DISH – steeltreepartners

Q3: Should You Do a Lease Buyout for a Collocation Lease on your Tower?

Ken Schmidt — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 07:08:16 +0000

Lease aggregators and investors are increasingly approaching tower owners with offers to purchase the rights to collocation lease income — leaving the tower owner with the tower but without the rent. It sounds like easy liquidity. It rarely is.
You keep all the costs and none of the revenue. Owning a tower entails ongoing expenses—maintenance, insurance, property taxes, inspections, and liability. Your collocator’s rent helps offset those costs. Sell that income stream, and you’re still responsible for everything that comes with operating the tower, just without the revenue that justified it.
You’re selling at the wrong multiple. Buyers of leases typically offer a lower multiple of the lease’s annual rent. But when towers are sold as full assets, they trade at significantly higher multiples — because the buyer is pricing in upside of the tower, not just one lease. When you sell a collocator lease in isolation, you accept a fraction of what that same cash flow would be worth if you sold the entire tower.
If you’re worried about the future, a sale-leaseback is the smarter move. If you operate your own equipment on the tower and have concerns about long-term viability, consider selling the tower itself and leasing back your space. Whether you do a $0 lease-back or agree to pay rent going forward, it’s up to you. You get real liquidity, shed operational burden, and keep access to the infrastructure you depend on. Selling off individual lease rights gives you a fraction of that upside while leaving all the responsibility behind.
You’re still committed to operating the tower. Taxes increase. Insurance costs rise. Towers require capital investment over time. Once you’ve sold the revenue from a collocator lease, you’ve locked yourself into operating that tower indefinitely — even if the economics no longer make sense. You’ve essentially taken on the obligations of a long-term tower operator while giving away the income that makes it worthwhile. If the tower goes down in a storm- guess who gets to replace it?The bottom line: before selling any collocator lease rights, get an independent assessment of your tower’s full asset value. What’s being offered for one lease is almost certainly a fraction of what it represents in the context of the whole. We help tower owners make intelligent decisions about their towers.

From Four and a Half to Three: How 2025 Reshapes Cell Tower Ownership

Ken Schmidt — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 09:54:55 +0000

In 2025, the U.S. wireless industry appears to be effectively consolidating from four national carriers and one major regional carrier down to three. That shift is not just a headline—it marks a fundamental change for tower owners, landowners, and leaseholders. Two major deals—T-Mobile’s acquisition of U.S. Cellular’s assets and AT&T’s pending purchase of DISH’s spectrum—have redefined what “growth” means in the tower sector.

T-Mobile’s Acquisition of U.S. Cellular: The First Piece to Fall

T-Mobile moved first, announcing in mid-2024 that it would acquire much of U.S. Cellular’s spectrum and subscribers. U.S. Cellular retained ownership of roughly 4,400 towers, while T-Mobile agreed to lease space on about 2,600 of them under a 15-year deal.

For tower owners, the deal was a double-edged sword. On one hand, it preserved lease continuity for sites T-Mobile decides to keep from the U.S. Cellular network. On the other hand, it removed another independent carrier from the market, potentially hindering growth in collocation and amendment activities.

Fortunately, U.S. Cellular focused on owning and building its own towers rather than collocating, so the loss of U.S. Cellular won’t have a measurable impact on future lease-up.

Unfortunately, for tower owners that do have U.S. Cellular as a tenant, there is a higher-than-average probability that they will eventually terminate. While some sites may be kept by T-Mobile if there are no T-Mobile sites in the area, most will not be retained.

The transaction reinforced what many in the industry already sensed: consolidation was accelerating.

DISH’s Exit: There Goes the Bishop

DISH’s path was more drawn out but is likely to end with the same conclusion. After years of struggling to scale its wireless ambitions, DISH (via Echostar) has opted to sell its 600 MHz and 3.45 GHz spectrum holdings—valued at roughly $22.7 billion—to AT&T.

A subsequent deal with SpaceX has Echostar transferring its AWS-3 spectrum to SpaceX. These two deals will effectively end DISH’s run as a facilities-based carrier and transfer valuable mid- and low-band spectrum to AT&T and SpaceX. (There may be more spectrum transfers coming up.)

