What you need to know
- DISH and Qualcomm are working together to test open and virtualized RAN 5G solutions.
- DISH is building a virtual 5G network to bring standalone 5G and Vo5G to its spectrum bands.
- DISH will utilize the Qualcomm RAN Platforms through its network and device partners.
DISH Network and Qualcomm announced today that they are collaborating to test open and virtualized RAN 5G solutions containing new Qualcomm 5G RAN Platforms. This will help with DISH's rollout of the nation's first cloud-native, Open RAN-compliant 5G network.
DISH has been working to build its own 5G network and its collaboration with Qualcomm is a big step towards that goal. A RAN, or radio access network, is the first piece of equipment your mobile device connects through in order to get mobile data service.
Marc Rouanne, executive vice president and chief network officer of DISH said,
By further expanding its portfolio of 5G infrastructure solutions to include O-RAN specifications that are compliant with DISH's open architecture and implementation, Qualcomm Technologies will enable greater flexibility in the deployment of our 5G vRAN equipment. With this move, Qualcomm Technologies will also enrich a diverse ecosystem of RAN applications by delivering data insights natively through the future chipset family. These insights are the foundation of our data-centric and fully-automated network architecture. We are pleased to see Qualcomm Technologies embracing O-RAN and virtualization, creating even more possibilities for the future of 5G across the industry.
Earlier this year, DISH began building a mobile presence with the purchase of Boost Mobile as part of T-Mobile's purchase of Sprint. Along with this it also got a healthy portion of 800MHz spectrum from Sprint. It has continued to make moves into mobile networking with its aquisition of Ting. Finding the best 5g network and making sure you've got the best 5g coverage possible could get a lot easier in the future thanks to moves like this.
