Samsung serves DISH for 5G Open RAN roll-out

In a deal reported to be worth over $1bn, DISH Network Corporation has selected Samsung Electronics for the deployment of 5G open radio access network (RAN) solutions across its 5G network.

Under the multi-year agreement, the companies will collaborate to deploy Samsung’s 5G O-RAN-compliant virtualised RAN (vRAN) solutions and radio units in markets across the US, supporting DISH’s 5G commercial services. The collaboration will also extend to retail wireless customers, providing them with leading-edge 5G devices connected to DISH Wireless’s Smart 5G network.

“Samsung’s 5G solutions will play an integral role in our network expansion, giving us the flexibility to deploy our cloud-native network with software-based solutions that support advanced services and operational scalability,” said DISH Wireless president and chief operating officer John Swieringa.

“We look forward to working with Samsung, whose industry leadership in vRAN and O-RAN innovation will help support our vision of delivering open, interoperable, cloud-based 5G services to consumers and enterprises across the US,” he added.

Stephen Bye, executive vice-president and chief commercial officer at DISH Wireless, said: “Together, we’ll create solutions to bring DISH Wireless’s Smart network to life for retail and enterprise customers, enhancing their productivity, enriching their connection to people and smart technology, improving their business operations and giving our customers control over their 5G services.”

Samsung Networks Business will supply DISH Wireless with its 5G and RAN solutions, vRAN software and a variety of O-RAN-compliant radio units, including Massive MIMO radios. Samsung’s vRAN is designed to operate on any commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) server, while still delivering performance that the company claims is on par with traditional hardware-based equipment.

With its cloud-native architecture, DISH Wireless’s Open RAN deployment is based on open interfaces, allowing for multi-supplier interoperability and various deployment scenarios. The Samsung radios will also support all of DISH’s frequency division duplex (FDD) and time division duplex (TDD) spectrum bands (including n71, n29, n66, n70, n48 and n77).

“Samsung is excited to join this 5G journey with DISH, a pioneer in bringing new experiences to households and businesses around the country, leveraging openness and virtualisation that sit at the heart of network evolution,” remarked Mark Louison, executive vice-president and head of the Networks Business at Samsung Electronics America.

“Our advanced 5G vRAN and radio solutions bring telco-grade quality and cloud-based agility together, building on these benefits to enable more customers to experience the full value of commercial 5G Open RAN,” he added.

DISH is currently testing its 5G network using the Samsung Galaxy S22 and plans to continue using Samsung phones as a reference platform throughout the network deployment process.