EchoStar’s Hughes Files for Bankruptcy
EchoStar lost 118,000 mobile subscribers in the second quarter
WASHINGTON, Aug. 3, 2026 – EchoStar’s broadband satellite unit, Hughes Satellite Systems, filed for bankruptcy Monday.
It’s the third EchoStar subsidiary to go bankrupt this summer. Dish Wireless, which operated the company’s mobile network, and Dish DBS, EchoStar’s pay-TV unit, both filed for bankruptcy in June.
Hughes has enough money to operate as normal for now, and the rest of EchoStar's companies aren't involved in the bankruptcy, the company said in a release.
“We’re paying our employees, we’re delivering for customers and channel partners as usual, and we expect to fulfill all ongoing forward commitments to our vendors,” EchoStar founder and CEO Charlie Ergen said on the company’s earnings call Monday.
Hughes did not have enough money to make a $1.5 billion debt payment due Saturday, though.
“We had discussions with the bondholders, but weren’t able to come up with a workable solution,” Ergen said.
New Street Research analysts had wondered whether EchoStar closing a $23 billion spectrum sale to AT&T would affect the Hughes bankruptcy plans, but it apparently didn’t prevent the filing.
In the second quarter of 2026, Hughes lost 59,000 broadband subscribers for a total of 622,000. That’s worse than the same time last year.
The unit generated $50 million in operating income in the second quarter, compared to a $37 million loss the same time last year.
Satellite industry analyst Tim Farrar noted on X that Hughes’s bankruptcy filing included plans to lay off 400 of its 1,275 employees and transition away from consumer customers in favor of governments and enterprises.
The satellite broadband company cited increasing consumer competition from SpaceX, which it didn't expect to end anytime soon. Low-Earth orbit satellites provide much higher speeds and lower latency than Hughes's geostationary units.
Earnings
EchoStar reported 118,00 lost wireless subscribers in the quarter, much worse than the 212,000 gained the same time last year. At the end of the quarter the company had 7.38 million mobile subscribers.
The company is in the process of shutting down its wireless network after selling much of its spectrum for $42.6 billion. Its Boost Mobile brand will mostly be served on AT&T infrastructure as part of one of those deals.
“Since abandoning its efforts to become a fourth facilities-based mobile network operator late last year, EchoStar has clearly taken its foot off the gas when it comes to acquiring wireless subscribers,” BNP Paribas analyst Sam McHugh said in an investor note.
He wrote that if EchoStar is no longer interested in growing Boost Mobile, it might be interested in selling it.
Asked on the call how EchoStar was thinking about Boost, and whether its mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) deals would survive a transaction or partnership, Ergen said:
“We do have a fair amount of flexibility contractually, whether it be M&A or partnering with people.”
Ergen said the company expected the spectrum sale taxes and network termination fees to total from $5 billion to $7 billion. That includes a $2.4 billion fund the company was required to set aside for former business partners.
Wireless service revenue was about $929 million, compared to $931 million last year. The unit lost $97,000 in the quarter, compared to a $118 million loss last year.
In all, EchoStar reported total revenue of $3.58 billion, down from last year, and a net income of $8.46 billion.
That’s far more than the $306 million net loss last year. EchoStar attributed it to a $9.73 billion “non-cash gain on deconsolidation” amid the Dish DBS and Dish Wireless bankruptcies.
EchoStar is poised to be a large shareholder in SpaceX once its $19.2 billion in spectrum sales to the company close next year. About $11 billion of that was set to be paid in SpaceX stock, but current valuations are higher and would make EchoStar's stake worht more than $30 billion, according to a New Street Research estimate.
Dish Bankruptcy
Ergen was optimistic the Dish Wireless bankruptcy could be “wrapped up in the fourth quarter of this year.” There’s a bankruptcy plan confirmation hearing set for Oct. 13.
Tower companies have been pushing back on the company’s proposed plan and have successfully stalled the process.
They’re suing Dish Wireless for billions in damages over unpaid contract and rent fees after the spectrum sales, and fear collecting pennies on the dollar if the company’s plan goes through.
EchoStar is planning to set the minimum bid ($300 million) for Dish Wireless’s network assets as part of the bankruptcy. Asked what the company might do with those assets if it ultimately acquired them, Ergen demurred.
“It would be way premature to speculate on that,” he said. “At least in our opinion, there’s not a lot of liquidation value there.”
EchoStar Capital
Last month longtime EchoStar executive Hamid Akhavan abruptly resigned. He had been CEO of EchoStar Capital, the arm set up to manage the billions in spectrum sale proceeds.
The company said at the time this was due to a “change in strategic direction.”
Ergen said with EchoStar Capital folding into the company’s corporate development division, the company’s own business would be a considered use for those funds. Akhavan had focused on outside opportunities, which Ergen said would be secondary to the “core business.”
