EchoStar, AT&T Close $23 Billion Spectrum Sale
The Wall Street Journal reported another EchoStar subsidiary was nearing bankruptcy
WASHINGTON, July 28, 2026 – Months after receiving federal approval, EchoStar and AT&T closed their $23 billion spectrum deal Tuesday.
The deal took longer than expected to close, which EchoStar said partly caused two of its subsidiaries to file for bankruptcy last month.
Dish DBS, EchoStar’s pay-TV unit, was unable to make a $2.2 billion debt payment without the AT&T cash, the company said at the time. Dish Wireless, which built out EchoStar’s 5G network, also filed for bankruptcy.
The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that another EchoStar property, Hughes Network Systems, was preparing to file for bankruptcy “within days.”
The EchoStar-AT&T deal received Federal Communications Commission approval in May. On July 17, a federal judge granted the Justice Department’s request to formally terminate EchoStar’s obligation to operate a mobile network.
That was a vestige of the T-Mobile-Sprint merger, in which EchoStar subsidiary Dish acquired Sprint’s prepaid business and some spectrum. The DOJ was trying to preserve competition while approving the large merger, but now EchoStar is looking to sell all its spectrum and turn down its wireless network.
EchoStar told the Securities and Exchange Commission that, with the AT&T cash in hand, it made the payments owed by Dish DBS. The company made billions in additional debt payments.
The satellite company, controlled by founder Charlie Ergen, also set up a $2.4 billion trust for former business partners to draw from if they win settlements against Dish Wireless. That was a condition of the FCC approval.
Tower companies are suing Dish for breach of contract because the company stopped paying under leases and other agreements after EchoStar announced its $42.6 billion spectrum sales last year.
The towers feared not being able to collect if EchoStar took the sale proceeds and left Dish unable to pay them. They successfully lobbied the FCC to set some money aside.
They now worry that Dish DBS debtholders might be able to collect from the trust too under the bankruptcy.
In addition to AT&T, SpaceX is buying $19.6 billion in spectrum from EchoStar. That deal is timed to close next year. EchoStar said it made the deals after FCC Chairman Brendan Carr told the company it needed to sell or face license revocation.
Carr was convinced the company wasn’t putting its airwaves to good use. As part of the now-closed AT&T deal, EchoStar’s Boost Mobile brand will run largely on AT&T infrastructure. It served 7.5 million subscribers as of the first quarter of 2026.
AT&T acquired EchoStar’s 600 MegaHertz (MHz) and 3.45 GHz spectrum licenses under the now-closed deal. Those comprise 20 megahertz and 30 megaherta respectively of nationwide spectrum.
The extra airwaves will be a boon to the company's mobile and fixed wireless services. CEO John Stankey said on the company's earnings call last week that he still prefers offering home internet via fiber because of the higher speeds.
The carrier has already been using the 3.45 GHz licenses under a lease agreement. AT&T has already widely deployed spectrum in that band and was able to turn on the new licenses quickly.
The company said that in some places the 3.45 GHz spectrum translated to an 80 percent speed increase for mobile customers and 50 percent for fixed wireless.
The 600 MHz spectrum will take longer to deploy. Stankey said last year the process would take years, since AT&T doesn’t have any gear supporting those airwaves.
