Dish Network 2006 Annual Report Download - page 15

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Installation. While some consumers have the skills necessary to install our equipment in their homes, we believe
that most installations are best performed by professionals, and that on time, quality installations are important to
our success. Consequently, we are continuing to expand our installation business. We use both employees and
independent contractors for professional installations. Independent installers are held to our service standards to
attempt to ensure each DISH Network customer receives the same quality installation and service. Our offices and
independent installers are strategically located throughout the continental United States. Although there can be no
assurance, we believe that our internal installation business helps to improve quality control, decrease wait time on
service calls and new installations and helps us better accommodate anticipated subscriber growth.
Digital Broadcast Operations Centers. Our principal digital broadcast operations centers are located in Cheyenne,
Wyoming and Gilbert, Arizona. We also have five regional digital broadcast operations centers that allow us to
utilize the spot beam capabilities of our satellites. Programming and other data is received at these centers by fiber
or satellite, processed, and then uplinked to our owned and leased satellites for transmission to consumers.
Equipment at our digital broadcast operations centers performs substantially all compression and encryption of
DISH Network’s programming signals.
Customer Service Centers. We currently operate ten owned and several out-sourced customer service centers
fielding most of our customer service calls. Potential and existing subscribers can call a single telephone number to
receive assistance for sales, hardware, programming, billing, installation and technical support. We continue to
work to automate simple phone responses and to increase Internet-based customer assistance in order to better
manage customer service costs and improve the customer’s self-service experience.
Subscriber Management. We presently use, and are dependent on, CSG Systems International, Inc.’s software
system for the majority of DISH Network subscriber billing and related functions.
ECHOSTAR TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
EchoStar Technologies Corporation (“ETC”), one of our wholly-owned subsidiaries, designs and develops EchoStar
receiver systems. Our satellite receivers have won numerous awards from the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers
Association, retailers and industry trade publications. We out-source the manufacture of EchoStar receiver systems
to third parties who manufacture the receivers in accordance with our specifications.
The primary purpose of our ETC division is to support the DISH Network. However, ETC also sells similar digital
satellite receivers internationally, either directly to television service operators or to our independent distributors
worldwide. This has created a source of additional business for us and synergies that directly benefit DISH
Network. For example, our satellite receivers are designed around the Digital Video Broadcasting standard, which
is widely used in Europe and Asia. The same employees who design EchoStar receiver systems for the DISH
Network are also involved in designing receivers sold to international customers. Consequently, we benefit from the
possibility that ETC’s international projects may result in improvements in design and economies of scale in the
production of EchoStar receiver systems for the DISH Network. We believe that direct-to-home (“DTH”) satellite
service is particularly well-suited for countries without extensive cable infrastructure, and we are actively soliciting
new business for ETC. However, there can be no assurance that ETC will be able to develop additional international
sales or maintain its existing business.
Through 2006, our primary international customer was Bell ExpressVu, a subsidiary of Bell Canada, Canada’s
national telephone company. While we currently have certain binding purchase orders from Bell ExpressVu and
others through mid-year 2007, we anticipate that 2007 sales could decline compared to 2006. In addition, the
availability of new compression technology could impact our relationship with Bell ExpressVu depending on its
strategy to upgrade customers. There can be no assurance that Bell ExpressVu will continue to use our equipment in
the future.
We are actively trying to secure new orders from other potential international customers. However, we cannot
guarantee at this time that those negotiations will be successful. Our future international revenue depends largely on
the success of these and other international operators, which in turn, depends on other factors, such as the level of
consumer acceptance of DTH satellite TV products and the increasing intensity of competition for international
subscription television subscribers.