EchoStar stock skyrockets 75% on AT&T deal to buy wireless spectrum for $23 billion

In this articleTSATS your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNTwatch now5:5005:50AT&T CEO John Stankey: EchoStar spectrum deal will accelerate growth & dramatically imve serviceSquawk BoxEchoStar stock roared more than 75% higher on Tuesday after AT&T said it agreed to purchase certain wireless spectrum licenses from the telecom company for $23 billion in an all-cash deal.The sale will add 50 megahertz of mid-band and low-band spectrum to AT&T's network, with the licenses covering more than 400 across the U.S., AT&T said

The deal is expected to close in mid-2026, pending regulatory apval.EchoStar said in a regulatory filing that the transaction is part of the company's " efforts to resolve the Federal Communications Commission's inquiries."Read more CNBC newsNvidia faces Wall Street's high expectations two years into AI boomHow the U.S. space industry became dependent on SpaceXMeta to unveil Hypernova smart glasses with a display, wristband at Connect next monthU.S. government takes 10% stake in Intel, as Trump expands control over private sectorFCC Chairman Brendan Carr wrote in a May letter addressed to EchoStar cofounder and Chairman Charlie Ergen that the agency's staff would investigate the company's compliance with federal requirements to build a 5G network.The letter ed complaints from Elon Musk's SpaceX that EchoStar had left "valuable mid-band spectrum chronically underused," and the FCC should take steps to let "new satellite entrants" put it to use.SpaceX owns Starlink, which vides internet service through a constellation of low Earth orbit satellites.As part of Tuesday's announcement, AT&T and EchoStar also agreed to expand their network services agreement, enabling EchoStar to operate as a hybrid mobile network operator viding wireless service under the Boost Mobile brand."EchoStar and Boost Mobile have met all of the FCC's network buildout milestones," Ergen said in a statement. "However, this spectrum sale to AT&T and hybrid MNO agreement are critical steps toward resolving the FCC's spectrum utilization concerns."AT&T CEO John Stankey told CNBC that the deal is "a win all the way around.""It's a fantastic opportunity to see more services put together the way customers want to buy them together," Stankey said in an interview on "Squawk Box." "And as a result of that, I think ultimately regulators are going to look at this and say it's very, very attractive."AT&T s rose less than 1 percent.