Astound Broadband has become the latest telecoms company to take legal action against Dish over payment cancellations.

The company filed a lawsuit against Dish last month, seeking $1.7 million in contract cancellation fees. Astound had been providing Dish with fiber transport services since 2022.

The lawsuit comes after Dish's parent company, EchoStar, agreed to sell significant spectrum assets to AT&T and SpaceX and pivot towards being an MVNO.

EchoStar maintains it has been pressured to sell these spectrum assets, worth $40 billion, citing 'force majeure' on its existing infrastructure agreements with tower companies and fiber providers.

The company said that it was excused from honoring these obligations because it was pressured into selling the spectrum by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

This has led to some notable high-profile disputes with tower giants American Tower, Crown Castle, and SBA Communications.

The impact of EchoStar's ongoing payment disputes was outlined in a report commissioned by the Wireless Infrastructure Association (WIA) last month, suggesting they could cost the tower industry an estimated $9bn.

Stonepeak-backed Astound, which recently announced plans to merge its fiber business with Google's fiber unit GFiber, is the latest company to pursue legal action against Dish, as reported by Broadband Breakfast.

In the company's filing, Astound has disputed EchoStar's claims of "force majeure," noting that it filed against the company because of "Dish's brazen refusal to honor its clear and undisputed payment obligations under a Master Service Agreement for Transport Services that it entered into with Astound on October 25, 2022."

Astound makes reference to "force majeure" more than 80 times in the filing.

"The MSA defines “force majeure event” to mean an act of god, an act of a public enemy, an act of war or terrorism, a natural disaster, an epidemic, pandemic or quarantine, or an act of sabotage. EchoStar’s decision to sell spectrum licenses to AT&T and SpaceX at a profit of multiple billions of dollars is none of these things," said Astound.

"It is a discretionary business decision made by Dish’s parent, entirely within the control of Dish and its affiliates, and one from which EchoStar expects to realize billions of dollars in gain."

Astound adds that Dish has terminated all 84 services as part of the 2022 MSA agreement, while it claims that Dish refuses to pay the resulting termination charges.

EchoStar CEO Charlie Ergen noted earlier this year that the company had privately settled “hundreds of contracts” with other companies, including with a “large tower company,” but didn't specify which company.