EchoStar executives last week told the Federal Communications Commission that it previously had no plans to sell its spectrum, and said that "severe uncertainty" had forced it to do so.

As reported by Light Reading, EchoStar noted in an ex parte filing to the FCC that the uncertainty was brought on by the FCC's investigation into EchoStar's usage of spectrum that led to the separate sales to AT&T and SpaceX.

The $23 billion spectrum sale to AT&T effectively means that EchoStar's Dish Wireless has abandoned its plans to become the country's fourth mobile carrier.

EchoStar swiftly followed that sale with an agreement to sell its AWS-4 (Advanced Wireless Spectrum) and H-block spectrum licenses to SpaceX for $17bn.

In the filing, which summarizes a recent meeting between EchoStar chairman and CEO Charlie Ergen and FCC chairman Brendan Carr, EchoStar reiterated that it had little choice but to sell up.

"Due to severe uncertainty as to whether EchoStar could recoup its multibillion-dollar investments following potential commission investigations and forfeitures, EchoStar had to abandon its plans to grow its facilities-based MNO operations," said EchoStar.

"To comply with the commission’s demands, EchoStar has now entered into spectrum sales with Space Exploration Technologies Corp and with AT&T Inc. EchoStar explained how both transactions serve the public interest as set forth in the parties’ applications and urged the expeditious approval of both transactions. As explained in the meeting, the transactions will make EchoStar more competitive by enabling it to still offer service through Boost Mobile’s cloud-native hybrid mobile network operator infrastructure without any disruption to its existing service."

Carr and the FCC had publicly called out EchoStar for hoarding spectrum several times.

In May, Carr had ordered an investigation into EchoStar after claiming that the company had failed to fulfil its 5G rollout as initially planned, while noting that EchoStar repeatedly negotiated with the previous Biden Administration to extend dates for buildout obligations.

Discussing the SpaceX spectrum sale, EchoStar noted that the sale will "empower EchoStar to introduce its own D2C service to complement its wireless offerings, making the Boost Mobile service more compelling."

EchoStar's filing comes weeks after the company was served with lawsuits from tower giants American Tower and Crown Castle.

Both tower companies have accused EchoStar of trying to get out of its long-term contract. EchoStar argues that it was forced to sell its spectrum assets, citing force majeure, for the company's decision to exit the leasing agreements.