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# EchoStar Says Subsidiaries Should be Able to Draw on FCC Trust
- URL: https://broadbandbreakfast.com/echostar-says-subsidiaries-should-be-able-to-draw-on-fcc-trust/
- Published: 2026-09-01T21:42:48.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-01T21:47:03.000Z
- Description: Dish Wireless and Dish DBS are planning to split their bankruptcy cases as Dish Wireless’s drags
- Author: Jake Neenan
- Tags: Wireless, Joel Taubenblatt, FCC, Echostar, Jeff Blum, Dish Wireless, dish dbs, christopher lopez, Brendan Carr, #with-siderail

WASHINGTON, Sept. 1, 2026 – When federal regulators told EchoStar to set aside $2.4 billion in spectrum sale proceeds, they said it was to ensure the company’s former business partners would get paid what they were owed.

EchoStar thinks its subsidiaries should also be able to draw on that fund, the [company told](https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/26110074137/1?ref=broadbandbreakfast.com) the Federal Communications Commission Tuesday.

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Dish Wireless, EchoStar’s subsidiary that handled its failed effort to become a fourth national wireless carrier, filed for bankruptcy in June. 

According to Dish, its biggest debt obligation, which it imagined being able to draw on the trust, is an $8.8 billion intercompany loan to another EchoStar subsidiary that financed its network buildout.

On July 30 **Joel Taubenblatt**, the chief of FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, [released an order](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/fcc-only-former-business-partners-can-draw-on-dish-trust/) saying that debt couldn’t be repaid with the trust. 

He sought to “clarify what should be obvious – that the fund cannot be used to pay companies that did not build the network. And to ensure that the purpose of the fund is not perverted, we also modify the fund’s terms to explicitly exclude from payment any claims of EchoStar or its subsidiaries.”

The trust was established after tower and infrastructure companies complained to the FCC that Dish was claiming to be excused from contractual and lease commitments due to EchoStar’s $42.6 billion spectrum sales. It was designed to ensure those companies would be paid if courts ultimately sided with them or they reached a settlement with Dish.

But EchoStar government affairs chief **Jeffery Blum** argued the terms of the trust agreement didn’t actually limit payments to third parties.

The language permitted payments for debt “in connection with or related to” the building of the network, which he argued extended beyond former business partners.

He said by issuing the July 30 order, the FCC was effectively “undoing the necessary premise underlying EchoStar’s original agreement with the Bureau — an agreement reached after negotiation — and retroactively interfering with its settled expectations and due process rights.”

### *Bankruptcy case*

At the same time, Dish Wireless has said in bankruptcy court that the July 30 order is [changing its plans](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/dish-wants-tower-claims-zeroed-out/).

Dish’s position is that FCC Chairman **Brendan Carr** forced EchoStar’s spectrum sales, which did not result in Dish getting paid. That qualifies as a “force majeure,” Dish says, which excuses the company from owing anything at all.

Tower companies and others disagree and are seeking more than $7 billion in lease and contract payments. They’ve been objecting to the bankruptcy moving forward and don’t like Dish’s plan, which would pay them cents on the dollar.

During a Friday hearing, Dish attorneys confirmed they would ask U.S. Bankruptcy Judge **Christopher Lopez** to litigate the issue up front, before moving forward with the bankruptcy. 

If the intercompany loan can’t draw on the trust, then it’s possible the trust would fully pay off Dish’s debt and make the process smoother, provided Dish prevails against the towers, the company argued in an earlier filing.

Litigating the issue now would push Dish’s bankruptcy plan confirmation to December, Lopez said.

That’s far enough that Dish Wireless and Dish DBS, another EchoStar subsidiary that filed for bankruptcy, are planning to split their bankruptcies, attorneys said at the Friday hearing.

Dish DBS’s process is much less controversial and the company’s creditors would prefer to resolve it sooner than the Dish Wireless issue.