Tower companies now own Dish's abandoned 5G radios, and SpaceX is a possible buyer

Dish Wireless’ abandoned 5G radios and antennas now belong to the tower companies, American Tower CEO Steven Vondran said on the company’s Q3 earnings call on Tuesday, October 27. He said a bankruptcy court order declaring the equipment abandoned made it theirs as of the date of that order. ¹

That order came down in July and drew little attention at the time. ¹ Asked whether anyone disputes ownership, Vondran was blunt: “We can do whatever we want with it.” He added that American Tower can offer access to “all interested parties.” ²¹

How much gear is out there? Raymond James analyst Ric Prentiss put Dish’s radio count at about 24,000 nationwide. Vondran would not say how many sit on American Tower sites, only that the company was “a significant player” in the build. ¹

The obvious candidate to want it is SpaceX. It is buying spectrum from EchoStar, Dish’s parent, for its direct-to-device service, and the Dish radios support those airwaves. ¹ Prentiss said spectrum SpaceX is buying from Grain Management is likely supported by the same gear. ¹ Light Reading adds that the radios cover the 2GHz and 800MHz bands at issue. ²

LightShed Partners analysts Walter Piecyk and Joe Galone call the ownership shift “good news for SpaceX,” which they have long said should buy this gear. ²¹ Their reasoning: SpaceX can negotiate directly with the tower firms without waiting for bankruptcy mediation, and it takes EchoStar chief Charlie Ergen, “a notoriously tough negotiator,” out of the picture. ² Under the original bankruptcy plan, EchoStar was to be the opening bidder in an auction of Dish’s assets. ¹

This lands the same week as a Bloomberg report that SpaceX wants access to at least 80,000 cell sites and is in talks with Crown Castle. ³ Crown Castle’s CEO would not discuss specific customers, saying only that you can assume “we’re talking to all parties.” ³ Vondran struck a similar note: anyone with wireless ambitions is probably someone American Tower is talking to. ¹

Not everyone is sold on the 80,000 figure. MoffettNathanson analyst Nick Del Deo said it is unclear why SpaceX would need that many sites. He floated that the count could include small cells, be a long-term goal, or be a bluff meant to scare a carrier into a cheaper wholesale deal. ¹

Verizon CEO Dan Schulman has played down the threat, citing the spectrum, backhaul, customer service and back-office systems SpaceX would still need. “There’s no shortcut,” he said. ² LightShed’s analysts counter that Dish’s exit is bad news for Verizon’s claim that a SpaceX network would take six years and half a trillion dollars. ²

The legal fight is not over. The three biggest U.S. tower companies are chasing what they call unpaid lease payments from Dish, which says it owes nothing. The bankruptcy case is paused until November 4 for a mediation attempt. ¹

Our read: Gear already bolted to towers, tuned to bands SpaceX is buying, is a shortcut of sorts, whatever Verizon says. But the 80,000-site figure is one report and one analyst’s guess at best. Watch what happens on November 4, and whether a tower company names a customer.

Who this is for: anyone betting on a fourth national carrier. Nothing here changes your bill yet.

Footnotes

1. Broadband Breakfast, “Tower Companies Own Thousands of Abandoned Dish Radios”. Retrieved October 28, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

2. Light Reading, “Tower companies now own Dish’s abandoned 5G radios – and SpaceX might become a buyer”. Retrieved October 28, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

3. The Verge, “SpaceX’s mobile carrier push reportedly involves tapping into 80,000 cell sites”. Retrieved October 28, 2026. ↩ ↩²