Commitments and Contingencies (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2021

Commitments and Contingencies

Schedule of future maturities of long-term debt, finance lease and contractual obligations

As of December 31, 2021, future maturities of our long-term debt, finance lease and contractual obligations are summarized as follows:

	Payments due by period
	Total		2022		2023		2024		2025		2026		Thereafter
	(In thousands)
Long-term debt obligations	$	21,387,069	$	2,028,344	$	1,536,155	$	3,035,746	$	2,016,587	$	7,753,954	$	5,016,283
Interest expense on long-term debt		4,772,394		1,041,764		880,154		827,875		696,859		696,026		629,716
Finance lease obligations (1)		99,658		34,772		35,562		29,324		—		—		—
Interest expense on finance lease obligations (1)		15,227		8,377		5,467		1,383		—		—		—
Other long-term obligations (2)		12,684,944		2,667,910		1,047,258		1,141,111		1,226,826		1,226,968		5,374,871
Operating lease obligations (1)		2,269,223		101,935		114,271		126,116		140,519		156,264		1,630,118
Purchase obligations		1,983,985		1,939,272		25,202		10,031		5,169		4,311		—
Total	$	43,212,500	$	7,822,374	$	3,644,069	$	5,171,586	$	4,085,960	$	9,837,523	$	12,650,988

(1) See Note 10 for further information on leases and the adoption of ASC 842.

(2) Represents minimum contractual commitments related to communication tower obligations, certain 5G Network Deployment commitments, obligations under the NSA with AT&T, and satellite related and other obligations.

Summary of Wireless Spectrum Licenses

	Carrying		Build-Out Deadlines		Expiration
	Amount		Interim	Final	Date
	(In thousands)
Owned:
DBS Licenses (1)	$	677,409
700 MHz Licenses		711,871	June 14, 2022 (2)	June 14, 2023 (3)	June 2023
AWS-4 Licenses		1,940,000	June 14, 2022 (2)	June 14, 2023 (3)	June 2023
H Block Licenses		1,671,506	June 14, 2022 (2)	June 14, 2023 (4)	June 2023
600 MHz Licenses		6,211,154		June 14, 2025 (5)	June 2029
MVDDS Licenses (1)		24,000			August 2024
LMDS Licenses (1)		—			September 2028
28 GHz Licenses		2,883		October 2, 2029 (6)	October 2029
24 GHz Licenses		11,772		December 11, 2029 (6)	December 2029
37 GHz, 39 GHz and 47 GHz Licenses		202,533		June 4, 2030 (6)	June 2030
3550-3650 MHz Licenses		912,939		March 12, 2031 (6)	March 2031
3.7-3.98 GHz Licenses		2,580	July 23, 2029 (6)	July 23, 2033 (6)	July 2036
Subtotal		12,368,647
Non-controlling Investments:
Northstar		5,618,930		October 2025 (7)	October 2025 (7)
SNR		4,271,459		October 2025 (7)	October 2025 (7)
Total AWS-3 Licenses		9,890,389
Capitalized Interest (8)		6,373,629
Total as of December 31, 2021	$	28,632,665
Post December 31, 2021 Wireless Spectrum Purchases (9)
3.45–3.55 GHz Licenses		7,327,989
Total	$	35,960,654

(1) The build-out deadlines for these licenses have been met.

(2) For these licenses, we must offer 5G broadband service to at least 20% of the United States population and have developed a core network by this date.

(3) For these licenses, we must offer 5G broadband service to 70% of the United States population by this date; provided, however, if by June 14, 2023, we are offering 5G broadband service with respect to these licenses to at least 50% of the population of the United States, the final deadline shall be further extended automatically to June 14, 2025, for us to construct and offer 5G broadband service to at least 70% of the population in each Economic Area (which is a service area established by the FCC) with respect to these licenses.

(4) For these licenses, we must offer 5G broadband service to at least 70% of the United States population by this date; provided, however, that if by June 14, 2023, we are offering 5G broadband service with respect to these licenses to at least 50% of the population of the United States, the final deadline shall be further extended automatically to June 14, 2025, for us to construct and offer 5G broadband service to at least 75% of the population in each Economic Area with respect to these licenses.

(5) For these licenses, we must offer 5G broadband service to at least 75% of the population in each Partial Economic Area (which are service areas established by the FCC) by this date.

(6) There are a variety of build-out options and associated build-out metrics associated with these licenses.

(7) For these licenses, Northstar Wireless and SNR Wireless must provide reliable signal coverage and offer service to at least 75% of the population of each license area by this date. The AWS-3 interim build-out requirement was not met and as a result, the AWS-3 expiration date and the AWS-3 final build-out requirement will be accelerated by two years (from October 2027 to October 2025) for each AWS-3 License area in which Northstar Wireless and SNR Wireless do not meet the requirement.

(8) See Note 2 for further information.

(9) On January 14, 2022, the FCC announced that Weminuche, a wholly-owned subsidiary of DISH Network, was the winning bidder of 1,232 Flexible-Use Service Licenses in the 3.45–3.55 GHz band, with Weminuche’s aggregate winning bids totaling approximately $7.328 billion. During the third quarter of 2021, we paid $123 million to the FCC as a deposit for Auction 110, which is included in “Other current assets” on our Consolidated Balance Sheets as of December 31, 2021. In January and February 2022, we paid the remaining balance of our winning bids of approximately $7.205 billion. The FCC has not yet issued the licenses to Weminuche. The 3.45-3.55 GHz band licenses of $7.328 billion are not included in “FCC authorizations” on our Consolidated Balance Sheets as of December 31, 2021.