EchoStar vendors press for conditions on spectrum deals

EchoStar provided a lot of drama in 2025, and it looks to be on a similar course as we kick off 2026. On one side are billionaires Elon Musk (still the world’s richest man) and Charlie Ergen (founder and now president and CEO of EchoStar), who want the government to approve the sale of EchoStar’s spectrum licenses to SpaceX. On the other side are wireless industry vendors of all shapes and sizes that want EchoStar and its subsidiary Dish Wireless to pay their bills, i.e., what they owe to these vendors for helping build a 5G wireless network that appears destined for decommissioning. In between are all kinds of stakeholders with skin in the game to some extent or another.