Dish Network is making progress on the unique open access radio network (RAN) in the US, and dish chair Charlie Ergen said “we’ll just do it,” instead of trying to convince skeptics of what they’re doing.
Dish has to come through the RF planning, licensing and site purchase process and the actual installation of gear like antennas, but it is still looking to launch one brand before the end of the year. Dish plans to build a 5G network in June 2023, covering 70% of the U.S. population.
There is nothing technical that prevents the network from building and it has a good team to execute, according to Ergen. The company has said it expects the network set-up to cost about $ 10 billion, and that guidance has not changed.
“There’s nothing stopping us from building … the best network in the United States,” Ergen said on Friday night in the second quarter revenue call. There is no law of physics or technology; “It’s really execution … We do not invent anything back,” but it uses more modern technology.
‘We’ll just do it. We do not spend a lot of time on it, externally, because everyone becomes skeptical “until it is time to light it up, and then people will have their opinion on it,” he said.
Dish has announced several vendors and will select more before everything is said and done. VMware will deliver its telco cloud platform and Altiostar, Fujitsu and Mavenir are also on board to leverage their 5G standalone (SA) network using cloud-native, open RAN architecture.
Dish officially entered the wireless retail space on July 1 when it closed a $ 1.4 billion deal to acquire T-Mobile’s prepaid Boost Mobile brand, with about 9 million subscribers. Earlier this week, it announced the acquisition of most of Ting Mobile’s subscribers (PDF) and the decision to use solutions for Ting-parent Tucows’ Mobile Services Enabler (MSE) services.
Initially, Dish used T-Mobile’s network in an MVNO scheme to serve Boost prepaid customers, but ultimately it will benefit the owner’s economy if it can serve customers with its own 5G network. It is currently in talks with tour companies, including the three largest tier public companies and vendors.
RELATED: Dish Closes $ 1.4B Purchase of Boost, Goes Into Wireless Retail Business
While Dish is making progress, MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett said in an investor research note on Friday that another quarter went by without saying much about Dish’s wireless business.
‘They haven’t started yet material build, ‘he said. ‘And they have not yet found a strategic partner. They have not yet gone to the capital markets for financing. And they have not yet changed their capex guidance for wireless this year – a light $ 250 to $ 500M, excluding capitalized interest. They also did not change their $ 10B long-term plan to build a virtualized network, a number we no longer have to hinder by saying we do not believe. “
Dish & C Band Auction
Analysts at New Street Research expect that Dish will bid in the C-band auction alongside the CBRS auction that is currently taking place. Moreover, “we do not think they will bid only to increase prices and irritate the other market partners; we think they will bid to win,” wrote analyst Jonathan Chaplin.
Analyzing the CBRS and C-band auctions, New Street expects Dish to spend $ 6 billion, mostly on C-band licenses. ‘We would not at all be surprised that they spend more; it will all depend on whether they can find the funding. We expect that they will have an anchor tenant locked up for the network by the time the C-band auction starts; that tenant as a partner will have a strong interest in winning Dish more licenses; whether they finance Dish directly, or raise DISH capital in the public markets, we think they will have the capital they need to bid and win until the time the auction comes up. “
Ergen was mostly non-committal about the C-band when asked about it during the company call.
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