Dish Affiliates to Surrender $3.5 Billion in Airwaves Licenses Won at FCC Auction

Two affiliates of Dish have surrendered their claims on about $3.5 billion of spectrum licenses after they failed to secure small-business discounts. The entities, however, will retain about $9.8 billion of the licenses they won in an auction by the Federal Communications Commission.

They paid the FCC a $413 million penalty for defaulting on about 200 licenses. The default on the roughly 200 licenses resulted in a penalty of more than $500 million. Stepping away from the access to airwaves comes after the FCC concluded this summer that the $13.3 billion in winning bids by the two Dish-backed companies—Northstar Wireless and SNR Wireless—didn’t qualify for a 25% small-business discount because Dish effectively controlled the entities.