Dish Network said Monday that it had submitted a $25.5 billion bid for Sprint Nextel, the nation’s third-largest wireless carrier, after Verizon Wireless and AT&T.

Dish said a merger between the two companies could roll television, high-speed Internet and cellphone services into a single package that would be faster and more affordable for consumers.

“It really means that we’re going to give consumers what every consumer wants,” Charles Ergen, Dish Network’s chairman, said in a phone interview. “They want broadband and video and voice in their home and want the exact same thing outside the home. And they want it to look and feel and priced outside the same as it is inside.”

Dish Network said it would finance the cash component of the takeover through a combination of $17.3 billion in cash and debt financing.

Sprint said in a statement that it would look at Dish’s proposal, but declined to comment further on its plans.