American Tower Now Owns Dish's Abandoned 5G Radios – and SpaceX Could Come Calling

American Tower and its tower-company peers now own the 5G radios and antennas that Dish Wireless abandoned on their sites, following an abandonment order in the bankruptcy proceedings. CEO Steven Vondran confirmed the ownership shift Tuesday on American Tower's Q3 earnings call and left the door open to any buyer, with SpaceX the most obvious candidate.

"There is an abandonment order in the bankruptcy. So, yes, we own that equipment as of the date of that order," Vondran said in response to an analyst question on equipment ownership and potential acquirers. "We do own it, and we can provide access to that to all interested parties."

Asked whether a dispute over that equipment persists amid litigation with Dish, Vondran was categorical. "No, we are good. We can do whatever we want to do with it," he said.

How the equipment landed with the towercos

The ownership question stems from Dish Wireless' shutdown of its national 5G network. Dish claims it was forced off the air after parent EchoStar began selling spectrum to SpaceX and AT&T under pressure from an FCC probe into its 5G buildout and spectrum rights. Dish then defaulted on payments to tower owners and other infrastructure partners, arguing the spectrum sales triggered a force majeure that excused its contracts. The defaults triggered a wave of lawsuits from former partners, American Tower among them. EchoStar at one point stood as stalking horse bidder, with a cash floor bid of $300 million, for a future sale of "substantially all" Dish Wireless assets.

What does this change for SpaceX?

The answer, according to LightShed Partners analysts Walter Piecyk and Joe Galone, is speed and negotiating leverage. SpaceX is reportedly in talks with tower companies for access to 80,000 mobile sites and plans a hybrid terrestrial-satellite network. It is also acquiring 800MHz lowband spectrum from Grain Management, spectrum capable of penetrating walls and buildings.

The abandoned Dish radios matter because they support the very spectrum SpaceX is acquiring: 2GHz from EchoStar and 800MHz from Grain. Buying compatible equipment already installed on towers, the LightShed analysts wrote, "could give SpaceX a head start on its wireless terrestrial network build and throw a big bucket of cold water on Verizon's four-to-six-year timeline and $300-$500 billion estimate for SpaceX's buildout."

Having Dish out of the picture is, in their words, "good news for SpaceX, which we have long argued should buy this year," and "bad news for Verizon's claim that a SpaceX network will take six years and half a trillion dollars." They added that SpaceX "can now negotiate directly with the tower companies without waiting for bankruptcy mediation to conclude," which removes EchoStar Chairman and CEO Charlie Ergen, "a notoriously tough negotiator," from the process. Beyond radios, they argue SpaceX should sign new tower leases as a "starter kit" to accelerate the terrestrial build.

How big is the site footprint really?

Not all 80,000 sites need be macro towers. MoffettNathanson analyst Nick Del Deo cautioned in a research note that the figure may include small cells on towers or rooftops, locations that generally suit small cells poorly, or may represent a long-term count rather than a near-term one, "with tower deals simply contemplating that ramp over time." SpaceX's planned direct-to-device overlay and femtocells could also reduce the number of traditional sites required.

Verizon pushes back

Verizon CEO Dan Schulman downplayed the SpaceX threat on Monday, pointing to the spectrum, backhaul, customer service and back-office systems a full mobile operator needs. "There's no magic wand. There's no secret sauce. There's no shortcut," Schulman said of SpaceX entering the core mobile business.

Vondran declined to comment on any talks with SpaceX but acknowledged American Tower is "really excited about the prospect of maybe having a new customer at scale in the US." His pitch was direct: "Anybody who wants to build a network in the US at scale is going to come to American Tower as one of their premier tower vendors, if not the premier tower vendor... we should be the first call that everybody makes."

With installed, spectrum-compatible radios now legally free to sell and SpaceX's Grain spectrum deal in progress, the first test of that claim could come within months.