DISH looks to rural telcos, stays away from AT&T

"We take AT&T at their word that they'll honor our agreement that they can't target our joint customers," he said. "We'll monitor that, but all our relationships with AT&T have been professional."

AT&T's relationship with Dish was also the primary way the satellite company could offer broadband to its customer base. Without AT&T, Dish relies on local DSL providers for broadband, but when asked what the satellite company will do in regions without a reliable broadband provider, Ergen said this wasn't a concern of the company's.

"Obviously our marketplace is probably weaker where U-Verse is and can do the whole bundle together," he said. "It would probably be one of the things strategically we focus on. We decided we don't think we have to play in the broadband space. We've looked at a lot, looked at DirecTV in terms of their broadband play, and we both gained the conclusion that's not a place we need to go today. The spectrum in the broadband policy really hasn't allowed a new entrant in that space."

Dish, which is the second-largest satellite provider behind DirecTV, continued the subscriber loss that punctuated the past four quarters, losing 94,000 subs in the first quarter and bringing its total down to 13.6 million. The pain wasn't shared by DirecTV, however, which had a solid quarter, adding 460,000 subs that analysts said likely came at Dish's expense.