AT&T completes $23bn EchoStar spectrum acquisition

AT&T has closed its acquisition of certain wireless spectrum licenses from telecommunications company EchoStar for approximately US$23 billion.

The acquired spectrum is expected to cover virtually every market across the US, adding approximately 30 MHz of nationwide 3.45 GHz mid-band spectrum. This is in addition to approximately 20 MHz of low-band spectrum in AT&T’s portfolio, the company added.

First announced in August 2025, the acquisition is expected to boost AT&T’s 5G capacity nationwide, giving customers across the US a stronger and faster connection. It also hopes to boost its download speeds while delivering an AI-ready connected experience, engineering spectrum to enhance the uplink capabilities of its wireless network.

This news comes one week after AT&T published strong second-quarter results, which it said were driven by “consistent execution” of its investment-led strategy. Its revenue totalled $31.6 billion, up 2.3% from the same quarter last year and its adjusted operating income was reported as $7.5 billion.

Through this, AT&T was also able to demonstrate improved growth in consolidated service revenue and profitability. The telco giant was able to add more than one million Advanced Connectivity customers, driven by year-over-year increases in net adds across fibre, fixed wireless and postpaid phone subscribers, it said.

“The accelerated growth we delivered this quarter shows our structural advantages to lead the next era of connectivity,” said John Stankey, AT&T Chairman and CEO. “We are accelerating the pace of our planned share repurchases this year to approximately $10 billion, reflecting our confidence in our market position. With an industry-leading position in fibre – the best connectivity technology available – we believe our network performance and operating scale can’t be matched.”

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