5G is touted as the largest enabler of a digital tomorrow, where smart factories, farms and immersive technologies will be the norm. While many are grappling with the best approach when it comes to 5G, DISH Wireless (DISH) is ahead of the game using the latest 5G and cloud technologies to deliver exciting new broadband and 5G voice services.
DISH announced its plans to build an open, cloud-native 5G network in April 2021. Today, DISH is offering 5G broadband services to over 73 percent of the U.S. population and 5G voice (Voice over New Radio, or VoNR) in a growing 85 markets. This bold path has seen DISH successfully launch over 15,000 5G sites as of June 2023, marking a major milestone for the company and the U.S. telecom industry.
“In the 5G era, customers want a network that is flexible and runs on their terms. Similar to how cloud providers charge for services in real-time, our unique software- and data-driven network is able to easily support the ways enterprise customers want to consume the network. Imagine as a customer, you want to scale up network capacity on-demand, but only pay for what you use, or even schedule the activation of new services at a specific time or for a specific number of devices. This adaptability and agility differentiates us from traditional telcos,” said Marc Rouanne, Executive Vice President of Global Partnerships, DISH Wireless.
Automation with Blue Planet – supporting DISH’s 5G vision of an accessible network
A key differentiating factor, the on-demand provisioning of network services to customers, would be impossible without network inventory and service order management. As part of the foundation of DISH’s service automation vision, Blue Planet provides a federated source of truth for their dynamic 5G network. During the peak of DISH’s network deployment, Blue Planet helped to automate the activation of more than 200 new cell sites per day.
Additionally, with the end-to-end view of the network by Blue Planet, DISH can innovate the upgrade process. Instead of taking six months to a year, upgrades can happen overnight – with confidence from the DISH team that the network and end-customers would not be affected.
Rouanne: “DISH is leading the way in creating the network of the future as the world’s first and only 5G cloud-native Open RAN network. Blue Planet is at the heart of everything we do within our 5G platform, providing us with an observable network, which is essential as we adapt to the needs of a digital future. With this significant progress that we have made on our network buildout, we can now focus on realizing more 5G use cases.”
Blue Planet Innovations Supporting DISH
DISH has integrated Blue Planet’s intelligent automation software into its 5G platform, and is well on its way to meet its June 2025 government-mandated milestone, where it will deliver 5G services to 75% of the U.S. population.
To learn more about how DISH is leveraging Blue Planet, you can refer to the podcast or this press release.