Echostar

EchoStar’s $2 billion purchase of Hughes is expected to close in the coming weeks following approval of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. Dish’s purchase of DBSD/ICO also awaits FCC authorization.

DBSD and TerreStar have both been “spectrum plays,” meaning companies whose satellite investments were viewed by Wall Street mainly as necessary regulatory detours on the way to the rollout of a terrestrial wireless network in the United States.

It is a strategy being followed by LightSquared of Reston, Va., and its owner, hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners of New York. But LightSquared, which has a large L-band satellite in orbit, has had difficulty securing the necessary partners to construct the multibillion-dollar network of ground stations needed to offer a mobile broadband service.

LightSquared is being slowed by a debate over whether its ground stations will cause unacceptable interference with GPS positioning, navigation and timing satellite signals. A technical working group is examining the issue and is expected to deliver its assessment June 15.

“We’re watching closely what LightSquared does,” Ergen said during the Dish Network conference call. “I think our spectrum fits nicely with them in terms of how they go about doing it.”

But Ergen stressed that lots of spectrum-focused investments, including Ergen’s purchase of a piece of the so-called 700 megahertz spectrum at auction in 2008, have not immediately led to system build-outs.

Some investments in the area appear to have gone sour, he said. “So we have to be careful about knowing exactly what we’re doing, making sure there is what we believe to be a good return on investment. … To build it out in the wireless space, if that was the decision — I think you would see us work with people who are more expert in the business than we are.”

Ergen is accustomed to doing what he wants with his companies and not spending lots of time explaining his moves to investors. He compared his recent purchases to an episode of the U.S. television comedy “Seinfeld,” in which a series of ostensibly unrelated events occurs for 28 minutes before they are tied together in the show’s final two minutes.

“In terms of what we’re doing strategically, you’ll just have to wait and see,” Ergen said, referring to his recent spate of investments. “It’s a little hard to explain it this early in the show, so to speak. And for you skeptics out there: Of course, ‘Seinfeld’ was a show about nothing. So it could be a strategy about nothing, if you’re skeptical. But … we feel it ultimately fits together.”

Ergen also said that wireless carrier Sprint Nextel’s demand for $100 million in compensation from DBSD/ICO in return for Sprint’s vacating the DBSD spectrum will likely be settled for a much lower amount. “They’re claiming $100 million. We think it’s materially less than that,” he said.

Echostar

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