Advanced Television

EchoStar selling off more spectrum?

October 1, 2025

By Chris Forrester

There are widespread reports that US cellular giant Verizon Communications is negotiating to buy wireless spectrum from EchoStar. Reuters summed up the situation saying the discussions involve EchoStar’s AWS-3 licences, which are valuable for carrying 5G wireless signals.

If the deal goes through, Verizon would join AT&T and SpaceX as recent buyers of EchoStar’s wireless spectrum licences.

In September, EchoStar said it expects to hold $24.1 billion (€20.5bn) in cash after using spectrum sale proceeds to repay debt, further strengthening its balance sheet and supporting growth across wireless, satellite and tech.

A sale of spectrum by EchoStar to Verizon would add to this sum. EchoStar’s regulatory filing has valued its ‘spare’ spectrum as $9.8 billion.

EchoStar started selling certain assets after the US Federal Communications Commission raised concerns over its compliance with spectrum buildout rules and use of mobile-satellite service spectrum.

There is an FCC-planned auction for mid-2026 (Advanced Wireless Services AWS-3). But by acquiring spectrum from EchoStar now, Verizon could reduce its overall costs by avoiding some of the uncertainty of the bidding process.

Analysts from investment bank BNP-Paribas said: “Having seen their leading spectrum position eroded over the last decade, first by TMUS/Sprint, and more recently by AT&T – Verizon has been under pressure to narrow the gap to (in spectrum holdings) their competitors once again. What wasn’t clear was whether they would look to acquire this AWS-3 spectrum or prefer to wait for the FCC to auction of c. 100MHz of the upper C-Band. If this deal were to transpire, then (price dependent) we would see it as broadly neutral for Verizon, a small positive for T/TMUS and a small negative for the US Cable players.”

Categories: Articles, Business, M&A, Spectrum

Tags: , ,