Communications infrastructure company Crown Castle’s CFO told an investor event Dish Network is yet to make a meaningful contribution to its revenue more than a year after signing a 20,000-site tower deal.

Daniel Schlanger told the Barclays Global Technology, Media and Telecommunications Conference the incoming US operator won’t have much impact on Crown Castle’s 2021 financial guidance, explaining MNOs start paying tower companies after their antennas have been installed on the sites they’ve leased.

He forecast more leasing business from Dish Network in 2022, which is pushing Crown Castle “to be as quick as we can be on preparing our sites”.

Dish Network is obliged to cover 20 per cent of the US population by June 2022 and 70 per cent by 2023.

Schlanger argued his company will be “the most likely first choice” for Dish Network as it starts to install equipment and activate sites.

Crown Castle was the first tower company to announce a deal with Dish Network, followed by American Tower, SBA Communications, Vertical Bridge and others.

Dish Network executives separately noted its cloud-native open RAN 5G network is currently being tested by staff and “friendly users” as it works towards a launch in Q1 2022.