Research Center Further Questions EchoStar's 5G Buildout
Mapping EchoStar's supposed coverage in the San Francisco area raises more questions about whether the company reached roughly 80% of the U.S. population as of the end of 2024, as it claimed, said Kristian Stout, innovation policy director for the International Center for Law & Economics. In a docket 22-212 filing posted Friday, Stout said it appeared that EchoStar attested that it covers adjacent markets using spectrum for which it doesn't hold a license.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
Similar things seem to be happening in Tennessee and Florida, he added. In each case, "EchoStar appears to be claiming coverage that does not exist -- or at least is very difficult to understand given their submitted data." He said the FCC should request license-specific coverage maps showing the uplink and downlink coverage provided by the actual license for which it's filing. In addition, EchoStar should provide population information for each license, he said.
Stout previously questioned whether EchoStar is meeting its 5G network buildout commitments (see 2506090002). In the docket Friday, SpaceX challenged EchoStar arguments that it's meeting those buildout requirements and that it's robustly using the 2 GHz band. Claims that SpaceX having access to the 2 GHz band would cause interference to EchoStar's 2 GHz operations ignore the fact that EchoStar has offered only "vague promises" to deploy 2 GHz operations, SpaceX said. That makes EchoStar's interference analysis "an academic thought exercise." SpaceX also said EchoStar's arguments that it relied on extended deadlines for its 5G buildout, and thus they can't be revisited, would mean the FCC effectively forswears its authority to reconsider its decisions.