Organization and Business Activities

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2024

Organization and Business Activities

Organization and Business Activities

1. Organization and Business Activities

Principal Business

EchoStar Corporation is a holding company that was organized in October 2007 as a corporation under the laws of the State of Nevada. Its subsidiaries (which together with EchoStar Corporation are referred to as “EchoStar,” the “Company,” “we,” “us” and/or “our,” unless otherwise required by the context) operate four primary business segments.

Recent Developments

Merger with DISH Network

On December 31, 2023, we completed the acquisition of DISH Network pursuant to the Amended and Restated Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated as of October 2, 2023 (the “Amended Merger Agreement”), by and among us, EAV Corp., a Nevada corporation and our wholly owned subsidiary (“Merger Sub”), and DISH Network, pursuant to which we acquired DISH Network by means of the merger of Merger Sub with and into DISH Network (the “Merger”), with DISH Network surviving the Merger as our wholly owned subsidiary. For further information, refer to the Consolidated Financial Statements and notes thereto included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023.

With the Merger complete, we are currently focused on the process of integrating our and DISH Network’s business in a manner that facilitates synergies, cost savings, growth opportunities and achieves other anticipated benefits (the “Integration”).

Future Capital Requirements

The condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles on a going concern basis, which contemplates the realization of assets and the satisfaction of liabilities in the normal course of business.

Our cash and cash equivalents and marketable investment securities totaled $521 million as of June 30, 2024 (“Cash on Hand”). As reflected in the condensed consolidated financial statements as of June 30, 2024, we have $1.983 billion of debt maturing in November 2024, and we are forecasting negative cash flows for the remainder of the calendar year 2024.

Because we do not currently have committed financing to fund our operations for at least twelve months from the issuance of these condensed consolidated financial statements, substantial doubt exists about our ability to continue as a going concern. Based on our cash forecast, we do not currently have the necessary Cash on Hand and/or projected future cash flows to fund fourth quarter 2024 operations or the November 2024 debt maturity. Additionally, our cash forecast contains estimates and assumptions, and we cannot predict the timing of all cash receipts and expenditures with certainty. Variances in timing from our estimates and assumptions may adversely impact our liquidity prior to the fourth quarter. To address our capital needs, we are in active discussions with funding sources to raise additional capital. We cannot provide assurances that we will be successful in obtaining such new financing necessary for us to have sufficient liquidity. Further, if we are not successful in these endeavors, our ability to fund the expenditures necessary to meet some of our future FCC build-out requirements and wireless customer growth initiatives will be adversely affected.

The condensed consolidated financial statements do not include any adjustments to the amount and classification of assets and liabilities that may be necessary should we not continue as a going concern.

Segments

We currently operate four primary business segments: (1) Pay-TV; (2) Retail Wireless; (3) 5G Network Deployment; and (4) Broadband and Satellite Services.

Pay-TV

We offer pay-TV services under the DISH® brand and the SLING® brand (collectively “Pay-TV” services). The DISH branded pay-TV service consists of, among other things, Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) licenses authorizing us to use direct broadcast satellite (“DBS”) and Fixed Satellite Service (“FSS”) spectrum, our owned and leased satellites, receiver systems, broadcast operations, a leased fiber optic network, in-home service and call center operations and certain other assets utilized in our operations (“DISH TV”). We also design, develop and distribute receiver systems and provide digital broadcast operations, including satellite uplinking/downlinking, transmission and other services to third-party pay-TV providers. The SLING branded pay-TV services consist of, among other things, multichannel, live-linear and on-demand streaming over-the-top (“OTT”) Internet-based domestic, international, Latino and Freestream video programming services (“SLING TV”). As of June 30, 2024, we had 8.074 million Pay-TV subscribers in the United States, including 6.076 million DISH TV subscribers and 1.998 million SLING TV subscribers.

Retail Wireless

We offer nationwide prepaid and postpaid retail wireless services to subscribers primarily under our Boost Mobile® and Gen Mobile® brands (“Retail Wireless” services), as well as a competitive portfolio of wireless devices. Prepaid wireless subscribers generally pay in advance for monthly access to wireless talk, text and data services. Postpaid wireless subscribers are qualified to pay after receiving wireless talk, text and data services, and may also qualify for device financing arrangements.

