Dish gains a new supporter so it can better compete with Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile in the 5G race

As the Sprint / T-Mobile merger completed last year, it was looking as if Dish was going to take Sprint’s place and be the fourth major network to compete with Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mo. Now, it gains an unlikely supporter in the face of the group Public Knowledge, which was initially against the merger.

Public Knowledge is now supporting Dish so it can better compete as the fourth major carrier

Fierce Wireless reports that Public Knowledge has asked the FCC to make modifications to the 12GHz spectrum (which Dish uses), and this will make Dish a better competitor to the three major US carriers.

This action comes after the group was strongly opposing the merger between T-Mobile and Sprint. Although the public interest-centered group lost when appealing the merger deal, it now wants to make sure Dish can succeed in being a fourth national carrier.

If the FCC approves and the Dish’s plan succeeds, the 12GHz network could unleash 500MHz of contiguous 5G spectrum. However, it is still early to speculate what can this network add, in comparison with the other three major carriers, as the 12GHz band is a very different band.

The 12GHz band is considered a mid-band spectrum, so it’s quite valuable for 5G, said Harold Feld, SVP at Public Knowledge. He additionally stated that although this move will not close the gap between Dish and the three major carriers completely, it will still contribute as an opportunity for the competing network the handle the number of customers it should have as a fourth major carrier.

Public Knowledge is supporting Dish in other areas as well

Meanwhile, Public Knowledge’s support for Dish doesn’t end here. In a dispute between Dish and T-Mobile for the CDMA network, Public Knowledge has also asked the FCC to intervene. We are talking about the fact that T-Mobile plans on shutting down its CDMA network at the end of the year, and Boost, recently acquired by Dish, will lose access to services. Dish acquired Boost in the plan to use T-Mobile’s CDMA network until it can build its own, but with the planned shutdown of the network at the end of the year, things aren’t looking great for Dish. Public Knowledge wants the FCC to at least act as a mediator between the two companies, so customers won’t lose service.