Satellite

EchoStar Communications Corp. said Monday that its Dish Network direct-broadcast satellite service now has more than 10 million subscribers.

The company said Dish reached the milestone in less than 99 months after activating its first subscriber in early March 1996, adding an average of more than 100,000 net new customers each month.

EchoStar added that Dish has added more than 6.3 million net new customers in the past four years -- more than all other satellite-TV and cable companies combined during that period.

DirecTV Inc. wants subscribers seeking customer service to have a NICE experience.

The direct-broadcast satellite provider will upgrade to NICE Systems’ Web-based solutions at its call center in Boise, Idaho, the Ra'anana, Israel-based vendor said Tuesday.

DirecTV has been using NICE’s solutions for five years.

EchoStar Communications Corp. said that as of Friday, its EchoStar DBS Corp. subsidiary completed its previously announced redemption of all of its outstanding 10.375% senior notes due 2007.

The company added that the outstanding principal amount of $1 billion was repurchased three years early at 105.188%, for a total of approximately $1.052 billion.

EchoStar Communications Corp. will add more than 1,000 employees at its call center in Tulsa, Okla., the direct-broadcast satellite provider said Thursday.

“Expanding our customer-service operations in Tulsa is important in keeping pace with the growing number of cable customers who are switching to Dish Network for our digital-video recorders, high-definition TV and the lowest-priced all-digital-television service in the nation," Dish vice president of customer care Robert Kondilas said in a prepared statement.

The Amarillo, Texas, and Youngstown, Ohio, areas Thursday became the latest to receive local channels via satellite from EchoStar Communications Corp.’s Dish Network.

Dish now offers its local service in 136 cities.

Amarillo-area Dish customers in 34 counties can now receive ABC channel 7 (KVII), Fox channel 14 (KCIT), NBC channel 4 (KAMR) and PBS channel 2 (KACV).