DISH’s 24,000-site buildout between 2020 and 2024 represented nearly 60%–70% of all new macrocells constructed in the U.S. during that period. In other words, DISH alone accounted for a substantial portion of the “same tower” growth. That surge provided temporary tailwinds for the tower industry.

Many DISH-related leases are vulnerable to termination in the near term, though very few have been terminated to date. The spectrum sales by Echostar are still pending regulatory approval; therefore, most leases continue as is—for now.

Still, tower buyers are already pricing in future risk: DISH leases are valued at a fraction of comparable agreements with AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile.

To add insult to injury, DISH has sent letters to some tower owners indicating that they believe they are “excused” from their lease obligations due to “frustration of purpose,” alleging that because the FCC pushed them to sell spectrum, they are no longer obligated to pay lease payments.

AT&T’s spectrum acquisition, once approved, isn’t likely to trigger a surge in new tower builds. Instead, most of that spectrum will be deployed through amendments on existing AT&T sites—offering incremental but modest rent increases for landlords and tower owners.

SpaceX is unlikely to build a significant terrestrial network. The broader impact is one of consolidation and efficiency, not expansion.

Together, T-Mobile’s U.S. Cellular deal and AT&T’s pending DISH spectrum acquisition complete the long-feared contraction of the U.S. wireless market.

What It Means for Tower Owners and Lessors

The move from four national carriers to three fundamentally reshapes the tower business model.

• Less organic growth: With fewer carriers competing for coverage, the number of new colocation opportunities has shrunk. Tower owners can no longer count on new amendment activity from DISH or U.S. Cellular.

• Near-term churn: Expect that many DISH and U.S. Cellular agreements will be terminated in the coming years, especially once FCC approvals are finalized.

• Reduction of valuation: DISH and U.S. Cellular agreements are already being discounted due to uncertainty.

• Shift in leverage: The remaining carriers hold greater negotiating power, which may push down renewal rates and rent escalations.

• Valuation reset: Investors are recalibrating expectations, applying slightly lower multiples for tower asset purchases and prioritizing AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile tenancy. Scarcity of available tower assets is helping keep valuations high.

• More predictability: With three major participants left, the risk of further consolidation—and future churn—drops significantly.

For tower owners, the next phase isn’t about adding tenants. It’s about protecting value, optimizing existing leases, reducing costs, pursuing non-traditional tenants, and maximizing amendment opportunities.

Looking at the Chessboard

As the dust settles, 2025 marks a turning point for the tower industry. The sector is shifting from an era of carrier-driven expansion to one of consolidation and strategic management.

Owners who proactively audit their leases, strengthen relationships with core tenants, aggressively seek tertiary tenants, and position their assets for amendment income will fare best.

Let’s be clear: the tower business is still a great business. But the absurdly high-growth years may be behind us, and the margin for error is smaller. Proper site selection is more important than ever, and active site management and marketing are critical.

If you’re a tower owner and want to discuss the state of the industry or how we can help your tower business succeed, we’d be delighted to hear from you.

Time to Take Your Pieces Off the Table?

For tower owners, this consolidation wave isn’t just an industry headline—it’s a signal to reassess strategy. Whether you’re holding assets long-term or considering a sale, understanding how these shifts affect tower valuations and buyer demand is critical.

That’s where SteelTree Partners comes in.

Most brokers put out a memo and step back, leaving you to handle questions, due diligence, and tough buyer conversations. That’s not how we work.

Here’s how SteelTree Partners stands apart:

✅ We stay involved until closing—no disappearing acts.
✅ We visit towers when it makes sense to fully understand the assets.
✅ We help prepare due diligence and review it beforehand to avoid surprises.
✅ No “preferred buyers”—you get full market exposure.
✅ We’ve owned and operated towers and negotiated thousands of leases.
✅ We take time to understand your portfolio and objectives.
✅ We handle everything from single-tower deals to large portfolios.
✅ Two decades of trusted experience.
✅ We help owners even before they formally engage us.

Q2: I Have DISH on My Towers—How Does That Impact Valuation, and What Should I Expect Going Forward?

Ken Schmidt — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 17:35:58 +0000

If you own towers with DISH as a tenant, you’ve probably already felt the pain—or you’re about to. Here’s what we’re seeing in the market and what it means for you.

