EchoStar Corp. has secured significant agreements to sell cellular airwaves to AT&T Inc. and SpaceX.
Analysts believe that even though satellite and wireless operator EchoStar Corp. recently secured multibillion-dollar agreements to sell cellular spectrum to SpaceX and AT&T Inc., it still has a lot of other attractive assets to sell.
Gregory Williams, an analyst at TD Cowen, noted earlier this week that “EchoStar still owns the highly lucrative 700 and AWS-3 spectrum, in which we note that all three wireless carriers have a robust ecosystem.”
According to Williams, that spectrum might fetch a price of almost $12 billion. EchoStar also holds CBRS spectrum, although he values it at a significantly lower $1.2 billion.
Elon Musk’s private space company SpaceX will purchase AWS-4 and H-block spectrum licenses from EchoStar (SATS) for $17 billion, the company said earlier this week. That followed a deal to sell AT&T (T) the spectrum licenses for 3.45 GHz and 600 MHz for about $23 billion.
According to a statement from EchoStar, the actions settle a disagreement with the Federal Communications Commission regarding its wireless spectrum. The government said in May that it was reviewing the wireless and spectrum licenses of the company based in Englewood, Colorado.
Wednesday saw a 4.4% decline in the stock, reversing the previous session’s record closing of $83.57. The stock has risen an incredible 248.8% in 2025 and is currently up 18.8% for the week. In contrast, the S&P 500 index SPX has increased 11.1% this year, while the Communications Services Select Sector SPDR ETF XLC has increased 18.4%.
In a report published Tuesday, Oppenheimer analyst Timothy Horan stated that “SATS retains about 40MHz of spectrum,” which is probably worth about $10 billion.
Williams of TD Cowen stated on Monday, “Whether EchoStar sells more [spectrum] in short order remains to be seen,” stating that it might keep its portfolio longer now that the FCC conflict has been settled. “EchoStar is not a forced seller, now has an excellent balance sheet and liquidity, and may desire to hold onto the spectrum as long as possible for higher sale valuations at a later date,” he stated.
Williams increased his price objective for EchoStar’s stock from $67 to $100, which indicates a 25.2% increase from the closing price on Wednesday.
Sebastiano C. Petti, an analyst at J.P. Morgan, stated in a note published on Wednesday that “we expect EchoStar to monetize its remaining spectrum portfolio,” which includes 700 MHz, CBRS, and AWS-3. “However, we believe interested parties (wireless incumbents) are likely to wait for the FCC to conduct the re-auction of EchoStar’s returned AWS-3 spectrum (likely in 1H26) before deciding whether to potentially acquire EchoStar’s holdings in this band.”
Hans Erik Vestberg, the CEO of Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ), was questioned this week at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia +Technology Conference over EchoStar’s SpaceX deal: He stated that “[Wireless] spectrum, is, of course, an interesting piece of business,” as per a transcript from FactSet.
He noted that Verizon is collaborating with all of the low-Earth-orbit and geosynchronous-orbit satellite providers to offer both direct-to-device and backhaul service, which is to distant areas.
Orbits that are 1,200 miles or fewer in altitude are referred to as low Earth orbits. At a height of 22,236 miles, satellites in a geosynchronous orbit mirror the rotation of the Earth.
