The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved EchoStar's $40 billion in spectrum sales to SpaceX and AT&T.

The Dish-TV parent’s transactions were greenlit by the agency, with the vendor having previously claimed the sales were “forced” amid cash shortages and its abandoned mobile network operator plans.

SpaceX is purchasing 65 megahertz of spectrum from EchoStar to support its growing Starlink’s direct-to-device (D2D) offering, amid growing competition from Amazon, while AT&T will gain around 50 megahertz of its nationwide spectrum.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said the deals will free up spectrum for actual deployments.

“Today’s approvals, coupled with other secondary-market transactions and FCC auctions already in the pipeline, put America on the path to releasing approximately 300 megahertz of low- and mid-band spectrum by the end of 2027,” Carr said in a statement.

EchoStar had found itself the subject of an FCC probe over its 5G rollout, with the Carr-led agency keen to ensure spectrum sold is spectrum used through mandated buildout requirements.

The FCC investigation ended last September, though the firm still had to navigate cash flow issues. A finance plan struck in 2024 saw it ditch $7 billion in debt, with EchoStar steadily paying off some of its creditors.

Following the action, Carr confirmed the agency plans to undertake similar probes into spectrum holders “in the coming months.”

“We will be taking additional actions to ensure that companies who want to innovate in D2D have the regulatory framework and spectrum resources to match,” the FCC chairman said. “Our decisions also bring important closure that allows stakeholders to focus on the future.”

As part of its deal with EchoStar, AT&T is required to build greenfield 600 MHz network “years faster than what the company originally requested,” the FCC said.

AT&T CEO John Stankey stated last October that the carrier had already begun to deploy spectrum in the 3.45 GHz band it purchased as part of its $23 billion deal with EchoStar under a “short-term management lease,” and that the carrier expected to have parts of that spectrum deployed to “cell sites covering nearly two-thirds of the U.S. population by” late last year.

SpaceX, meanwhile, will have to use its spectrum “intensively and provide meaningful, reliable connectivity to the public, whether D2D, terrestrial, or both, within years.”

As for EchoStar, the terms of the transactions force it to create an escrow account of around $2.4 billion.