Things seem to move along nicely at DISH Network headquarters, with the announcement of seven new tower deals equalling up to 4,000 more macro towers across the country.
DISH Network is hard at work to beat their promised deadline with the FCC and to take their rightful place as the fourth major wireless carrier in the United States. This new tower deal includes seven of the top tower companies; Tower Ventures, Vogue Towers, Phoenix Towers International, Tillman Infrastructure, Parallel Infrastructure, Harmoni Towers, and lastly Mobilitie. These are besides two previous tower deals, including Vertical Bridge and 20,000 macro tower sites with Crown Castle.
None of the financial details of any of the deals were disclosed to the public. But what we know is that the 4,000 additional towers are not even split amongst their new infrastructure partners. We also know that these DISH Network tower deals are for existing macro sites, not new construction. To make them 5G compatible with DISH’s new network, vendors will need to provide a variety of services. As to speed up the time to place the required 5G radios on each site. It makes sense that DISH would seek existing sites versus new construction to strictly adhere to their launch and coverage timeline with the FCC.
DISH announced they will have their first major market up and running during Q3 of this year. Although no exact date is provided, we also know that sometime between July and September. We should be able to see DISH Wireless plans and prices because of this rollout. CEO Charlie Ergen estimates that the total bill for the 5G network development will cost about $10 billion over seven years. However, that estimate is widely debated amongst analysts and met with much skepticism. That it can be done with that little amount of funding.
Meanwhile, DISH owns and operates prepaid mobile virtual network operator Boost Mobile with those customers now provisioned to T-Mobile’s network. DISH lost over 200,000 Boost Mobile subscribers between July and September, but that is to be expected during a transition. Many analysts stated that although their subscribers went down, they actually exceeded their expectations and believe that we’ll be seeing Boost Mobile around for a while.
For the T-Mobile Sprint merger to finally get approved by the FCC. DISH Network had to make some dated commitments to the FCC to ensure that DISH will really take over as the fourth major wireless carrier. These two major commitments to the FCC are to reach 20% of the US population by June 2022. To reach 70% of the US population by June 2023. The FCC only approved the T-Mobile Sprint merger this time around to avoid a 25% market share loss. So, therefore, reducing competition in the wireless industry.
DISH Network has assured the public during their Q4 2020 earnings call. That they’re right on track to hit their deadlines. If they do not, they can pay penalty fees up into the billions and lose any gained spectrum licenses the company has been known to hoard over the years without putting them to any good use.
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