American Tower has terminated its Strategic Collocation Agreement with EchoStar subsidiary Dish Network.. The tower company confirmed the termination in an 8K filing last week, as first reported by Inside Towers.. – Getty Images. The termination of the agreement comes amid a legal dispute between the two companies after Dish defaulted on payments..
Dish said it’s no longer obligated to honor the agreement after selling significant spectrum assets to AT&T and SpaceX last year for a combined $40 billion.. Dish has argued it was forced to sell the spectrum following pressure from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), meaning its agreement with ATC and other tower companies “constituted force majeure.”. “Beginning on January 1, 2026, 100 percent of Dish revenue has been reflected in churn, and this termination is not expected to impact the company’s financial results for the year ending December 31, 2026,” said American Tower in the filing. “The company continues to pursue litigation against Dish with respect to its obligations under the SCA.”.
American Tower filed a lawsuit against Dish last year over Dish’s attempts to get out of its long-term contract with the tower company.. In that filing, American Tower disputes Dish’s claims that it was forced to sell the spectrum, stating that Dish’s decision to do so was “voluntary.”.
The company isn’t the only one to pursue legal action against Dish, with Crown Castle, SBA Communications, and Astound Broadband doing the same. Crown Castle terminated its agreement with Dish in January.. In late August, AT&T announced it would pay $23 billion to Dish’s parent company EchoStar to acquire approximately 30 MHz of nationwide 3.45 GHz mid-band spectrum and roughly 20 MHz of nationwide 600 MHz low-band spectrum for around $23bn in an all-cash transaction..
Just two weeks later, Elon Musk’s SpaceX struck a $17bn deal to snap up EchoStar’s AWS-4 (Advanced Wireless Spectrum) and H-block spectrum licenses.. 20 Jan 2026. 16 Mar 2026.
02 Jun 2026
