The decision is being seen by some as an attempt to better align itself with Japanese firm Rakuten
Dish Network will use Altiostar’s cloud-native O-RAN compliant solution for its 5G network buildout, providing the carrier with openness, modularity, agility and scalability. The Altiostar solution leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to deliver end-to-end automation, zero-touch commissioning and faster network recovery.
“By using an open architecture to build the first standalone 5G network in the U.S., we are able to work with the best vendors from across the supply chain to effectively serve multiple segments, including consumers, enterprises and emerging 5G vertical markets,” said Marc Rouanne, Dish executive vice president and chief network officer.
Dish will use Altiostar’s software and will work with Japanese IT and electronics firm Fujitsu for radio provisioning. These vendor selections are mirror selections made by Japanese operator Rakuten Mobile, which claims the world’s first fully virtualized, cloud-native network. Rakuten Mobile is working to offer up its architecture to other operators, governments and enterprises. Rakuten is also working with Japanese multi-national NEC on developing network components.
Specifically, Rakuten Mobile and NEC Corporation announced that the two companies will collaborate to build a Japan-made containerized standalone (SA) 5G core network (5GC). The 5GC will be based on the 5GC software source code developed by NEC and will be made available on the Rakuten Communications Platform (RCP).
In addition to its Rakuten Communications Platform, Rakuten’s global 5G ambitions include a recently announced international headquarters in Singapore, which will be used as a marketing hub and a development center for RCP, and the establishment of a California marketing facility that will target the American markets.
More broadly, Japanese companies NEC Corporation and Fujitsu have started to deliver 5G equipment for compatriot telco NTT DoCoMo’s 5G deployment.
