Astound Suing Dish over Contract Fees
EchoStar insisted it was forced to sell licenses to ‘buyers approved by the FCC.’
WASHINGTON, April 29, 2026 – Dish is facing yet another lawsuit over its position that it doesn’t owe tower lease payments after its parent company sold much of its spectrum.
This time cable operator Astound Broadband is seeking $1.7 million in contract cancellation fees. The company had been providing Dish with fiber transport services since 2022.
EchoStar, which owns Dish, reached deals to sell much of its spectrum to AT&T and SpaceX for $42.6 billion last year amid pressure from the Federal Communications Commission, which did not think EchoStar was putting the airwaves to good use. Dish is arguing it won’t see any of those proceeds, and that the FCC pressure amounted to a “force majeure,” an unforeseeable event that left Dish unable to pay its dues through no fault of its own.