We are currently operating our Retail Wireless segment primarily as a mobile virtual network operator (“MVNO”) as we continue our 5G Network Deployment and commercialize and grow customer traffic on our 5G Network, as defined below. We are transitioning our Retail Wireless segment to a mobile network operator (“MNO”) as our 5G Network has become commercially available and we grow customer traffic on our 5G Network. We are currently activating Boost Mobile subscribers with compatible devices onto our 5G Network in markets where we have reached voice over new radio (“VoNR”). We have deployed 5G VoNR covering over 200 million Americans. Within our MVNO operations, today we depend on T-Mobile and AT&T to provide us with network services under the amended Master Network Services Agreement (“MNSA”) and Network Services Agreement (the “NSA”), respectively. Under the NSA, we expect AT&T will become our primary network services provider. As of June 30, 2024, we had 7.281 million Wireless subscribers.

5G Network Deployment

We have invested a total of over $30 billion in Wireless spectrum licenses. The $30 billion of investments related to Wireless spectrum licenses does not include $9 billion of capitalized interest related to the carrying value of such licenses. See Note 2 and Note 10 for further information. We plan to commercialize our Wireless spectrum licenses through the completion of the nation’s first cloud-native, Open Radio Access Network (“O-RAN”) based 5G network (our “5G Network Deployment”). We have committed to deploy a facilities-based 5G broadband network (our “5G Network”) capable of serving increasingly larger portions of the U.S. population at different deadlines.

We will need to raise additional capital in the future, which may not be available on favorable terms, to fund the efforts described below, as well as, among other things, make any potential Northstar Re-Auction Payment and SNR Re-Auction Payment for the AWS-3 licenses retained by the FCC. There can be no assurance that we will be able to complete all build-out requirements or profitably deploy our Wireless spectrum licenses, which may affect the carrying amount of these assets and our future financial condition or results of operations. See Note 10 for further information.

Our Wireless spectrum licenses are subject to certain interim and final build-out requirements, as well as certain renewal requirements. On September 29, 2023, the FCC confirmed we have met all of our June 14, 2023 band-specific 5G deployment commitments, and two of our three nationwide 5G commitments. The single remaining 5G commitment, that at least 70% of the U.S. population has access to average download speeds equal to 35 Mbps, was achieved in March 2024 using the drive test methodology previously agreed upon by us and the FCC and overseen by an independent monitor. We now have the largest commercial deployment of 5G VoNR in the world covering over 200 million Americans and 5G broadband service covering over 250 million Americans. Our fully constructed facilities along with our construction in process will be sufficient to meet many of our build-out requirements over the next year, including our June 14, 2025 milestones. These facilities are for licenses comprising approximately 90% of the aggregate carrying value, including capitalized interest, for our 600 MHz, 700 MHz, H Block and AWS-4 licenses. However, for the remaining licenses that we have not yet constructed facilities sufficient to meet our June 14, 2025 final build-out requirements, we will need to raise additional capital to, among other things, continue our 5G Network Deployment. If we are unable to address our capital needs or encounter unanticipated construction delays, we may be unable to retain such spectrum licenses, which would result in an impairment of those licenses.

We may need to make significant additional investments or partner with others to, among other things, continue our 5G Network Deployment and further commercialize, build-out and integrate these licenses and related assets and any additional acquired licenses and related assets, as well as to comply with regulations applicable to such licenses. Depending on the nature and scope of such activities, any such investments or partnerships could vary significantly. In addition, as we continue our 5G Network Deployment, we have and may continue to incur significant additional expenses related to, among other things, research and development, wireless testing and ongoing upgrades to the wireless network infrastructure, software and third-party integration. As a result of these investments, among other factors, we plan to raise additional capital, which may not be available on favorable terms. We may also determine that additional wireless spectrum licenses may be required for our 5G Network Deployment and to compete effectively with other wireless service providers. See Note 10 for further information.

Broadband and Satellite Services

We offer broadband satellite technologies and broadband internet products and services to consumer customers. We provide broadband network technologies, managed services, equipment, hardware, satellite services and communications solutions to government and enterprise customers. We also design, provide and install gateway and terminal equipment to customers for other satellite systems. In addition, we design, develop, construct and provide telecommunication networks comprising satellite ground segment systems and terminals to mobile system operators and our enterprise customers. We also offer a robust suite of integrated, multi-transport solutions to enable airline and airline service providers to deliver reliable in-flight network connectivity serving both commercial and business aviation. As of June 30, 2024, we had 955,000 Broadband subscribers.

Our EchoStar XXIV satellite began service in December 2023, bringing additional broadband capacity across North and South America and is expected to be an integral part of our satellite service business. Revenue in our satellite services business depends largely on our ability to make continuous use of our available satellite capacity on behalf of existing customers and our ability to enter into commercial relationships with new customers.