Dish Network plans to offer a satellite broadband service that will allow people in rural areas to access the Internet. The company hopes to launch the service by September or October.
Dish will use an EchoStar satellite for the service. The satellite can deliver 15 megabits per second, but Dish’s service will offer 5 megabits per second in order to serve more customers, sources tell Bloomberg.
The slower data rates will allow Dish to serve up to two million customers with the service.
Dish and ViaSat currently partner to offer satellite broadband, but cover only limited parts of the United States. The new satellite service will cover every region.
The company will likely need to add more satellites if it wishes to maintain at least 5 megabit per second speeds while expanding beyond two million customers.
Dish CEO Joseph Clayton explains that Dish’s service is meant to serve the “nearly 8 to 10 million rural American households” without Internet coverage. Dish will not compete with traditional broadband, as services like Verizon FiOS can deliver 300 megabits per second.
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