INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Incompas, a communications industry trade group, said that revoking the deadline extension "would undermine regulatory certainty and
threaten to disrupt ongoing investments in advanced network infrastructure, including EchoStar's important work to integrate Open RAN and
satellite capabilities."EchoStar, SpaceX, and VTel Wireless each submitted one last filing on Friday
SpaceX urged the FCC "to ensure that valuable spectrum resources are not allowed to remain fallow but instead are made available to those
who would put them to productive use to provide advanced services to consumers across the United States."VTel Wireless, which was outbid by
Dish in auctions for spectrum licenses, said that "nothing prevented EchoStar from meeting its final buildout deadlines; it simply made the
business decision not to do so, at least until it faced the loss of its licenses
Under the circumstances, the Commission should investigate EchoStar's conduct in seeking an extension of its final buildout
deadlines."EchoStar said that a reversal "would unlawfully discriminate against EchoStar by treating it materially differently, and indeed
much worse, than similarly situated entities," and "would be a sharp and discriminatory departure from the thousands of license extensions
financial stability is threatened by the FCC proceeding, as the company last week announced it would skip debt-interest payments that were
EchoStar said it made the decision "in light of the uncertainty raised by the Federal Communications Commission review."There is a 30-day
grace period before a default
"EchoStar has elected not to make the Interest Payments to allow time for the FCC to provide the relief requested in our FCC filing prior to
the expiration of the 30-day grace period," the company said
payments in recent days, starting a countdown that would push the company into default before July if not cured within the bonds' grace
