EchoStar’s $23 Billion Spectrum Sale Clears Path for Direct-to-Device Constellation

Michael Calabrese, director of New America’s Wireless Future, is quoted in a SpaceNews article about how EchoStar’s proposed direct-to-device satellite network plans to sell $23 billion of spectrum to AT&T.

Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Project at New America’s Open Technology Institute, a nonpartisan technology policy think tank, warned EchoStar’s exit as a facilities-based competitor would further tilt the balance of power toward the dominant national operators.

“As the head of DOJ’s Antitrust Division warned last month, the consolidation of mobile market share and spectrum ownership among the Big 3 mobile carriers will further diminish effective competition,” Calabrese said.

Still, he noted that decommissioning EchoStar’s terrestrial network would free up spectrum resources the company could use for D2D or sell to another mobile carrier, which could then partner with a satellite operator to enable more robust space-based services nationwide.