Dish Network has been in the process of trying to roll out their own 5G network. This was originally reported May 2020 when they said they would compete at the same level at the big 3 carriers. They later said that it was their goal to cover at least 10k sites with their 5G coverage by the end of this year. Ultimately, they want to cover approximately 70 percent of the population by summer 2023.
A question that is surely on most minds is, what is Dish going to bring to the table that the other 3 have not? Aside from the C-Band spectrum they picked up at a FCC auction back in January, they’ve just partnered with Samsung. They’ll join the Dish team as a vendor for phones and other mobile devices as well as software.
Also, unlike some other carriers who have repurposed old frequency bands for 5G, Dish is basing their 5G network on a newer, cloud-based technology called O-RAN (Open Radio Access Network). This technology relies on off-the-shelf (not proprietary) hardware. Samsung is supplying vRAN software and radio units to help make the whole thing work.
In a recent interview with Reuters, Alok Shah, vice president at Samsung, said they have had and continue to have beta testing going on for the network. They also plan on having an official launch in the next few weeks.
However, there’s been concern over supply chain issues. According to Dish Chief Commercial Officer Stephen Bye, supply chains had been tough for 12-18 months and the challenges were not going to go away in the next couple of months. He assures that Dish has all the components to reach its June coverage target.
