AWS-3 Re-Auction Clears $2.9 Billion
EchoStar would have been on the hook for a penalty payment if the licenses fetched less than that.
WASHINGTON, June 16, 2026 – EchoStar is off the hook for a shortfall payment to the Federal Communications Commission.
The agency’s re-auction of AWS-3 wireless licenses cleared $3 billion on Tuesday, the eleventh day of bidding after the auction began on June 2. If the auction had brought in less than $2.9 billion, EchoStar would have had to make up the difference.
Bids had totaled $2.2 billion Tuesday morning, and after six more rounds of bidding the proceeds jumped to more than $3.1 billion. The auction will continue each business day until bidding stops, with another six rounds planned for Wednesday.
EchoStar subsidiary Dish paid $3.4 billion for the 200 licenses when they were first auctioned in 2015. The FCC found the Dish received small business bidding credits through its subsidiaries that it was not in fact eligible for, and the company handed back the licenses and paid $500 million, which the agency has counted toward any potential shortfall payment.
EchoStar had sued over the re-auction rules, fearing such a payment, but settled with the FCC last month. The agreement spelled out the company’s potential liability.
Analysts viewed it as likely the auction would clear the $2.9 billion mark Tuesday.
In a Monday investor note, New Street Research analyst David Barden wrote that “The auction needs to continue at the current pace for another 3-4 rounds for total bids to exceed $2.9BN. We think the risk that the auction falls below $2.9BN has fallen at this point and SATS’ liability is being de-risked,” referring to EchoStar by its stock ticker.
According to the FCC’s auction website, 168 of the licenses had multiple bidders, and 32 had a single bidder.
The large majority of the auction’s value is concentrated in four licenses in New York, Boston, and two Chicago markets, according to analysts. Each of those licenses had just one bidder at the end of Tuesday’s bidding.
The New York City license, the most valuable, was at more than $924 million.
BNP Paribas analyst Sam McHugh noted Tuesday morning that while demand was petering out it still appeared higher than in previous FCC spectrum auctions.
“Bidding is likely to continue on until at least sometime next week (and possibly longer),” he wrote in an investor note. “An auction outcome that exceeds $5bn is becoming increasingly plausible.”
There had been four bidders for the major licenses, leading to some speculation as to whether that was EchoStar trying to drive up prices to avoid a shortfall payment, or SpaceX trying to support its direct-to-device service and compete with the terrestrial carriers.
The other three are likely the major wireless carriers, analysts say. Each has already deployed spectrum in the band and can quickly light up more.
New Street has maintained that SpaceX is unlikely to have been participating, as there would have been more widespread bidding across the available licenses. BNP has been less certain, but argued that the carriers were likely to take home most of the licenses regardless.
