- EchoStar added 212,000 wireless subscribers in Q2
- The company struck a deal with MDA Space to build a new low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation
- The 2 GHz/AWS-4 spectrum figures prominently in plans for its new D2D service
EchoStar delivered a one-two punch in wireless with its Q2 2025 earnings today, reporting 212,000 net new subscribers in its wireless business and a big new contract with MDA Space for a direct-to-device (D2D) satellite service.
First, the growth in the wireless business, notably in the Boost Mobile brand. The company has been struggling ever since Dish Network, now a subsidiary of EchoStar, acquired the Boost business as part of the T-Mobile/Sprint acquisition in 2020. Boost had 9 million subscribers when Dish acquired it, a number that has dwindled to 7.4 million today.
But it’s been turning things around the past few quarters and the 212,000 net additions in Q2 follow on 150,000 net additions in Q1. Last year, EchoStar lost 16,000 customers in the second quarter, one that also saw losses due to the end of the Affordable Connectivity Program, a government-funded program for low-income subscribers.
In all, EchoStar reported $935 million in wireless revenue for Q2 2025, helped by a mix of subscribers on higher-priced plans and higher sales of value-added services.
EchoStar’s D2D deal with MDA Space
As for the D2D announcement with MDA Space, it doubles down on EchoStar’s use of its 2 GHz/AWS-4 spectrum, which is the subject of an ongoing inquiry at the FCC. Agency head Brendan Carr has accused EchoStar/Dish of squatting on spectrum and reportedly gave EchoStar a “best and final” offer about selling some of its spectrum.
That spectrum appears to figure prominently in EchoStar’s D2D plans. It awarded MDA Space an initial contract, valued at about $1.3 billion, to design, manufacture and test the first tranche of more than 100 software-defined MDA Aurora D2D satellites. Delivery of the satellites is expected in 2028 with commercial service starting in 2029.
Eventually, the full initial configuration of the system will consist of 200 satellites and EchoStar envisions offering global talk, text and broadband services directly to standard 5G non-terrestrial networks (NTN) handheld devices.
The company said the constellation will use up to 25x20 MHz of AWS-4/S-band 2 GHz frequencies. EchoStar noted that since 2012, it has invested well over $13 billion in the 2 GHz band with the acquisition of DBSD and TerreStar, which held 2 GHz FCC licenses as well as three S-band GEO satellites, one of which required expensive retrofitting. Since then, EchoStar said, it has led the efforts to standardize the 2 GHz band at 3GPP for 5G and to develop the NTN 3GPP standards.
Speculation over spectrum
Prior to today’s news, analysts at New Street Research (NSR) were looking for any clues about EchoStar’s intention to sell some or all of its spectrum, as they expect a sale of all its spectrum to generate over $60 billion in proceeds, driving at least a triple increase in the stock price. But EchoStar’s shares were trading down more than 19% at one point today, to $26.30.
In a note for investors today, NSR analyst Philip Burnett said based on the company’s latest 10-Q, there’s no indication that the company is considering a sale of its spectrum. “The company did disclose that they could file for bankruptcy if FCC negotiations don’t reach an acceptable conclusion. While we think the company would then sell spectrum in bankruptcy, we don’t think the company is trying to signal that with this disclosure, and we doubt investors will read the disclosure this way,” he said.
As for the LEO news, the company put the total price of the project at $5 billion.
“If they are genuinely committing to a $5B investment in a new LEO network, we would be concerned,” Burnett said. “We think the D2D opportunity is over-capitalized at the moment. While the D2D opportunity is compelling, it’s not big enough to support all the networks being planned for it.”
The most obvious path to D2D success is through carrier partnerships and all three big U.S. wireless carriers have partnerships with other LEO operators. One thing that would make the project viable is a deal for capacity with Apple, similar to the one Apple already has with Globalstar, he said, noting there long have been rumors of a partnership with Apple.
“We know that Ergen’s plane has been in San Jose recently, and so investors have been speculating that a deal with Apple is on the table,” Burnett said. “Still, with no mention of Apple in the press release today, we suspect the news of this large investment won’t be received particularly positively.”