Dish Network’s third quarter was officially as operationally chaotic as it appeared to be, with the nascent 5G mobile network operator posting disappointing financial results, company management pointing to a narrow path for the operator to achieve financial stability and its CEO set to step down next week.

Big picture, the operator posted a big drop in revenues from $4.1 billion during the third quarter of 2022 to just $3.7 billion this year. Analysts were expecting the carrier to post more than $3.8 billion in revenues.

Revenues were impacted by Dish Network posting a loss of 225,000 wireless customers during the quarter, which followed the loss of 188,000 customers during the second quarter of this year. The carrier ended Q3 with approximately 7.5 million wireless customers.

Dish Network’s long-standing pay-television service also lost customers in the latest quarter, which is significant as company management repeatedly referred to that service as its current cash-generating operation as opposed to its money losing mobile service.

That drop in revenues impacted Dish Network’s bottom line, with the company posting a $139 million loss for the latest quarter compared with $412 million in net income during the third quarter of last year.

Despite the overall down quarter, Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen continues to be optimistic about the carrier’s enterprise ambitions, noting its cloud-native architecture positions it to be unique in the market.

“The enterprise business is about controlling your data, making sure you get your data so you can improve your product, make it safer, make it cheaper, make it more innovative, gain market share over the competition, make sure that you're reducing climate change and sensors and all kinds of things that you might need where you have control over your data,” Ergen said. “That's very difficult to do with incumbent networks so that's why I'm bullish on that side of our business because I think we have strategic advantages.”

Dish Network is also looking to take advantage of its tightening relationship with fellow Ergen-led entity Echostar. Ergen during the third quarter announced that the two firms would be merging their operations to better position a single company both competitively in the enterprise space and financially.

That financial stability will be important as Dish Network is facing several debt repayment deadlines beginning in early 2024. Corporate bond research firm Gimmie Credit noted those maturities total $3 billion, with that firm's Dave Novosel adding, “management did not really propose a plan. We find it difficult to believe that Dish will survive without a partner.”

The company also recently agreed to pay a non-refundable $100 million payment to T-Mobile US to postpone an option to spend $3.5 billion for valuable low-band spectrum, further highlighting Dish Network’s precarious fiscal footing.

“We have a narrow path, but there is a path for us to achieve financial stability and make sure we meet our commitments,” Ergen said. “Having been through this for a long time, we've had narrow paths before and it's a sharp focus for our management and necessity sometimes is the mother invention.”

Ergen did add that if that path continues to narrow, he feels Dish Network could be a valuable target.

“A retail wireless company that has seven-and-a-half-million subscribers and now has an online presence is probably a valuable company,” Ergen said. “We could argue whether we managed it as well as we should, but the fact is that that's a very valuable property. So obviously there could be ways from an investment point of view, there may be people that are interested in that sort of thing.”

Some of that “invention” Ergen mentioned is being placed on current Echostar CEO Hamid Akhaven, who is set to take over as CEO of the combined entity. Ergen stated he was excited about what Akhaven will bring to the operation, specifically citing the executives work with the enterprise space.

“Echostar has a more mature enterprise organization and has enterprise customers at a much higher level than we (Dish Network) do,” Ergen said. “I think you’re going to see real progress there. I don’t think you’ll see progress next quarter per se, I think you’ll see it in 2024, and you’ll see it because of the integration of our teams.”

Akhaven is set to take on his expanded role later this month as current Dish Network CEO Erik Carlson this week announced he would resign from those positions effective Nov. 12. This was part of broader Dish Network-Echostar integration plan, with Carlson remaining on Dish Network’s board until the merger is complete.

Dish Network also recently lost longtime network executive Dave Mayo, suffered through the abrupt resignation of COO Narayan Iyengar and the loss of chief marketing officer Stephen Bye earlier this year.

Ergen noted this executive brain drain is one of the carrier’s challenges.

“The structure and personnel, we really haven't found the replacement to Steven Bye, who is now on our board but was obviously on the enterprise side, so we a little bit younger team that's working,” Ergen said.

On the consumer side, Dish Network’s management said that it has been actively restructuring its distribution channels to emphasis the addition of profitable customers. This has included adjusting its dealer compensation process to emphasis those more profitable customers and getting devices that are compatible with the carrier’s diverse network resources into the hands of those customers.

Ergen explained that many of the older Apple iPhone devices and its Android-based smartphones lack access to Dish Network’s cloud-native 5G standalone-based network.

“Those seven-and-a-half-million customers, the vast majority of them do not have phones compatible with our network,” Ergen said.

Analysts repeatedly questioned Dish Network’s ability to position itself in the competitive consumer mobile space, which Ergen admitted the carrier has so far failed to do.

“Are we doing a great job marketing?,” Ergen asked rhetorically. “The answer is no. … The messaging didn’t have quite the desired effect.”

Ergen pointed to the fact that customers can’t get Dish Network’s Boost service through Apple retail locations. “We’re not even integrated into their systems. That takes time, takes an investment on their part,” Ergen said of its relationship with Apple.

Dish Network management has stated ambitions to attract up to 40 million wireless customers by 2030, which remains a lofty goal on both numbers.