Elon Musk’s Starlink and T-Mobile have separately expressed interest in acquiring some or all of the spectrum controlled by struggling DISH Network-parent EchoStar, according to people familiar with the matter.
At stake is one of the largest pots of underused airwaves, which are owned by the public but licensed to telecom companies. EchoStar’s chairman, Charlie Ergen, has hoarded his spectrum holdings with the unfulfilled ambition to build a national network, but has come under pressure from Federal Communications Commission chief Brendan Carr, among others, to find a buyer to put that bandwidth to work.
T-Mobile initially expressed interest in nearly all of EchoStar’s licenses to use the taxpayer-owned frequencies and is still in talks about some of the pieces AT&T didn’t buy, according to the people.
T-Mobile at one point was in talks for a three-way deal that would have seen it and AT&T split most of EchoStar’s spectrum, the people said. Under that deal, the two wireless giants, which are building out their networks on different wavelengths, would have swapped some of their own spectrum holdings.
Musk’s bid is for a part of EchoStar’s spectrum that AT&T has been valued at roughly $30 billion by some analysts. It wasn’t clear whether those negotiations are ongoing.
Starlink has become a global household name by building out a network of low-earth orbit satellites, launched by its parent company, SpaceX, that provide internet service. But it also wants its own network to provide cell coverage, something that would disrupt the stranglehold that AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile have on the US market. Those efforts were opposed by both Ergen’s Dish Network and Globalstar, another satellite phone network.
Carr, whose agency manages spectrum licenses, has pushed Ergen to sell airwaves that have sat unused. Spokespeople for AT&T and T-Mobile spokesperson declined to comment. Representatives for Starlink and EchoStar didn’t return requests for comment.
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