EchoStar gets more time from FCC to meet 5G coverage targets

The Federal Communications Commission has granted EchoStar’s request to extend some of the buildout requirements for its 5G network, as attached to licences held by some of the company’s units. Echostar said that while it has been able to deploy a new kind of network architecture, Open RAN and cloud-native, since 2019, unanticipated events, global and otherwise, had made the original goals more difficult to achieve.

Specifically, EchoStar requested the FCC extend the construction milestones associated with some of its AWS-4, lower 700 MHz E Block, 600 MHz, AWS-3, and AWS H Block licences. The company will have until 14 June 2025 to deploy 24,000 towers, 9,000 more towers than its 15,000 tower obligation for 2023. The company’s network will also have to be 3GPP Release 17 compliant by the same date.

The company said it has met every milestone imposed by the FCC’s 2020 Order for the company, including providing 5G broadband services to 20 percent of the US population by 14 June 2022, among other goals. It now has to deal with financing issues for the company, after moving to a loss during the second quarter. Also, its acquisition of Dish Network was harder to absorb than expected, with less synergies than hoped for.  

Market watchers noted that the FCC accelerated the approval, most likely pre-negotiated, in order to keep alive its vision of a country with four major providers.

Conditional approval

The waiver was granted with certain conditions. First, EchoStar’s Open RAN network must cover more than 80 percent of the US population by the end of 2024. This goal represents an additional 30 million people than the company’s 2023 obligation to cover 70 percent of the population. Secondly, the company has to accelerate and expand its final buildout milestone in more than 500 licence areas, also by the end of 2024. Thirdly, the company has to offer an affordable Boost Mobile 5G plan and device to everyone in the US, using its wholesale partnerships with AT&T and T-Mobile US to cover areas where it does yet have a presence.

The company said the extensions provide a construction timeline that more closely aligns with its 3.45 GHz spectrum licences, reducing the resources needed to fit out infrastructure twice at each mobile site or tower. Small wireless carriers and Tribal nations will also be able to lease EchoStar spectrum licenses in extension areas where the company has not yet deployed.

FCC extension meets wide approval

The Competitive Carriers Association (CCA), representing the wireless industry in the US, said it welcomed Echostar’s proposal to expand spectrum leasing opportunities to small and tribal competitive carriers in the US, adding that 600 MHz, 700 MHz, AWS and CBRS spectrum are potentially attractive to many rural competitive carriers seeking to expand and upgrade their services.

The CCA noted again the “significant problem” represented by the fact that the FCC still does not have its spectrum authority restored. “New opportunities (such as with Echostar) to facilitate leasing of such spectrum are a way to help bridge the gap,” the association said. 

Incompas, an industry group representing the smaller, alternative operators in the US, said the extension will benefit consumers by “preserving and enhancing a competitive mobile broadband offering.”