EchoStar Makes Interest Payments, Staving off Bankruptcy
The company also said it would miss payments due July 1.
WASHINGTON, June 30, 2025 – EchoStar made two interest payments Friday totaling over $500 million, staving off a potential bankruptcy filing amid Federal Communications Commission inquiries into the company’s spectrum use and 5G buildout. The company also told regulators it would miss more than $114 million in payments due July 1.
The company had missed payments due May 30 and June 2, setting off a 30-day grace period in which it would have to make the payments. The missed July 1 payments started a similar shot clock.
In both cases, EchoStar cited uncertainty from the FCC inquiries.
FROM SPEEDING BEAD SUMMIT
Panel 1: How Are States Thinking About Reasonable Costs Now?
Panel 2: Finding the State Versus Federal Balance in BEAD
Panel 3: Reacting to the New BEAD NOFO Guidance
Panel 4: Building, Maintaining and Adopting Digital Workforce Skills
Making the first set of missed payments “will further extend the timeline for EchoStar to explore an acceptable resolution of the FCC’s stated concerns in a manner that minimizes disruption to the company’s businesses and lifts the regulatory uncertainty created by the inquiries,” the company wrote in a Friday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The FCC has sought input on whether EchoStar’s 2 GigaHertz mobile-satellite service spectrum could be opened up for sharing and whether to reconsider a 2024 decision to extend some of the company’s 5G build out deadlines. EchoStar maintains either of those would be disastrous for the company.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX, whose petition precipitated the 2 GHz inquiry, is eager to access EchoStar’s satellite spectrum and has alleged the company is not using its airwaves efficiently. Other stakeholders, including recently retired Republican FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington and other former GOP commissioners, have broadly favored EchoStar, arguing the company’s conduct hasn’t warranted undermining its licenses.
EchoStar confirmed in its filing reports that President Donald Trump intervened in the dispute and “encouraged the parties involved to reach an amicable resolution.”
At the agency’s meeting on Thursday, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said the agency would act “soon” on the issue.
“We are really working hard to make sure that this valuable public resource of spectrum is put to use,” he said. “No new news to break. But I think the status quo needs to change. There’s lots of different paths forward there, and all options are still on the table at the FCC.”
In the eyes of New Street Research policy advisor and former FCC chief of staff Blair Levin, that status quo is EchoStar’s spectrum holdings.
“That is, he wants to force a reallocation of spectrum from [EchoStar] to others,” Levin wrote in a Friday investor note.
He said Carr’s comments didn’t suggest that Carr felt pressure from Trump or commenters in the record to ultimately avoid bankrupting EchoStar.
