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Trump Urges FCC and EchoStar Chairman to Resolve Wireless Spectrum Dispute

By  |  June 15, 2025

President Donald Trump has intervened in a high-stakes dispute involving EchoStar Corp’s wireless spectrum licenses, urging the company’s Chairman Charlie Ergen and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr to reach an agreement, according to Bloomberg. The intervention appears to have positively influenced investor sentiment, as EchoStar’s shares jumped 52% in after-hours trading on Friday following reports of the talks.

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    The developments stem from a recent meeting on Thursday between Trump and Ergen, with the President also contacting Carr, who subsequently joined the meeting at the White House, Bloomberg reported. Both EchoStar and the White House declined to comment on the matter, while the FCC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

    EchoStar has been engaged in a prolonged effort to protect its wireless spectrum licenses from possible revocation by the FCC. The licenses are crucial for the company’s 5G service deployment, and their fate is currently under scrutiny. According to Reuters, the FCC launched an investigation in May into EchoStar’s compliance with its obligations to roll out 5G service across the U.S. The agency raised concerns over EchoStar’s buildout extension and questioned its mobile-satellite service operations.

    Read more: Trump’s Regulatory Picks for SEC, Banking Oversight Advance in Senate

    The inquiry has created significant uncertainty for EchoStar’s business. The company warned that the FCC’s probe is “harming EchoStar’s ongoing deployment and threaten its viability as a wireless provider as well as endanger the video and broadband satellite services upon which millions of consumers rely,” per Reuters. EchoStar also expressed concerns about the FCC potentially reversing previously granted spectrum rights, investments for which amounted to billions of dollars.

    The stakes for EchoStar intensified last year when DirecTV canceled its deal to acquire EchoStar’s satellite television assets, including its competitor Dish TV, after a failed debt-exchange proposal. This added to the financial and operational pressures on the satellite company.

    EchoStar disclosed that it missed approximately $500 million in interest payments, attributing the missed payments to the ongoing uncertainty caused by the FCC’s investigation. The company’s efforts to maintain control over its spectrum licenses are critical to its future as a wireless and satellite service provider.

    Source: Reuters