Crown Castle’s DISH Dilemma
Crown Castle (NYSE: CCI) is sticking to its guns. The company insists that EchoStar (NASDAQ: SATS) subsidiary, DISH Wireless, must honor its commitment to lease space on as many as 20,000 Crown Castle towers. During the company’s 4Q25 earnings call on Wednesday, CEO Christian Hillabrant emphasized that Crown Castle will “continue to enforce our rights under the terms of our agreement with DISH.”
After DISH missed payments in January, Crown Castle terminated the agreement and is now seeking over $3.5 billion from DISH in unpaid fees. That raises two issues for Crown Castle. Hillabrant acknowledged that any court decisions could take a year or more. Furthermore, it’s still uncertain whether DISH will remove its equipment from Crown Castle towers as it is obligated to do at its expense, or whether Crown Castle will handle it, or if contractors will be hired.
Recall that DISH Wireless initiated its nationwide 5G deployment in 2022. In accordance with FCC regulations associated with the T-Mobile/Sprint merger, DISH was obligated to expand its network to cover increasing portions of the U.S. population by predetermined deadlines, as part of its objective to serve as the fourth facilities-based wireless provider.
These deadlines represented “use it or lose it” requirements. Non-compliance would have resulted in financial penalties or forfeiture of spectrum rights, Inside Towers reported. Consequently, DISH prioritized securing tower space in regions where it could meet mandated coverage targets within the allotted timeframes, partnering with public tower companies to facilitate these objectives.
In November 2020, DISH reached a long-term deal with Crown Castle to lease space on up to 20,000 communication towers across the U.S. This partnership also provided DISH with fiber transport services and access to Crown Castle’s pre-construction services. These leases helped DISH roll out the nation’s first open, standalone, virtualized 5G network.
Notably, Crown Castle was DISH’s first infrastructure partner. At the time the deal was announced, Dave Mayo, then DISH EVP of Network Development, said, “Crown Castle brings the experience and broad tower portfolio we need, from major markets to more rural areas, to help DISH bring to life the promise of our standalone, nationwide 5G network.”
That figure, “up to 20,000 towers,” was explicitly stated in the original Crown Castle-DISH announcement as the upper limit of sites covered by the deal. By 2024, DISH had physically deployed equipment on roughly 3,400 of those Crown Castle towers, Inside Towers reported. The company did not confirm the current tally.
Crown Castle claims it is supportive of DISH’s spectrum sales to AT&T and SpaceX. But DISH is arguing that the FCC forced the spectrum sales and thus the reason for discontinuing the leases, Inside Towers reported. That reasoning will be debated in court.
The main point is that DISH voluntarily agreed to hand over its radio access network to AT&T, forming what’s known as a “hybrid MNO” setup. While DISH will make use of AT&T’s cell sites, it keeps its 5G core, continuing to market and support Boost Mobile-branded services for its customers. Although not officially confirmed, this deal appears to take advantage of AT&T’s deployments in the 3.45 GHz mid-band spectrum. With DISH’s sale of its 3.45 GHz spectrum, AT&T ended up holding 80 percent of the 3.45 GHz spectrum licenses across the U.S., Inside Towers reported.
Despite the dispute, Crown Castle is moving forward with its strategy as a pure play, U.S.-only tower company. Its 2026 guidance removes DISH as a revenue contributor. Sunit Patel, EVP & CFO said that the company’s full-year 2026 organic growth is expected to be 3.5 percent at the midpoint if DISH revenues are excluded from prior year site rental billings. Moreover, Crown Castle plans to invest between $150 million to $250 million of annual net capital expenditures to build and modify towers, to purchase land under its towers, and to invest in technology to enhance and automate its systems and processes.
By John Celentano, Inside Towers Business Editor
