Paroma Sanyal

In late 2025, DISH Wireless LLC (a subsidiary of EchoStar) notified tower companies and other of its vendors that it believed its long-term master lease agreements were “excused” following EchoStar’s decision to sell its spectrum holdings after the Federal Communications Commission began an investigation into whether EchoStar had met its buildout obligations. Wireless infrastructure providers, including tower companies, have disputed this “excuse” claim and several have initiated litigation to enforce contractual obligations.

This report, prepared for NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association, examines market failures in the U.S. wireless communications infrastructure services industry—specifically the tower climbing and construction sector. Drawing on economic theory and original data from a comprehensive survey of NATE members (the Brattle Survey), we find compelling evidence that the current market structure is failing to sustain the skilled workforce necessary to build and maintain critical wireless infrastructure.

New economic analysis of the Affordable Connectivity Program—which offered monthly broadband service subsidies to low-income households—finds that the economic benefits generated by the program far outweigh its costs. Highlights include:

Fiber deployment has significant incremental economic benefits even in the presence of other high-speed broadband technologies. The report also argues that because private actors will not capture all the benefits of fiber deployment the marketplace will not deploy enough fiber on its own. Based on these findings we suggest a few policy takeaways:

As new spectrum based services come online, the demand for spectrum has increased significantly. At the same time, greenfield spectrum to meet these needs is becoming more scarce, and clearing government and other incumbent users from currently-allocated spectrum has become more challenging.

Two broad proposals have been advanced to modernize the Universal Service Fund's contributions system: 1) expanding the contribution base to include revenues from broadband internet access service, and 2) broadening the USF contribution base to include entities including edge providers such as streaming video providers, digital advertising firms, and cloud services companies. The most economically efficient option for reform is to expand the contribution base to include broadband internet access service revenues.

Mobile data demand is exploding, with aggregate data downloaded quadrupling in the last seven years. New and innovative uses enabled by 5G, as well as the prospect of 6G applications, point towards further increases in expected demand for mobile network capacity.