers has been that they might suffer as telcos and cable companies offered triple-play services. But Dish Network and DirecTV appear to be taking clear moves to alleviate that concern, in part. Dish would have to file applications in other states and acquire business rights to common carrier voice services in those additional areas to offer voice services on a wider basis.

Dish looks to acquire Liberty-Bell telecom - The Denver Post