EchoStar is in a bleak place right now

In an astonishing turn of events, a former Republican Federal Communications Commission commissioner slammed fellow Republican and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr for making a “dangerous mistake” in threatening to take away EchoStar’s spectrum licenses. “The FCC threatens such severe sanctions that they put EchoStar’s financial viability in question and threaten to kill the company,” newly ex-FCC commissioner Nathan Simington wrote in an opinion piece. “This places every holder of a spectrum license in a riskier position and will raise consumer prices by forcing every licensee, not just EchoStar, to charge higher risk premiums.” He’s right, and every license holder in the wireless industry should be concerned. But Simington’s curiously timed Op-Ed – less than a week after he left the FCC – is just the latest turn of events in what has been a catastrophic mess for EchoStar, the parent of Dish Network and Boost Mobile. EchoStar recently warned that the FCC’s investigations into its terrestrial and satellite businesses cast a “dark cloud of uncertainty” over its spectrum rights and its open RAN 5G network as it inches ever closer to possible bankruptcy.  The cloud seems to be getting darker by the day, even though EchoStar has met its 5G interim buildout deadlines.