Dish Working on Nationwide Broadband: Report

Dish Network is revamping its Internet offerings, with plans to unveil a nationwide high-speed broadband service late next month, sources tell Bloomberg. The service will be developed with sister company EchoStar, which wouldn't comment on the deal, but would say that recent satellite technology advances had made such a thing possible. Satellites can now use higher-frequency bands, improving potential speeds "by an order of magnitude," says an EchoStar VP.

Dish already offers Internet through partner ViaSat, but that service covers only select parts of the country. And the company may need to launch more satellites to expand into a truly nationwide service without cutting into its speeds. Even then, Echostar won't be able to match the top-end cable speeds city dwellers have access to. (More Dish Network stories.)