EchoStar Shares Jump on Talks to Sell Spectrum to Verizon

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EchoStar Shares Jump on Talks to Sell Spectrum to Verizon.

stock :: 2025-09-30 :: source - bloomberg

By Kelcee Griffis

(Bloomberg) -- EchoStar Corp. shares jumped in premarket trading as the satellite-TV company engaged in talks to sell some of its wireless spectrum to Verizon Communications Inc.

The talks involve EchoStar’s AWS-3 licenses, valuable for carrying 5G wireless signals, said the people, who asked to not be identified because the discussions are private.

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EchoStar put a carrying value of $9.8 billion on the spectrum, according to a regulatory filing. The company sold licenses to AT&T Inc. and SpaceX for well over that metric, though that wouldn’t necessarily be the case with Verizon, one of the people said.

Charlie Ergen’s satellite-TV and telecom company began selling off rights to airwaves last month to fend off bankruptcy and resolve a Federal Communications Commission probe into whether EchoStar was moving fast enough to use the spectrum it had been granted. SpaceX agreed to buy wireless spectrum for about $17 billion, while AT&T struck a deal for about $23 billion in licenses.

EchoStar shares jumped about 7.3% in premarket trading on Tuesday. The stock had closed at $73.65 in New York on Monday.

Another portion of the AWS-3 band is set to be auctioned off by the federal government next year.

In an interview last month, EchoStar Chief Executive Officer Hamid Akhavan said the company would consider parting with additional wireless spectrum, including its AWS-3 licenses. That’s because the company no longer plans to build a comprehensive network to rival the largest industry players.

“We will find proper homes for those pieces of the spectrum in time,” Akhavan said.

After acquiring large swaths of wireless spectrum in an attempt to build a fourth major carrier in the US, EchoStar now plans to offer its Boost Mobile phone service using a hybrid model that will rely partly on AT&T’s network.