Amazon and Dish Network could join forces as Dish Network Corp. Chief Executive Charlie Ergen, who’s attempted to partner with major telecom companies in the past, is now interested in a potential partnership with Amazon.com Inc.
Ergen and Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos have rapport over the past year, which has included conversations about doing business together, according to The Wall Street Journal.
A deal between the two companies would create a new wireless network or give Amazon Prime members the opportunity to receive a wireless service for an add-on fee, the newspaper said.
This potential partnership would make things very interesting in a market right now that’s led by telecom juggernauts like AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile.
Despite talks of a possible deal, Dish is not putting all of its eggs in a single basket. The company has discussed concepts with other technology firms as well, and Amazon is taking things slowly, too.
A source close to the matter said Amazon "is taking a walk vs. a run approach with Dish," The Wall Street Journal noted.
Geek Wire noted that Dish and Amazon allied in May when they signed new deals that involved artificial intelligence and streaming. For Dish, it was releasing Alexa – an artificial intelligence assistant for Amazon’s Echo speakers – to its customers, enabling them to play music, get the latest news and weather, and control their smart home by using their voice. As for Amazon, the deal allowed customers with Amazon Fire devices to gain access to Dish streaming-TV apps.
"We look into the future and we always see an intensively competitive environment, a world that is awash in disruptive change and new technologies," Bezos said in May, according to the WSJ.
"They’re going to have to make sure that in a world of net neutrality…being eliminated, that they’re positioned so that they’re not in a situation where their connectivity is clogged," Ergen said in May.
Dish recently made a commitment to build its own next-generation wireless network by 2020, Geek Wire noted.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.