EchoStar, SpaceX to FCC: Don’t Weigh in on Vendor Contract Disputes
Infrastructure companies had asked the agency to require EchoStar to pay Dish’s bills.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 30, 2025 – Tower companies and telecom vendors have told federal regulators they should only approve major spectrum sales if the seller, EchoStar, makes good on its subsidiary’s contracts with them.
EchoStar and SpaceX, one of the buyers, are trying to convince the Federal Communications Commission not to weigh in on the contractual disputes.
“The terms, conditions, and obligations under those agreements are private contractual matters. Consistent with its longstanding policy, the Commission should refrain from injecting itself in these contractual disputes,” EchoStar wrote in a filing posted Tuesday. “It will be a complex and long undertaking that the Commission is ill equipped to undertake.”
At issue is EchoStar subsidiary Dish Wireless’s argument to tower companies, fiber backhaul providers, and others that its parent company was forced to sell its spectrum by the FCC, and Dish will be left unable to make payments under existing lease agreements and contracts.
At least two companies, Crown Castle and American Tower, have taken Dish to court over the issue, arguing EchoStar wasn’t forced to do anything and thus the companies can’t exit their long-term lease agreements.
Tower companies want conditions on spectrum deals
In response to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s concerns the company wasn’t putting its airwaves to good use, EchoStar reached deals to sell spectrum licenses for more than $40 billion. The company is standing up a new financial arm to manage and invest the money from the sales.
“EchoStar has already delayed payments, and in some cases defaulted, on its obligations to many of us,” a group of more than two dozen infrastructure companies wrote to the FCC on Dec. 19.
“Our companies invested significant capital and time, and delivered on our obligations in good faith,” they wrote. “Now, EchoStar is attempting to reap billions from the sale of spectrum licenses while refusing to pay what is owed to the very businesses that enabled their success.”
They and others, including the Wireless Infrastructure Association, said the FCC should condition approval of the sales on EchoStar using some of the proceeds to pay what Dish owes the companies it worked with to build its network. That network will be decommissioned after the sales, with EchoStar’s Boost Mobile service operating mostly on AT&T infrastructure.
EchoStar argued Tuesday that because it was selling spectrum licenses, rather than obtaining them, the FCC didn’t have authority to impose a condition on the company. The company's filing was led by Jeff Blum, EchoStar's executive vice president of external and legislative affairs.
“EchoStar has been unable to locate an instance where the Commission imposed substantive conduct conditions on an assignor,” the company wrote. “This is not surprising – doing so would improperly expose former licensees to continued Commission oversight, unbound from any statutory authority, solely by virtue of their former licenses.”
The deals
SpaceX is buying AWS-4, PCS H-block, and unpaired AWS-3 licenses that it’s looking to use with a planned new generation of satellites to dramatically improve its direct-to-device service.
The company is paying more than $19 billion, with more than half of that being SpaceX stock.
AT&T is buying 3.45 GigaHertz (GHz) and 600 MHz licenses for another $23 billion, which it will use for its mobile network and its growing fixed wireless service. The carrier is already using much of the 3.45 GHz spectrum through a lease agreement, but has said it will take years to turn on the 600 MHz, which AT&T does not currently use.
The companies have argued the transactions won’t harm competition and will make AT&T and SpaceX more able to improve their services and expand broadband access.
“In many places, EchoStar’s spectrum will leave AT&T with sufficient capacity to support both fixed and mobile service, enabling AT&T to compete more directly with both T-Mobile and Verizon, as well as incumbent cable and other fixed broadband providers,” EchoStar and AT&T wrote in October.
Consumer advocacy groups Public Knowledge and New America’s Open Technology Institute agree with respect to the SpaceX deal, which they wrote earlier this month could result in “new, innovative services.” They disagreed on the AT&T deal, which they said would worsen spectrum consolidation among the dominant national carriers.
That’s something the Department of Justice has expressed concern about, but the FCC is less worried. Carr has pointed to the growing mobile services offered by the cable giants as meaningful competition to the carriers.
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