Satellite firm EchoStar’s search for a spectrum-license deal has been under scrutiny by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which currently finds itself unable to resolve this or most any other issue because it lacks enough members for a quorum. For EchoStar, the stakes appear to be either gaining the ability to build out its 5G network, or potentially slipping into bankruptcy.
The FCC’s investigation has been caricatured in some corners as an anti-business witch hunt, but this framing gets the story exactly backwards. When it comes to the nation’s airwaves, the FCC’s job is to protect a uniquely scarce public resource, not any particular company’s balance sheet. A clear look at EchoStar’s decade-long history—and at the data the company itself filed with the agency—shows why vigilance is not only justified, but essential to continued U.S. leadership in wireless.
EchoStar parent DISH Network won the first part of its current spectrum portfolio through a highly favorable re-zoning of AWS-4 frequencies in 2012. Three years later, it tried to channel $3 billion in “designated-entity” subsidies through paper-thin “small businesses,” a maneuver the FCC ultimately rejected. Successive administrations have therefore treated DISH’s promises with healthy skepticism.
In 2019, the Trump FCC tied new deadline relief to a firm pledge that DISH would deploy a bona-fide 5G network—explicitly waiving the “flexible-use” loophole that would have let it operate something less extensive. When those milestones slipped again, the Biden FCC granted another, highly expedited and carefully conditioned extension, without opportunity for public comment. By last December, EchoStar assured regulators it had met accelerated build-out obligations covering 80% of the population in every basic economic area.
But the company’s own filings tell a different story. In multiple markets, its coverage maps treat signals modeled at 600 MHz—an entirely different band with far stronger propagation—as if they proved robust service in AWS-3 and AWS-4 spectrum operating at higher frequencies. Independent replication of EchoStar’s data by the International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE) shows that, in Pittsburgh’s BEA alone, true 5G coverage reached barely 67% of residents, not the more than 80% claimed; similar disparities appear in Harrisburg.
These are not trivial bookkeeping errors. The United States has no “green field” spectrum left to allocate for mobile broadband, and Congress has not yet renewed the FCC’s auction authority. Every dormant license therefore carries a real cost for consumers, entrepreneurs, and national security alike. When a licensee fails to perform, Americans lose twice—both because that spectrum lies fallow, and because rival innovators can’t access the spectrum that DISH is apparently warehousing.
The record demonstrates that EchoStar has already missed multiple deadlines, paid penalties rather than build, and offered engineering showings that rely on unreasonable assumptions about radio physics. Under those circumstances, the FCC’s inquiry is a demonstration of good stewardship.
Critics often warn that “regulatory uncertainty” will scare away investment. The greatest uncertainty for America’s wireless ecosystem comes, however, from letting spectrum sit unused. Scores of domestic companies—from incumbent nationwide carriers to regional fiber providers, private-network specialists, and new rural entrants—stand ready to deploy if the airwaves are made available. Their capital and ingenuity—not prolonged warehousing—will determine whether the United States leads the next generation of applications in telehealth, precision agriculture, and advanced manufacturing.
When licensees meet their buildout commitments, they deserve the flexibility that our market-oriented spectrum policy affords; when they do not, the public deserves the chance to put that spectrum to better use. The FCC’s current review simply applies that principle. Far from punishing success, it ensures that genuine success—measured in working towers and satisfied customers—has room to flourish.
Preserving the relentless reinvention that has characterized the American wireless industry requires clear, even-handed enforcement of the bargain every license embodies: exclusive rights, in exchange for concrete service. EchoStar still has the opportunity to honor that bargain, but if it does not, the FCC must re-auction or otherwise reassign the spectrum so that American innovation can proceed at full speed. That is not a partisan position; it is sound policy—and it is exactly what Congress asked the FCC to do.
Kristian Stout is director of innovation policy at the International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE).
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