EchoStar scored a contract extension from the Department of Defense (DoD) for the continued deployment and support of 5G standalone (SA) networks at a pair of military bases. Its Dish Network subsidiary also filed important spectrum license paperwork with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), with both moves coming at a critical time for the beleaguered telecommunications operator.

The DoD contract extension allows EchoStar to continue deployment work on a 5G SA network at the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam (JBPHH) in Hawaii and at the Naval Air Station Whidbey Island (NASWI) in Washington State. The former builds on an original agreement that started in 2021, while the latter started in 2022. Both contracts have been extended through 2025.

EchoStar’s Hughes Network Systems subsidiary is leading the deployment, which includes open radio access network (RAN) equipment, edge cloud and a packet processing core. They are using EchoStar’s spectrum assets; Cisco transport routers, switches and firewalls; JMA Wireless’ open RAN equipment; Intel’s edge cloud stack and Xeon processors; and site survey and network installation services from Boingo Wireless.

The JBPHH work was completed last March, with a focus on improving aircraft readiness with the use of real-time communication coordination across the flight line to reduce maintenance time and decrease preparation time between missions. The NASWI work also hit a deployment milestone last year, which included the use of protected status Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum and low-band spectrum from Dish Network.

Both deployments rely on zero-trust security standards, which Rajeev Gopal, VP of advanced systems at Hughes, told SDxCentral last year is tailored to deal with the specific DoD security needs around the use of different cloud models and workload hosting.

“This is very important for the DoD,” Gopal said. “Everyone knows that security has a cost, and the DoD has a process. It takes calendar time, it requires resources, so everyone wants to strike the right balance. Have enough security so that the basic objectives can be met with respect to confidentiality, integrity, privacy and availability, and at the same time we don’t end up gold plating the security because our objective is to provide secure connectivity, not provide security. Secure connectivity so that we have very high level of confidence in our security aspect.”

The DoD extension comes as Dish Network filed paperwork with the FCC certifying that its nationwide 5G network provides download speeds of at least 35 Mb/s to at least 70% of the U.S. population. Those metrics were required for Dish Network to meet government mandates on controlling some of its spectrum resources.

The FCC requires spectrum license owners to meet specific coverage build-out requirements based on a certain percentage of the U.S. population that those licenses cover. These rules vary based on different spectrum bands but are in place to ensure that a license owner is putting those licenses to work for the common good and not just sitting on those licenses to sell at a later date.

Dish Network hit the coverage requirements last year, just ahead of a June 14, 2023, deadline. It has since completed the necessary drive testing with a third party to validate the downlink performance of that network.

The Dish Network license filing comes just weeks after the carrier indicated it would not be purchasing $3.6 billion worth of additional low-band spectrum from T-Mobile US and has indicated it might be willing to sell some of its unencumbered spectrum holdings. Both of those decisions are based on EchoStar’s fledgling economic position.

EchoStar, which took over control of Dish Network at the beginning of the year, noted in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing that it has been unable to secure the funding necessary to acquire 14 megahertz of nationwide spectrum in the 800 MHz band for $3.6 billion that T-Mobile was required to offer to Dish Network as part of T-Mobile gaining approval for its purchase of Sprint. Dish Network last October paid T-Mobile US a non-refundable $100 million payment to extend the decision deadline on the spectrum purchase to April 1, when it might have more solid fiscal footing.

“Throughout 2023, we were actively involved in negotiations with counterparties to obtain the financing necessary to exercise the 800 MHz purchase option,” EchoStar noted in its filing. “However, we have been unsuccessful in our attempts to reach terms for a definitive financing agreement. Due to the relatively short time remaining before the 800 MHz purchase option’s expiration on April 1, 2024, we no longer believe it is probable that we will exercise the option. Therefore, we reduced the probability weighted value of the spectrum option to zero.”

Dish Network continues to control a vast cache of spectrum assets, including a combination of AWS-4 (2 GHz), Lower 700 MHz E-Block and AWS H-Block (1.9 GHz) spectrum licenses that’s powering its cloud-native 5G network and spectrum ranging from 1.9 GHz up to 47 GHz that it transferred to a recently formed subsidiary.

EchoStar CEO Hamid Akhavan told investors during the company’s recent earnings call that selling some of those licenses could allow the company to meet upcoming financial obligations.

“That's a market that’s generally understood by investors,” Akhavan said. “I think there's always interest in that market because the commodities in that market are well known. We're not going to comment on the specifics of how we're going to do that, but with spectrum assets it's one way to get there.”