What Buyers Are Paying (Or Rather, Not Paying) for DISH

Let’s start with valuation, because this is where it hits hardest. While buyers were already discounting DISH revenue somewhat, they are no longer attributing any value to it. Zero. And the reason is simple—most tower owners aren’t being paid on their DISH leases right now, and few expect to receive anything in the future. The revenue has effectively already disappeared for many owners, so the tower’s cash flow (TCF) is accordingly lower. The market expects DISH equipment to be abandoned in place, meaning tower owners will eventually be on the hook for removal costs. That’s a cost, not a benefit. The silver lining—and there is one—is that when that equipment does come down, it frees up a RAD center on the tower. For a well-located tower, that’s a real opportunity. But a buyer will assume some sort of cost to remove the equipment in the future. (or plan on requiring an inbound tenant to remove it.)

The Lease-Up Story Gets More Complicated

Here’s something that doesn’t get talked about enough: DISH was responsible for somewhere between 30% and 50% of new colocation lease activity between 2021 and 2024. That’s a massive share of the new revenue that was driving lease up expectatins and tower valuations higher. With DISH (and US Cellular) effectively out of the market, that pipeline of new leases doesn’t just slow down; it takes a hit. (See CCI’s last earnings report and subsequent stock decline, and AMT’s recent earnings, where it indicated that DISH represented 20% of new leasing activity.) Going forward, tower lease-up should be more muted. Not dead, but don’t expect the same pace of new amendments and new leases we saw during peak DISH buildout activity.

What About AT&T and DISH Network?

The AT&T acquisition of DISH spectrum (700 MHz and C-Band) is still underway, but assuming it closes, the natural question is whether AT&T’s deployment of those acquired DISH frequencies will generate new revenue for tower owners. Our honest assessment—we’re skeptical it will move the needle much. AT&T’s acquisition of additional spectrum may actually reduce its need to densify its macro network in high-capacity areas. More spectrum can mean greater efficiency on existing infrastructure, leading to fewer new macro sites needed. That’s not the growth story tower owners are hoping for. There could be some incremental amendment activity as AT&T integrates new equipment to handle those frequencies, but we wouldn’t underwrite significant new tower cash flow as a result.

The Bottom Line

Of late, DISH has been a headwind for tower valuations, driven by lost current revenue, future removal costs, and a slower lease-up outlook. If you own towers with DISH tenants, it’s important to enter any sale process with realistic expectations about how buyers are underwriting that revenue (or not). The good news is that well-located towers with strong anchor tenants still have solid fundamentals. The bad news is that TCF on towers with DISH will decline, and overall lease-up (especially on number of new collocation leases) will decline.

Q1: How Many Carriers Should I Really Build For? The 3-Carrier Reality of 2026.

Ken Schmidt — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 17:51:37 +0000

With DISH and UScellular out of the picture, we’re back to three national carriers. For tower owners, that changes the math on how much steel you need in the ground.

The old rule was simple: build for four carriers. But that was before the market consolidated and before 5G got deployed. Now? Most new builds can safely spec for three full carrier arrays – but there’s nuance here.

5G Changed the Loading Game

The heavy lifting is done. The initial 5G rollout meant massive MIMO panels and tons of radio equipment. But we’re seeing the profile shift now – newer mid-band antennas are shrinking in wind load (shorter, narrower, or both) even as they’re getting heavier. More RRUs, more integrated antennas. The constant cycle of loading and rent increases with every amendment? That’s slowing down, though it’s not dead yet.

When to Overbuild (and When Not To)

Even with steel and construction costs where they are, I’m still generally telling people to overspec capacity. Why? Because if you ever plan to sell, that extra structural capacity is almost always accretive to your exit price. Buyers don’t want to mod towers – and if they have to, they’ll discount your price to cover it. That upfront steel cost might sting, but it’s usually cheaper than the haircut you’ll take at exit.

There are exceptions:

If you’re near existing towers with capacity
Very rural areas where a second or third carrier is statistically unlikely.

For most builds, three full 5G arrays is the sweet spot. In rural areas, throw 1-2 six-foot microwave dishes into your loading calc just to be safe.