EchoStar Logo — EchoStar Corporation is a company public U.S. owns and operates a fleet of communications satellites for its subsidiary Dish Network. Receptors also designs and manufactures set-top box to pick up free digital transmissions (DTT) in the United Kingdom, as well as receivers for Bell TV in Canada. EchoStar owns Sling Media, a company responsible for designing and building the Slingbox and Hughes Communications Inc., in April was also the parent company of Dish Network until their separation in December 2007.
EchoStar was formed originally as “EchoSphere” in 1980 by Charles Ergen as a retail distributor of television system in C-band, “EchoSphere” comes from the union of the words: “Echo 1″ (experimental satellite of NASA) and “Sphere” (for the parabolic shape of the receiving antennas). In 1987, asked the Federal Communications Commission license for direct broadcast satellite (DTH), being granted access to the 119° West orbital position in 1992. In December 1995, was successfully launched its first satellite, EchoStar I in China. On March 4, 1996, EchoStar established the brand Dish Network to sell satellite TV residential system.
In 1998, EchoStar purchased the assets of transmission of a satellite owned by a joint venture between News Corp. and MCI Worldcom ASkyB, with this purchase won 28 of the 32 transponders at 110 degrees West orbital position, more than double capacity existing transmission to CONUS with a value of $ 682.5 million dollars. This acquisition inspired the company to introduce a multi-satellite called DISH 500, theoretically, able to receive over 500 channels with a single antenna. The signal is sent home by the Ku band (12,2-12.7 GHz), is converted by the antenna in intermediate frequency (950-1450 MHz), recently with the DishPro also uses the same frequencies 1650-2150 MHz year, EchoStar, in partnership with Bell Canada launched Dish Network Canada.
The September 24, 2007, EchoStar Announces Agreement to Acquire Sling Media Inc. in a transaction valued at approximately $ 380 million. On January 2, 2008, Dish Network broke the technology and infrastructure of the company, two entities were created by dividing the shares among them, one called Dish Network Corporation, which consisted mainly in the business of Dish Network system, and the other, EchoStar Broadcasting Corporation, which retained ownership of the technology including satellites, Sling Media, and the development branch of the set-top-box. On February 14, 2011, EchoStar announced the acquisition of Hughes Communications Inc. in a deal valued at $ 1.3 billion.