In our digital world, it’s no surprise that the internet has dominated the way the average American shops for goods and services. After all, e-commerce generates a staggering $1.2 million every 30 seconds. No corporation understands that power better than Amazon. What once started off as a simple online storefront that offered books and music has transformed into the destination for almost any product under the sun. And now, it looks like the company may be venturing into the industry that made their success possible: the internet.
According to a story first reported by the Wall Street Journal, Amazon is currently in talks with Dish Network, a well-known satellite TV service provider, to form some kind of internet-related partnership. Since approximately 70% of Americans accessed the internet on a daily basis last year, the venture could be extremely advantageous for both parties. Amazon could gain the potential to offer cell phone service and an Internet of Things system (built by Dish) to their Prime members or grant their delivery drones greater in-flight connectivity, while Dish could stand to make quite a bit of money on the deal.
But the possibilities are mere speculation for the moment. There’s no deal on the table, and neither Dish nor Amazon is commenting on the matter publicly. But one source who’s familiar with the talks, reports Fox Business, says that Amazon “is talking a walk vs. run approach with Dish.” And since the two companies have already worked together — they made agreements back in May that allowed some Dish customers to use Amazon’s AI assistant, Alexa, to control their set-top boxes and access their Dish streaming apps through Amazon Fire gadgets — many experts feel that deal finalization is only a matter of time.
The Washington Post reports that at least one analyst feels the offering will likely be more than just a typical wireless network.
Jan Dawson, Jackdaw Research analyst, notes, “It’s been clear for years now that building another consumer-grade wireless network is likely to be prohibitively expensive. But building a more specialized IoT network with much more limited bandwidth requirements is at least a little more feasible.”
Since Amazon already offers some popular web-based appliances, it’s not too much of a reach to think that if the partnership does go through, they would make IoT their focus. In other words, offering a wireless network to consumers is probably less likely than Amazon using the wireless network they build to improve upon their other technology.
Still, customers will just have to wait and see whether Amazon and Dish will decide to go through with the venture. At this point, an acquisition of Dish seems unlikely, according to the Wall Street Journal. Although the details of these talks are largely uncertain, one thing’s for sure: the possibilities are sure to excite tech-lovers around the world.
