Late in 2024 and throughout 2025, Dish stopped construction on new cell sites. This was done to help Dish and its parent company EchoStar conserve cash, but it left many towers half-finished. For example, on some towers, Dish was able to install mounting brackets, and the huge 5G antennas. However, Dish did not connect them to backhaul power or fiber. This left tower companies like American Tower and Crown Castle with a financial problem.
Dish is not paying rent on some of the cell towers it signed a long-term lease on
The problem here is that if Dish continues not to pay the infrastructure vendors, rents for these towers could rise 5.7%–10.7%. This could force carriers and ultimately consumers to pay more for wireless service. Brattle’s study was paid for by the Wireless Infrastructure Association (WIA). Both figure that the tower companies are owed $7 billion to $10 billion for the services they provided to EchoStar.
“While this is an issue of unjust enrichment that directly harms individual companies, the bigger issue is the harm done to the entire wireless infrastructure ecosystem, a system that thrives on the predictability of stable, long-term contracts. The result of what Dish is doing here is to harm that ecosystem.”
WIA President and CEO Patrick Halley
FCC needs to approve EchoStar’s spectrum sales
Photo of a man working on a cell tower. | Image by Midjourney for Fierce Wireless
In this case, EchoStar said that the FCC’s investigation into its spectrum holdings and the dismantling of its standalone 5G network allowed it to call force majeure on its long term contracts. This is a highly disputed and complex matter. The WIA says that the FCC should hold off on approving EchoStar’s spectrum sales unless the company is forced to set up an escrow that will set aside enough money for the company to meet its obligations with the tower companies. The escrows would be funded by the spectrum sales.
“We’d like to make sure that Dish is not able to use the FCC spectrum assignment process to enrich itself while leaving the entire industry that built its network holding the bag.
-WIA President and CEO Patrick Halley
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