Dish Network co-founder and chairman Charlie Ergen underlined the company’s commitment to building a 5G wireless network on the current Q4 2020 earnings call. He reiterated his intention to bring 5G online in the first major cities online by the third quarter of 2021, which is the period from July to September, and was positive about Dish’s ability to take the US’s somewhat gloomy global position in terms of increase wireless network offerings.
Ergen repeated a few minutes of today’s call that the company has made so far in its network building effort. With the acquisition of Boost Mobile last year, it currently offers prepaid services as an MVNO on the T-Mobile network, but it has also built up its own spectrum to make the move to a full-fledged service provider. This is a good sign for wireless competition in the US; with Sprint no longer available as a choice, Dish is positioned to act as a fourth major transportation company. And it also needs to meet the conditions of the T-Mobile-Sprint merger.
Dish for that, Dish made low-, mid- and high-band spectrum purchases last year, and it is estimated that they spent $ 2 billion in the recent C-band auction. With access to these different types of spectrum, Dish has the pieces of the so-called 5G “layer cake” that will help it achieve fast service with wide coverage.
“This is not our first rodeo,” Ergen said, emphasizing his confidence in the company’s ability to perform, despite the significant risks. Nor did he stop there; Ergen believes Dish can “help the United States to really start leading in wireless again.”
Maybe he’s right. There’s a big challenge ahead for Dish, but the company currently does not face one of the challenges plaguing the biggest providers: getting 4G data flowing while adding 5G. In particular, Verizon and AT&T have led themselves to resort to a technology called Dynamic Spectrum Sharing, or DSS, with poor results. Unfortunately, the bar is currently low for US networks, which could help Dish get started.