Dish Network (Nasdaq: DISH) has made its biggest move yet in furthering its presence in the telecom industry by making a bid to acquire Liberty-Bell Telecom, a Denver-based CLEC. By acquiring Liberty-Bell Telecom, Dish would be armed with a triple-play bundle offering to more effectively compete against cable operators in specific areas without having to establish a third-party reseller agreement.
Right now, Dish resells phone and high-speed Internet service through arrangements it has established with Liberty-Bell and Frontier Communications (NYSE: FTR).
"This investment provides an avenue for Dish Network to offer broadband connectivity to residential customers," Marc Lumpkin, a spokesman for Dish, told the Denver Post.
Liberty-Bell Telecom is a relatively small CLEC serving 6,000 residential and 4,000 business customers in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah via rented facilities from Qwest (NYSE: Q). However, Liberty-Bell has licenses to offer services in 10 states in addition to applications pending in four other states.
What`s not clear about the acquisition is whether Dish Network, which currently has relationships with other telcos such as Frontier, is using the Liberty-Bell acquisition as an foundation to build a larger integrated communications strategy.
