Jostling in the Airwaves Resumes After Passage of Trump’s Budget Bill

WASHINGTON, August 26, 2025 – After more than two years, the Federal Communications Commission’s authority to auction off spectrum was restored by Congress in July.

Spectrum - Broadband Breakfast

The use of radio frequency spectrum enables the delivery of high-speed wireless Internet access. Whether licensed, unlicensed or shared, radio frequency spectrum is the critical resource for wireless communication. The Communications Act of 1934 gave the FCC authority to auction spectrum, but that auction authority expired in March 2023.

Broadband BreakfastJake Neenan

And the agency is eager to help remake spectrum utilization in the airwaves. In what EchoStar said was a step toward resolving FCC concerns that the company hasn’t put its airwaves to good use, the company said Tuesday it had reached a deal to sell a big chunk of licenses to AT&T for $23 billion.

EchoStar would be letting go of its 3.5 GigaHertz (GHz) and 600 MegaHertz (MHz) holdings, with its Boost Mobile brand becoming a hybrid mobile network operator primarily using AT&T’s infrastructure. 

AT&T Paying $23 Billion for EchoStar Wireless Licenses

The move brings EchoStar closer to resolving ongoing pressure from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, which threatened its business.

Broadband BreakfastJake Neenan

EchoStar CEO Hamid Akhavan suggested in a statement that more spectrum sales were coming. The company was continuing to “evaluate strategic opportunities for our remaining spectrum portfolio in partnership with the U.S. government and wireless industry participants,” he said.

“We appreciate the productive and ongoing discussions with the EchoStar team,” an FCC spokesperson said after the deal was announced. “The FCC will continue to focus on ensuring the beneficial use of scarce spectrum resources.”

The deal is expected to close in mid-2026, although AT&T is looking to lease the airwaves and put them to use before then – particularly the 3.45 GHz licenses, as the carrier already uses the band – if the FCC approves. 

AT&T CEO John Stankey told analysts Tuesday that his sense from talking with regulators was that they wanted spectrum lit up as soon as possible. The Department of Justice, though, has said that it’s concerned about increasing consolidation in the wireless industry.

The players in the current ‘Spectrum Wars’ before the FCC

The budget reconciliation law was a major victory for the wireless carriers. It tasked the FCC with selling off 800 megahertz of spectrum, with 500 megahertz coming from the federal government and 300 megahertz coming from elsewhere. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has been looking to get more spectrum in the hands of both the carriers and the satellite industry, citing both economic and national security concerns.

This feature article provides an overview of many spectrum battles, some of which date back to March 2023, when the FCC’s auction authority lapsed. 

Even without auction authority, the FCC had taken steps to get more spectrum to the marketplace. But to some extent, the market for radiofrequencies was frozen for nearly two-and-a-half years.

Some of the biggest fights chronicled in this feature article concern Charlie Ergen’s Dish Network, the company he founded. Dish has been wholly owned by EchoStar, another Ergen-founded company, since January 2024. And Carr has been putting lots of pressure on Dish/EchoStar. 

Role of SpaceX’s Elon Musk 

A potential beneficiary of Carr’s desire to open up EchoStar’s spectrum is former Trump advisor Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and the world’s richest man.

Although SpaceX’s Starlink low-Earth orbit internet service is unaffected by Tuesday’s deal between EchoStar and AT&T, Musk has been pushing for EchoStar to open up some  of its spectrum elsewhere.

The 2 GHz spectrum band profiled below is for mobile-satellite service, similar to the service offered by  T-Mobile and Starlinkusing T-Mobile’s airwaves. Only EchoStar is in 2 GHz now – and SpaceX is pushing the agency to allow other satellite operators like itself to share the airwaves..

The FCC is also considering ditching international power level limits on low-Earth orbit satellites in some bands and opening up others to satellite companies for the first time. Both of those would be a boon to SpaceX’s LEO broadband service, which has been competing for funding under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program. 

Was Dish ever a viable 4th competitor?

Dish was supposed to be a fourth national wireless carrier after T-Mobile bought Sprint in 2020. T-Mobile purchased Sprint’s prepaid business and some spectrum licenses as part of a settlement agreement with the Justice Department’s antitrust division.

When approving T-Mobile’s purchase of UScellular, the current antitrust division chief said she was concerned that the big three carriers (AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile) were grabbing up licenses and impeding the path of a real fourth competitor. 

But Carr said at the agency’s July meeting that he didn’t share that concern.

“There’s not a particular magic number,” he said. “It’s a dynamic situation right now where mobile wireless is not just competing with mobile wireless. The companies that are taking the largest amount of market share in mobile wireless are cable companies.”

Here Broadband Breakfast reviews the spectrum controversies, band-by-band: