Tower Companies Own Thousands of Abandoned Dish Radios
Analysts have speculated SpaceX might be interested in buying the gear
WASHINGTON, Oct. 27, 2026 – Dish Wireless has abandoned its wireless network as part of its bankruptcy, leaving thousands of radios in the hands of tower companies and landlords.
On American Tower’s earnings call Tuesday, CEO Steve Vondran was asked by an analyst who owned the radios, and whether they might be of interest to a potential buyer.
Vondran said the gear was officially abandoned under a bankruptcy court order. That order came down in July, but largely flew under the radar.
“We own that equipment as of the date of that order. As to the interest that other people may have in that equipment, I will let them speak as to what they want to do with that,” Vondran said. “But we do own it, and we can provide access to that to all interested parties.”
He later added, “We can do whatever we want with it.”
On the call, Raymond James analyst Ric Prentiss estimated Dish had about 24,000 radios nationwide. Vondran declined to say how many of those were on American Tower towers, but said the company was “a significant player” in Dish’s build.
The tower companies now holding Dish’s gear was “good news for SpaceX, which we have long argued should buy this gear,” LightShed partners analyst Walter Piecyk wrote in an investor note Tuesday. “SpaceX can now negotiate directly with the tower companies without waiting for bankruptcy mediation to conclude. More importantly, it takes Ergen, a notoriously tough negotiator, out of the mix.”
Charlie Ergen controls EchoStar, Dish’s parent company. Under the original bankruptcy plan, EchoStar was going to be the starting bidder in an auction for Dish’s radios.
There had already been speculation that SpaceX would be interested in scooping up Dish’s radios on the cheap. SpaceX is buying $19.6 billion of spectrum from EchoStar for its direct-to-device service, and the Dish radios support those airwaves.
Prentiss said on the call that additional spectrum SpaceX is buying from Grain Management is likely also supported by the gear.
SpaceX has more recently said that deploying radios on towers would be part of its mobile service ambitions, and Bloomberg reported the company was seeking 80,000 leases nationwide.
TMF Associates founder Tim Farrar said on X last week that the starting point for those negotiations would likely be “the acquisition of Ergen's existing network, with those leases wrapped into the discussions with the tower companies.”
“You can assume that anybody who wants to play in the wireless space is exploring all their available options, including building, buying, or renting a network, and that we are talking to all those parties,” Vondran said. “Anybody who has wireless ambitions is probably somebody that we are talking to.”
Crown Castle executives said something similar on their earnings call last week, before the Bloomberg report.
MoffettNathanson analyst Nick Del Deo said in an investor note Tuesday that it wasn’t clear why SpaceX would need 80,000 sites. He said the count could include small cells or be a long-term goal or simply be an exaggeration to scare one of the carriers into a wholesale deal, which would be much cheaper than building out a full network.
“Still, SpaceX buying spectrum and looking at sites increases the odds that this is a real opportunity for towercos,” he wrote. “It would serve to boost what was otherwise a soft US & Canada leasing result from American Tower, which is emblematic of why the market was unenthusiastic about the tower industry’s growth prospects until recently.”
The three biggest U.S. tower companies, including American Tower, are pursuing billions in what they say are improperly unpaid lease payments from Dish as part of its bankruptcy. Dish maintains it doesn’t owe anything.
The parties have paused the bankruptcy case until Nov. 4 to allow time for an attempt at mediation.
