As carriers like T-Mobile are quickly moving toward expanding their 5G network, Dish is still lacking behind and is at the risk of losing its customers. However, the company has chosen Samsung as its vendor, and they plan to build a 5G network from scratch. Lagging behind competitors does not mean that Dish is launching an older network. The 5G network that Dish builds in collaboration with Samsung uses cloud-based technology called O-RAN (Open Radio Access Network). Building such a network requires off-the-shelf hardware, and that’s why Samsung is here to help. As per the report, Samsung will provide Dish with vRANs (Virtualized radio access networks) software and radio units. Samsung is currently one of the greatest 5G equipment producers globally, and it has tight competition with companies like Huawei, Nokia, ZTE, and Cisco Systems. Helping Dish with its 5G network would also help Samsung expand its market share. Dish is not the only company in the United States that intends to use Samsung 5G equipment. The Korean company signed a $6.6 billion deal with Verizon in September 2020. Samsung brought its DSS (Dynamic Spectrum Sharing) equipment to Verizon.
Dish has set milestones for its 5G network coverage
Dish had previously promised the FCC that it would cover about 20 percent of the country’s population with its 5G network by June this year. Well, you should take this with a pinch of salt. Given that there is very little time left to this deadline, we may still see delays in the Dish 5G network launch. The company also pledged to cover 70 percent of the population until June of 2023. The Dish 5G project has seen multiple delays, and another delay would disappoint the majority of customers. Let’s see if Dish 5G network can cover 20 percent of the population until next month.
