FCC: Only Former Business Partners Can Draw on Dish Trust
The order comes two weeks after infrastructure companies said they were concerned Dish’s bankruptcy might drain the $2.4 billion fund
WASHINGTON, July 30, 2026 – Federal regulators acted quickly to address concerns that Dish Wireless’s bankruptcy could wipe away $2.4 billion set aside to pay its former business partners.
The Federal Communications Commission released an order Thursday saying a $2.4 billion trust established by EchoStar, Dish’s parent company, could only be drawn on by infrastructure companies and contractors to whom Dish owed money.
“The purpose of requiring EchoStar to create the Fund was to ensure that some of the tens of billions of dollars EchoStar is receiving for its wireless licenses be used to pay those who built the 5G network that EchoStar promised and was required to build as a condition on holding those licenses,” the agency wrote.
“That purpose is not realized if EchoStar pays the money to itself (directly or indirectly) or uses it to pay other of its debts or those of its subsidiaries or affiliates,” the order continued.
The order came exactly two weeks after Wireless Infrastructure Association CEO Patrick Halley met with FCC attorneys to say the group was concerned about exactly that.
Both Dish Wireless and Dish DBS, EchoStar’s pay-TV unit, filed for bankruptcy last month. Under the filing, the companies say Dish Wireless owes Dish DBS $8.8 billion, an artifact of the companies’ parent funding Dish Wireless’s network buildout.
The tower and infrastructure companies feared the trust would be entirely drained paying down that intercompany loan, something contemplated in the bankruptcy filings.
As a condition of the FCC approving EchoStar’s $42.6 billion spectrum licenses sales, the company was required to set up the trust to pay former business partners that won settlements against it for breach of contract.
More than 170 are suing Dish for refusing to pay under leases and other agreements after the deals were announced.
WIA and major tower companies seeking billions from Dish lobbied the FCC to require the trust in its approval. The group was pleased to see the quick turnaround in Thursday’s order.
“This order ensures those dollars go to the hard-working infrastructure providers that earned payment and are not absurdly consumed by DISH/EchoStar to benefit itself,” Mike Saperstein, senior vice president of government affairs at WIA, said in a statement.
EchoStar declined to comment.
Tower companies, led by Crown Castle, are challenging that $8.8 billion claim in bankruptcy court. They said holders of that debt (Dish DBS bondholders) shouldn't be able to vote on Dish Wireless’s bankruptcy plan.
The plan currently would give former business partners much less than they say they’re owed, and the size of the claim would allow DBS bondholders to approve it over towers’ objections.
A hearing on that issue is set for Aug. 18.
Dish, for its part, is asking the bankruptcy court to pause the ongoing lawsuits against it. The bankruptcy automatically froze suits against Dish, but some of the litigation names EchoStar too.
Dish argued in a filing the automatic stay should also apply to the actions against EchoStar. The company said it was impossible to pursue a suit against EchoStar in this instance without effectively pursuing it against Dish as well.
It would also require Dish to spend time and resources on discovery in those cases and prevent it from focusing entirely on the bankruptcy, the company argued.
