Dish Defaults on Payments to Crown Castle Following Spectrum Rights Sale

By Katherine Hamilton

Crown Castle said it terminated its wireless infrastructure agreement with Dish Wireless after Dish defaulted on its payment obligations.

Dish, a 5G network provider owned by EchoStar, told Crown Castle and other partners in September 2025 that it was discontinuing its network business.

That same month, EchoStar said it would sell some of its spectrum rights to AT&T and SpaceX.

EchoStar sold the rights after the Federal Communications Commission threatened to strip some of its licenses, saying it wasn't effectively using the rights to compete with big wireless carriers.

Dish told Crown Castle in September it believed it was no longer required to honor remaining contractual obligations. While Dish continued making payments for some time, it recently failed to pay, Crown Castle said.

Crown Castle exercised its right to terminate the agreement and recover in excess of $3.5 billion in remaining payments owed. The Houston-based communications company said it doesn't expect the actions to impact full-year 2025 results.

Crown Castle said it supported EchoStar's sales to AT&T and SpaceX, but was committed to enforcing its rights under its agreement with Dish.

Write to Katherine Hamilton at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-12-26 1737ET