Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Electronic edition | Subscription Questions | Extras

AT&T unknown factor in EchoStar partnership

Satellite-TV firm extends its deal with CenturyTel

Jeff Smith, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 17, 2007 at midnight

Text size  

More Tech & Telecom

More stories »

EchoStar Communications announced Wednesday a multiyear extension of its marketing partnership with the phone company CenturyTel, but the future of a similar relationship with industry giant AT&T is less certain.

An AT&T executive said the company will decide by year-end whether to retain EchoStar or DirecTV as its satellite-TV provider.

AT&T markets EchoStar TV services in 13 former SBC states in the Midwest and Southwest, and DirecTV in nine BellSouth states in the Southeast.

"Both of those are contractual arrangements that run through roughly the first part of next year," AT&T Chief Financial Officer Richard Lindner said at a Morgan Stanley communications conference in Washington. "And so I would expect that we will migrate to one provider and we will make those final decisions between now and the end of this year."

Lindner then quipped: "There must be a lot of satellite holders out there, because the room got really quiet."

Such marketing partnerships are important these days as communications companies seek to offer bundled packages of telephone, TV and Internet services.

EchoStar officials declined comment on AT&T. The Douglas County company has said in regulatory filings that while relationships with telcos account for less than 25 percent of subscriber additions, the loss of certain ones could have an adverse effect.

AT&T also is expected to de-emphasize satellite as it continues to install its own TV services, currently at the rate of about 500 homes a day.

EchoStar separately announced the extension of its three-year-old partnership with CenturyTel, which serves rural markets and small cities in 25 states including Colorado.

"We are pleased that CenturyTel recognizes the ongoing value of providing CenturyTel Dish Network services to its customers," Tom Stingley, an EchoStar senior vice president, said in a statement.

EchoStar Communications

DISH: Nasdaq

$48.98

+ $1.24

or 303-954-5155