EchoStar’s operational overhaul continues to gain momentum, with the quasi-communication service provider selling off more of its valuable spectrum assets and a restructuring of its business units that will see founder Charlie Ergen return to an active leadership role.

EchoStar added its tranche of unpaired “AWS-3” spectrum licenses to a larger agreement it struck earlier this year with SpaceX. The new licenses include 15 megahertz of spectrum in the 1695 MHz-1710 MHz band that is being sold for an approximately $2.6 billion valuation.

The deal will see those licenses combined with AWS-4 and H-Block licenses SpaceX had agreed to purchase in September. That initial deal included SpaceX paying $8.5 billion in cash and a like amount in stock to EchoStar, with the new deal adding $2.6 billion in new SpaceX stock to the overall value.

Ergen noted during EchoStar’s third-quarter earnings call that the deal should bolster SpaceX’s “flexibility in combining uplink and downlink, and it gives them a lot of flexibility for where spectrum might come in the future.”

Unpaired spectrum are licenses that have an asymmetrical split between uplink and downlink channels, while paired spectrum licenses have a symmetrical split.

The latest SpaceX deal continues what has been a spectrum fire sale and operational revamp for EchoStar.

The most lucrative sale with a $23 billion deal with AT&T to sell 30-megahertz of nationwide 3.45 GHz mid-band spectrum and approximately 20-megahertz of nationwide 600 MHz low-band spectrum in an all-cash transaction. That lucrativeness was highlighted by AT&T CEO John Stankey, who admitted that price was high but was basically the price of doing business.

“I'm well aware that what we're paying is more than what Dish paid for spectrum at auction, but that's not a new and startling fact,” Stankey said during a conference call following the deal’s unveiling. “There's speculators who go in and buy spectrum all the time and hold it for a number of years and then ultimately come back in and sell it for more than what they bought it for, and that's the nature of auctions and what occurs.”

Network plans remain nebulous

As part of that AT&T deal, EchoStar also signed a deal to transition its Boost Mobile efforts toward a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) model running on AT&T’s spectrally reinforced network. That deal currently calls for EchoStar to continue running Boost Mobile’s cloud native-based 5G core running through AT&T’s physical infrastructure.

Ergen, who has been reinstated to serve as president and CEO of EchoStar, did note that the company was continuing to discuss its Boost Network decommissioning plans with regulators. However, it did take a nearly $16.5 billion charge during the quarter against that action.

EchoStar does continue to control spectrum licenses in the 700 MHz band as well as some paired spectrum licenses in the AWS-3 band, which it’s also looking to monetize.

Verizon has been rumored to have active interest in the paired AWS-3 spectrum, but the carrier has since changed leadership with a new emphasis on fiber and AI. Ergen is also hedging the paired AWS-3 pricing to the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) plans to auction similar spectrum licenses.

“As you look at the AWS-3 auction coming up, there potentially are ways to make that the most efficient options … and we're in the process of those discussions with the FCC, and … obviously others will have input into that as well, but we at least have a sounding board to say ‘how can we share your vision … to get this spectrum in use as quickly as possible and in the hands of people that will compete with it,’” Ergen said of that process.

EchoStar now a capital company

Some of EchoStar’s new financial haul will be used to fund the newly created EchoStar Capital division, which will be led by Hamid Akhavan, who had been CEO of the overarching EchoStar prior to now taking on that title for EchoStar Capital. Akhavan explained that the new division will be tasked with managing the financial return on EchoStar’s recent fiscal windfall.

“Once these transactions close, we will have the capital runway necessary to continue to expand our existing operations as well as the freedom to pursue new opportunities,” Akhavan said during his prepared remarks. “This focus on new growth avenues significantly broadens the aperture of our business going forward in light of this increasing scope of responsibilities for the company.”

Akhavan did note that the actual EchoStar Capital roadmap “is not 100% laid out at the moment.”

“Depending on how we see the market and opportunities can come to us, we'll try to take advantage of every opportunity in the best way,” Akhavan said. “That's our plan at the moment. Obviously, we'll be more specific about how and where we deploy that capital, or any sort of distribution that could be decided in the future. But to start, we need to get all of that in place. The money is not here yet, so we have time to organize ourselves around how we would maximize the use of that capital.”