EchoStar Pushes Back on SpaceX Bid to Open Satellite Spectrum
The FCC had sought comment on claims that EchoStar was underusing spectrum.
WASHINGTON, May 28, 2025 – Dish defended itself from allegations it is underusing satellite spectrum Wednesday, arguing Elon Musk’s SpaceX was misleading federal regulators in a bid to gain access to the airwaves.
“Unfortunately, SpaceX’s persistent, misleading, and anti-competitive campaign appears to have influenced the Public Notices” from the Federal Communications Commission seeking comment on the issue, the company wrote in a filing with the agency. “SpaceX is still wrong. The only difference is how far SpaceX is going to mislead the Commission into manipulating the market and harming its competitor.”
The FCC sought comment earlier this month on whether EchoStar was making effective use of its mobile-satellite service licenses in the 2 GigaHertz band. The agency’s public notice cited filings from SpaceX, which has repeatedly alleged EchoStar isn’t making adequate use of the spectrum and urged the FCC to open it up to other companies. SpaceX operates a similar direct-to-device satellite service that could make use of the same airwaves.
The same day, the agency sought comment on whether to revisit a decision by the Biden FCC to extend EchoStar’s deployment deadline for its terrestrial 5G spectrum. That includes the 2 GHz band frequencies, called the AWS-4 band for terrestrial uses. The company also denied allegations from SpaceX that it was underusing the band in that case.
The agency is separately conducting an investigation into EchoStar’s compliance with the 5G build out milestones.
EchoStar said in its filing it had met FCC requirements in the 2 GHz band with its two operational satellites. One of those supports a commercial MSS service in Canada that offers texting, email, and voice calls. The company said it was developing a direct-to-device service for the U.S., similar to the one SpaceX currently offers with T-Mobile, and planning to launch more satellites this year.
As it has before, SpaceX contended in its own filing Wednesday that EchoStar was “warehousing” the spectrum, effectively sitting on it for a future use that’s years away and blocking other companies from accessing it in the meantime. The company argued the FCC should allow other entrants into the band.
“EchoStar’s latest round of tired arguments and promises does nothing to justify its stranglehold on the 2 GHz band at the expense of American consumers and next-generation satellite systems,” the company wrote. “EchoStar actively chose to not deploy MSS in the United States with the 2 GHz band and continues to deny the American public MSS offerings by actively delaying constellation design and deployment.”
SpaceX’s previous attempts at persuading the FCC to open up EchoStar spectrum have been unsuccessful. But, given Musk’s relationship to the Trump administration and the fact that FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s adversarial stance toward EchoStar, New Street Research’s Blair Levin said at the time there was a “significant risk” that the FCC could take action that harmed the company.
“Carr appears to be of the view that DISH has engaged in spectrum hoarding and is guilty of failing to meet FCC requirements” he wrote in an investor note earlier this month. “We should note that it is possible that Carr could be engaging in a strategy to threaten a maximalist outcome but settle for a minimal outcome. In this case it could be getting DISH to agree to some small spectrum sale or a sharing agreement with SpaceX.”
Musk, a major Republican donor, has been a close advisor to President Donald Trump. He’s recently claimed to be taking a less active role in politics.
Levin said EchoStar would be likely to sue if the agency moved to revoke its licenses or force sharing in bands where it operates.
Consumer groups Public Knowledge and New America’s Open Technology Institute noted that the agency found in 2014 that only an exclusive user of the band could ensure proper coordination between the MSS and terrestrial mobile services that EchoStar is authorized for. They and EchoStar argued adding another operator to the band would create interference that would be difficult to mitigate.
“Only EchoStar, as the sole operator of MSS and terrestrial services in the band, can mitigate interference through real-time self-coordination,” the company wrote. “The band cannot be opened to additional MSS operators.”
Buildout timelines
Comments were also posted Wednesday in response to the FCC’s inquiry into whether it should reconsider extending EchoStar’s 5G buildout timelines.
The agency granted the company’s request in September for more time to finish deploying its 5G spectrum. Originally set for mid-2025 the deadlines were pushed back until the end of 2026, with an option to push that even further to June 2028 if EchoStar met certain public interest conditions by June 14, 2025.
Carr publicly criticized the deal, which came just three days after EchoStar requested it. He told the New York Post it was “the worst abuse of agency process I have seen in my twelve years of working at the FCC.” In a May 9 letter to EchoStar Chairman Charlie Ergen, Carr said the company “negotiated behind closed doors” with the Biden FCC to “kick the can down the road” and avoid consequences for missing deadlines.
The company said Wednesday that it had already met the new public interest conditions. The measures included upping its total number of 5G sites to 24,000, a nationwide affordable plan, and allowing small carriers and tribes to lease spectrum, among other things.
The arguments from EchoStar and SpaceX were similar to the 2 GHz issue, with SpaceX saying airwaves were lying fallow – specifically the AWS-4 band – and EchoStar insisting that was unfounded. EchoStar said the low traffic observed by a SpaceX study was a result of its small number of subscribers compared to the dominant national carriers.
Small and rural mobile carriers, consumer groups, and INCOMPAS defended EchoStar in comments and urged the FCC not to. The Rural Wireless Association said its members were in the process of negotiating spectrum lease agreements as part of the company’s new commitments.
“By leasing spectrum to these small rural providers, EchoStar will enable the rapid deployment of broadband infrastructure in hard-to-serve rural areas,” RWA wrote.
EchoStar also marshalled support from its contractors and vendors, including Mavenir, Samsung and Fujitsu. The vendors said EchoStar’s open RAN network, built with components from an assortment of suppliers, was important for supporting the still-nascent ecosystem.
"Any undue regulatory action that halts or imperils EchoStar's network deployment or its licenses would adversely impact this significant investment in Open RAN technology and cast doubt on the innovation that the growing Open RAN ecosystem promises," the vendors wrote.
Open RAN has been a priority of the government since the first Trump administration, with regulators and lawmakers preferring a diversified network vendor marketplace to gear from Chinese providers they consider security threats. EchoStar won a $50 million grant from the Commerce Department to stand up an open RAN testing facility for new suppliers last year.
