Who wants EchoStar’s spectrum?
June 17, 2025
Charlie Ergen’s EchoStar share price rocketed 43 per cent on June 13th on news that Donald Trump has intervened with FCC chair Brendan Carr over the dispute between the FCC and EchoStar. June 16th saw EchoStar’s share price (Nasdaq:SATS) finish the day at $25.11 (€21.72). A week ago they were $15.99.
In a nutshell, the FCC is arguing that EchoStar has not met its obligations to fully roll out its 5G national network buildout.
EchoStar countered by informing the market that it had skipped certain financial obligations, and was considering Chapter 11 bankruptcy. EchoStar senior staffers argued that undermining the company by government was illegal.
Reportedly after multiple rebuffed attempts to speak directly to Chairman Carr, EchoStar founder Charlie Ergen finally sat down with him last Wednesday afternoon (June 11th) in the FCC’s Washington headquarters, according to people familiar with the meetings. Carr told Ergen that EchoStar needs to start selling some of its spectrum licences, according to Bloomberg. Otherwise, Carr told Ergen, the company risks losing them.
Which was where Trump entered the story. Evidently, Trump told Ergen that he didn’t want any major US company such as Ergen’s to go bust. Helping matters was the fact that EchoStar’s DISH satellite DBS service carried Newsmax, a right-wing conservative channel which supported Trump.
Analysts at the US office of investment bank BNP/Paribas, at the end of May, had issued a note talking about the FCC’s action as being a ‘shot across the bows’ of EchoStar, and that EchoStar had added 88,000 net new subscribers in April and when compared to EchoStar’s other divisional businesses was doing well, but the business was still a long way from profitability. Nevertheless, the bank’s report pulled no punches, saying that a break-up of EchoStar would release valuable spectrum for the rest of the industry.
Should EchoStar go for Chapter 11, or be forced to sell off spectrum, then its rival telco operators would be keen buyers of cellular spectrum. Elon Musk is also interested.
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