hoStar was reaching five million customers and had opened a sixth customer service center in West Virginia, which joined others in Virginia, Texas, Wyoming, Colorado and Pennsylvania. The company started offering "bundled" communications services to customers through strategic alliances with companies like SBC, Sprint, EarthLink and Qwest, although the company ended its alliance with Qwest amicably in 2004. By 2004, EchoStar and Radio Shack had reached an exclusive agreement to provide Sirius satellite radio service and to expand into new markets. Even amid all the growth, the company continued to focus on VAULT CAREER LIBRARY 2005 Vault Inc. Vault Guide to the Top Telecom Employers EchoStar Communications Corp. pleasing its customers. The company has ranked No. 1 in J.D. Power and Associates' survey of customer satisfaction among satellite/cable subscribers for several years, including the latest survey, which was released in 2004. With the melting of the winter frost and blooming of spring buds in 2004, EchoStar announced a new program offering that it expects to be a big draw for DISH network customers: live bingo. (According to BusinessWeek CEO Ergen is a former professional blackjack player.) That's in addition, of course, to Spanish language pay- per-view movies, HBO, Cinemax and channels like MTV, ESPN and CBS that EchoStar carries through long-term agreements with Viacom and other programmers. Long-term leadership Ergen is still at the helm, and his long-time pal DeFranco, remains at his side as executive vice president. That makes the company somewhat of an anomaly in the world of big business, where executive turnover every few years is common. But the consistent leadership seems to be a strategy that has worked well for EchoStar. Ergen announced in November 2004 that the company's third quarter profit had nearly tripled from the same period the year before, jumping to $102 million versus $35 million in 2003. But a BusinessWeek article published in November 2004 shortly before the third quarter earnings