Crown Castle CEO Calls DISH's Built Network 'The Industry Cheat Code' For SpaceX, Won't Say If It Has Called
Kris Hillabrant said the tower operator is talking "to all of them" but would not discuss individual customer talks.
Crown Castle CEO Kris Hillabrant told analysts on the company's third-quarter earnings call that the network DISH already built is "the industry cheat code" for SpaceX if it deploys its newly bought 800 megahertz spectrum on towers. Pressed by an analyst at Barclays on whether SpaceX has actually made contact, he declined to say.
What Hillabrant said about SpaceX
Asked by an analyst at Bank of America about the timing of a SpaceX build, Hillabrant said the answer depends on the route SpaceX picks. Maximizing co-locations on existing towers and rooftops would be the fast path. Building its own microcells would take far longer, he said, given the land, power and backhaul needed at every site.
He said Crown Castle has approximately 40,000 sites, many with earlier installations that have already cleared zoning and permitting. On DISH, he said: "This is the industry cheat code that exists in that DISH just built this network." He called it "a huge time to market advantage" if SpaceX goes that way, but added that it depends on whether speed is the priority. "I think you'll have to wait to hear from them," he said, adding that Crown stands ready.
Hillabrant said he knows the people who built the DISH network, many of them former T-Mobile colleagues, and that Crown staffed up its services side to help them move fast. CFO Sunit Patel said it took DISH about four years, and that SpaceX could move on a much more compressed timeline depending on how many sites it wants.
An analyst at Barclays asked whether SpaceX has really reached out. Hillabrant said: "we won't discuss individual customer discussions and you can assume that we're talking to all of them."
DISH equipment and the bankruptcy
Responding to an analyst at Citi, Hillabrant said DISH had "12,000 plus installed sites with the ability to go up to 20,000 over time." He told an analyst at Raymond James that some DISH equipment remains on Crown's sites. DISH has abandoned it, he said, despite being given every opportunity to take it off the towers.
The DISH bankruptcy proceedings are on pause while the parties try to settle in court-ordered mediation, Hillabrant said. There is no progress update yet, and the parties will stay in mediation through early November.
Edge computing and the quarter
Hillabrant said Crown now has more than 100 edge computing sites deployed in trials. He said about 5,000 existing structures or shelters on its sites could take customers quickly, but called the effort a trial phase while the company works out whether it can scale profitably.
On the numbers, Patel said third-quarter organic growth, excluding Sprint cancellations and DISH terminations, was 3.5%, or $35 million. The company raised full-year 2026 outlook by $20 million for site rental revenues, $25 million for adjusted EBITDA and $5 million for AFFO (adjusted funds from operations, a cash-earnings measure). The company also reported the quarter alongside the guidance increase.
Crown paid $275 million to buy a residual economic interest in a subset of towers from a large customer, which also extended its lease terms on those sites. Hillabrant also pointed to FCC auctions, including about 160 MHz of upper C-band expected by July 2027.
The next marker is early November, when Hillabrant said the DISH bankruptcy mediation is due to run through.
Sources
- Crown Castle trades lower despite Q3 beat, 2026 guidance boost on lower revenue (CCI:NYSE) — seekingalpha.com
- Crown Castle Raises FY2026 FFO Guidance from ... — benzinga.com
- Is It Wise to Retain Crown Castle Stock in Your Portfolio Right Now? — Yahoo Finance
- Crown Castle Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript — benzinga.com
- Crown Castle Q3 FFO $1.24 Beats $1.19 Estimat... — benzinga.com
