America Loses Dish, a National Wireless Carrier, in 2025
Is the EchoStar saga a success story for spectrum entrepreneurship, or cautionary tale about consolidation in wireless?
Editor's Note: Published on Dec. 16, 2025; republished on Jan. 6, 2026.
At the beginning of 2025, there were four national wireless carriers in the United States. By the end, there were three.
12 Days of Broadband 2025 (click to open)
- On the First Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: One Carr driving the Federal Communications Commission.
- On the Second Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: Two superpowers racing toward AI superintelligence dominance.
- On the Third Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: Three branches of government (and some formerly independent agencies).
- On the Fourth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: Four programs with Universal Service Funds.
- On the Fifth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: 56 states and territories without digital equity grants.
- On the Sixth Day of Broadband, my true level sent to me: Less than 6 months for a broadband permit.
- On the Seventh Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: Data center-powered electricity bills up 70 percent.
- On the Eighth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: 800 megahertz of spectrum to sell at auction.
- On the Ninth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: $9 billion + 12 billion (or $21 billion) in BEAD remaining funds.
- On the Tenth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: Not even $10/month for an affordable connectivity program.
- On the Eleventh Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: Through BEAD and broadband, 110 million locations served.
- On the Twelfth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: More than 1200 megahertz of spectrum for unlicensed wireless.
After Federal Communications Commission probes into its spectrum licenses, EchoStar reached deals this fall with AT&T and SpaceX to sell much of those licenses in deals totalling $42.6 billion.
As a result of those deals, EchoStar is decommissioning its wireless network but will continue serving its Boost Mobile customers largely on AT&T infrastructure. That’s already led to a legal battle with a major tower company as EchoStar looks to exit contracts related to the network.
Member discussion