Telecom Intelligence: Week of May 26, 2025 EchoStar pulled the pin. On May 30 the company elected not to make a 326 million dollar interest payment on its spectrum-secured notes, explicitly blaming the uncertainty created by the FCC's review of its licenses and starting a 30-day grace period clock toward potential default, the opening move in the brinkmanship that would consume the summer. The skipped payment sent a chill through the wireless construction ecosystem, where contractors building EchoStar's 5G network read it as a signal to expect stopped work. Across the Atlantic, the week closed with genuine structural news: Vodafone and Three completed their merger on May 31, creating Britain's largest mobile operator and offering a preview of what regulators accept when markets consolidate from four carriers to three.