EchoStar still on the hook at FCC

The dark cloud of uncertainty hanging over EchoStar doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr said his agency continues to take a close look at whether EchoStar, via its Dish business, complied with the FCC’s 5G network buildout obligations. “Dish obviously says that they did,” he said during a press conference after the FCC’s July open meeting. “Concerns have been raised. We’ve been working through the data on that. That work continues.” Separately, the FCC opened a proceeding looking at whether EchoStar is using the 2 GHz band for mobile satellite services consistent with the terms for which it was authorized years ago by the FCC. That’s also ongoing. Chairman Carr said he’s open-minded about paths forward, but he reiterated that “the status quo is just not acceptable. We’re pushing hard to free up spectrum, and you have Dish effectively over the years sitting on a tremendous amount of spectrum that simply isn’t loaded.”