Dish Wireless says that as of yesterday, it has reached its required build-out milestone of having a 5G service that covers 70% of the United States population.
Dish said in a release that it is offering 5G broadband that is 3GPP Release 15 compliant, and that the 70% coverage to more than 240 million Americans utilizes its AWS-4, lower 700 MHz E Block, AWS H Block and 600 MHz spectrum.
“This marks a major milestone for Dish and the U.S. telecom industry, as we designed, built and deployed a first-of-its-kind 5G network in three years. Dish has also satisfied all other June 14, 2023 FCC commitments, including launching over 15,000 5G sites,” the company said.
Dish said that it will be filing a build-out report with the Federal Communications Commission no later than July 14, 2023.
“Our teams have worked tirelessly for years, and this achievement is a testament to their dedication and commitment as we grow the world’s first and only 5G cloud-native Open RAN network,” said Dave Mayo, EVP of network development for Dish Wireless. “We appreciate the continued support and efforts of our partners as Dish continues to lead the industry in Open RAN deployment.”
The company also lays claim to being the first wireless service provider to launch Voice over 5G New Radio (VoNR) and says that since taking VoNR live in Las Vegas last year, it has “steadily increased VoNR functionality to additional markets.” Dish says that it now offers VoNR service to more than 70 million covered POPs and will continue to expand that footprint.
John Swieringa, president and COO of Dish Wireless, said that the company has “made significant progress on our network buildout, and can now focus on monetizing the network through retail and enterprise growth. With more markets across the country offering the Dish 5G network for voice, text and data services, our business can start realizing the benefits of owner economics.”
Dish said that customers can sign up for service—available to anyone “in a qualifying location within the 70 percent coverage area”—through its Project Genesis service, and that its 5G network is also available to Boost Mobile and Boost Infinite subscribers in more than 50 markets, with a compatible device.
Dish said that additional markets for Boost Mobile and Boost Infinite, and more devices, will “continue to become available throughout the year.”
On the operator’s most recent quarterly call, quite a bit of the conversation focused on Dish’s network deployment, the FCC deadline and spectrum issues. Charlie Ergen, Dish chairman, said that once the June deadline is met, the company expects capex intensity to take a bit of a “pause”, while it focuses on densification, optimization and filling in gaps rather than expanding to new markets.
Ergen also said that as capital-constrained Dish looks at opportunities beyond the consumer market that would be light on additional capex, one of the options is an approach in which “some of our partners in our build … Cisco or Dell or AWS come to mind, where they already have a big enterprise business that they just add our spectrum into their thinking about how they would design private networks.
“At that point, we would be more of a wholesale provider of spectrum,” he added.
Ergen and other execs also said that the company has been largely focused on its build-out in order to meet the FCC coverage deadline and that it will be ramping up marketing and distribution of its Boost Infinite product later this year as it focuses on expanding to the postpaid market. In preparation for that, Ergen noted, the company plans to start offering Apple’s iPhone “within the next few months.”
He went on to add that the company has a few more things that it needs to do, “and then I think we get to go a bit more on offense. It’s been a little bit frustrating to play defense as long as we have.”
“I think the market looks at us is half empty, maybe even 90% empty today, right?” he said at another point in the call. “And I think the truth is that the glass is more than half full, right?” He cited Dish’s longevity as a company, its experienced management team and ability to assess risk, its spectrum assets and its network. “We’re building a world-class network,” he reiterated. “There is not another network as advanced as ours, and it’s up and operating in 50 markets today and working.”