Brendan Carr. Credit: FCC
LA PLATA, Maryland — The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Sept. 8 informed EchoStar Corp. that the commission’s investigation into EchoStar’s non-fulfillment of buildout milestones in its spectrum licenses will be shutting down now that EchoStar has divested some of its spectrum in transactions with AT&T and SpaceX.
In a letter to EchoStar Chairman Charles W. Ergen, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said he had “directed FCC staff to: 1- dismiss VTel’s petition for reconsideration; 2- confirm that EchoStar holds exclusive terrestrial and MSS rights over the AWS-4 spectrum to which it is currently licensed; and 3- find that relevant FCC buildout and other related obligations have been satisfied by EchoStar in view of the company’s current FCC milestones.”
In a May 9 letter, Carr had raised the threat that EchoStar’s delays in building out both terrestrial and non-terrestrial spectrum under its FCC licenses “could result in the loss of its spectrum licenses and significant financial payments.”
In August, EchoStar reached an agreement to sell mid-band and low-band spectrum to AT&T, a transaction valued at $23 billion. On Sept. 8, EchoStar and SpaceX announced a $17-billion agreement under which EchoStar will sell its AWS-4 and H-block spectrum, including its S-band mobile satellite services (MSS) licenses, to SpaceX.
EchoStar had responded to Carr by saying it had satisfied some of the buildout requirements, resulting in Carr’s calling for an investigation and specifically “a public notice seeking comment on the scope and scale of MSS utilization in the 2-GHz band that is currently licensed to EchoStar or its affiliates.”
In a Sept. 9 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), EchoStar Chief Legal Officer Dean A. Manson said:
“While this resolves the FCC inequities commenced in the May 9 letter, our previously announced transactions with AT&T and SpaceX to continue to remain subject to FCC approval and the other previously announced conditions to closing those transactions.”
EchoStar said in an announcing its spectrum sale to SpaceX that FCC pressure was a factor in concluding the transaction. The same factors caused EchoStar to cancel its $1.3-billion contract with MDA Space to build a constellation using EchoStar’s S-band spectrum.
EchoStar’s S-band satellite business in Europe
It remains unclear what EchoStar will now do with its large geostationary S-band satellite covering Europe, whose license expires in 2027. EchoStar had been among the companies expressing interest in a new license from the European Commission, and had used its plans for a constellation to buttress its case.
In the current geopolitical environment, it is unlikely that the Commission will agree to award SpaceX the license.
Also holding an S-band license with the EU Commission is Viasat Inc., which assumed the license with its purchase of Inmarsat. Viasat operates a network of ground signal boosters and a relatively small S-band payload on a geostationary-orbit satellite to manage the system, called the European Aviation Network (EAN), which offers in-flight connectivity service to European airlines with terminals on their undersides to communicate with the ground based stations and provide connectivity to passengers.