EchoStar to sell DSL packages

Joyzelle Davis, Rocky Mountain News

Published June 27, 2006 at midnight

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EchoStar's Dish Network isn't offering its own Internet service, but it just made it easier for retailers to sell customers someone else's.

Douglas County-based Dish plans to add technology made by GetConnected that will allow retailers to enter a customer's ZIP code to figure out the best digital subscriber line, or DSL, deal from a list of providers.

Dish, the second- largest satellite-TV service with 12 million customers, and larger rival DirecTV both lack the ability to offer their own broadband and phone services. That puts them at a disadvantage with cable companies, which in the past year have stepped up their use of "triple play" service bundles to lure new customers.

EchoStar's new DSL search, combined with an announcement this month to offer satellite-based Internet service in rural areas through a reselling agreement with WildBlue Communications, lets it offer some kind of broadband service throughout the country.

The GetConnected program gives retailers "one more thing to sell when they're in front of a customer," said Jody Martin, EchoStar's senior vice president of marketing, at the annual retailer convention in Denver this month.

"A lot of the time, we're a better deal" with DSL than cable providers offer for broadband, she said.

Analysts said the deals won't keep EchoStar from continuing to look for other ways to provide broadband service.

Because EchoStar is selling someone else's DSL service, it won't have the pricing flexibility that cable and phone companies have.

Jimmy Schaeffler, chairman of research firm The Carmel Group, said WildBlue and GetConnected announcements are a "midterm filler" for EchoStar's lack of a broadband offering.

"They still need to find a better answer going forward."

EchoStar

DISH:Nasdaq

$30.25

+ 9 cents

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