UPDATE In May, the FCC began an inquiry into EchoStar’s (NASDAQ: SATS) mobile satellite services (MSS) operations in the 2 GHz band, after SpaceX accused EchoStar of “barely” using the band, Inside Towers reported. The Commission also began another inquiry into its 5G network buildout.
Now, EchoStar has told the FCC the Commission’s reviews threaten its business, 5G progress in the U.S., and potential impacts on the direct-to-device market. Overall, EchoStar said its terrestrial and satellite services meet the commitments and “uniquely onerous” obligations “imposed” on the company, and its deployment is “advancing the public interest and America’s global wireless leadership.”
On Friday, the company told the SEC it’s waiting on the FCC for an answer to its arguments against the action, and elected not to pay an approximately $326 million cash interest payment due on May 30, 2025. The interest is part of its 10.75 percent senior spectrum secured notes due 2029. The company believes it has 30 days before it’s considered to be in default, Inside Towers reported.
“The Public Notices are already harming EchoStar’s ongoing deployment and threaten its viability as a wireless provider as well as endanger the video and broadband satellite services upon which millions of consumers rely,” the company told the FCC. “Indeed, the possibility of reversing prior grants of authority related to spectrum for which EchoStar paid billions and in which it invested billions more, in contravention of long-standing Commission precedent, is already having a material negative effect.”
The company tells the Commission the actions “have created a dark cloud of uncertainty over EchoStar’s spectrum rights and its Open Radio Access Network 5G network. This cloud has effectively frozen EchoStar’s decision making—it cannot reasonably invest more capital into a buildout if the Commission indicates it may take away its licenses through unprecedented actions.”
“After years of building an Open RAN network, standardizing its spectrum into both radios on towers and in consumer wireless devices, deploying more than 24,000 5G sites, building out to offer service to more than 80 percent of the nation’s population, and driving the development of direct-to-device (“D2D”) satellite standards, EchoStar is gaining momentum in its efforts to attract subscribers and transition customers to its 5G network,” it asserts. “But the Commission’s actions put all of that progress at risk.”
The company asks the FCC to confirm it has satisfied the December 2024 commitments, triggering the extensions conditionally granted to EchoStar in the Wireless Bureau’s September 20, 2024 approval. It also asks the agency to reaffirm EchoStar’s exclusive rights as the incumbent AWS-4 and MSS licensee in the 2000-2020 MHz and 2180-2200 MHz bands. The company says sharing the 2 GHz band will cause harmful interference to existing and future operations.
The FCC’s inquiry into EchoStar’s spectrum says that SpaceX raised questions about the company’s MSS use. SpaceX called for the FCC to bring new entrants into the 2 GHz band and start a new spectrum-sharing process.
EchoStar says, “SpaceX is trying to commandeer EchoStar’s spectrum by misleading the Commission.” It asserts SpaceX has mounted a “persistent, misleading, and anti-competitive campaign” that “appears to have influenced the public notices.”
“SpaceX cannot change physics—separate operators cannot share the 2 GHz band according to the FCC Itself and engineering experts,” says EchoStar. What’s more, EchoStar emphasizes, “Forcing a new MSS operator in the 2 GHz band would significantly harm EchoStar’s terrestrial network,” and forced sharing, “would be unlawfully retroactive, arbitrary and capricious, discriminatory, and would effectively revoke EchoStar’s licenses.”
Public comments were due to the FCC last week. Reply comments (to SB Docket 25-173 and WTB Docket 22-212) are due June 6.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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