Charlie Ergen’s DISH Network has raised a net $2.73 billion (€2.46bn) in new Convertible Notes, with a 3.375 per cent rate due for repayment in 2026. Dish says the funds will be used for general purposes and “which may include wireless and spectrum-related strategic transactions”.

The exercise had already been announced on August 2^nd, but the target was then $2 billion, which was later raised to $2.5 billion with an option to add another $500 million, which is how it has ended up.

Key to the action is likely to be DISH’s funding of additional spectrum in the upcoming FCC bandwidth auction. The preliminary qualification period has whittled down the original 99 registered bidders to a final batch of 62 which are now eligible to participate in the auction, which begins August 16th.

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