ENGLEWOOD, Colo.--June 16, 2016--(BUSINESS WIRE)--DISH Network Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH) announced today that the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), the global wireless standards body, formally approved Band 70. With this formal approval, 3GPP specifications will enable the development of devices and infrastructure with Band 70. The approved specifications also enable Band 70 carrier aggregation to fully utilize the entire 25 MHz downlink spectrum in the band.

Band 70 combines three spectrum blocks encompassing DISH’s current AWS-4 spectrum as downlink (2000-2020 MHz), DISH's H block downlink spectrum (1995-2000 MHz), and unpaired AWS-3 uplink spectrum (1695-1710 MHz).

“Band 70 packages what would otherwise be underutilized spectrum, paving the way for an ecosystem to better serve consumer demands for downlink,” said Tom Cullen, DISH executive vice president of Corporate Development. “We appreciate the hard work of the 3GPP to approve Band 70 three months ahead of the anticipated timeline for the band, and with the inclusion of carrier aggregation six months ahead of schedule. The expedited work results in a second approved asymmetric band that includes a greater proportion of downlink spectrum relative to uplink, enhancing the overall utility of the spectrum as the growth of video and other downlink-intensive traffic continues to increase.”

DISH and the entities in which it has invested have on average almost 80 MHz of spectrum nationwide, covering over 23 billion MHz-POPs.

About DISH 
DISH Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH), through its subsidiaries, provides approximately 13.874 million pay-TV subscribers, as of March 31, 2016, with the highest-quality programming and technology with the most choices at the best value. DISH offers a high definition line-up with more than 200 national HD channels, the most international channels and award-winning HD and DVR technology. DISH Network Corporation is a Fortune 250 company. Visit www.dish.com.

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