Dish says the company will likely skip 4G and head right to 5G -- assuming it ever builds a wireless network at all. FCC rules attached to Dish's 700 MHz E-Block licenses (acquired in 2008) state Dish must achieve either 40% signal coverage by next month, or institute a 70% buildout by March 2020. While many believe Dish is simply hoarding spectrum for a sale down the road, a new Dish filing to the FCC promises that Dish will meet its 2020 obligations using fifth generation (5G) wireless broadband.
"We do not believe that it serves the public interest or makes business sense to build out a 4G/LTE network now that would duplicate networks already offered by the wireless incumbents, and subsequently require an almost immediate upgrade in order to be competitive,” the filing reads.
Dish intends to use the AWS-4 Band and Lower 700 MHz Block to build a network focused on 5G and connecting the "internet of (not so secure) things," and suggests that it might build such a network with a cable company or other wireless provider. The company also expressed optimism that 5G standardization should be completed by 2020 with trials in 2017 and 2018.
"Dish plans to deploy a 5G-capable network, focused on supporting IoT -- the first to be deployed in these bands anywhere in the world -- that will meet the Accelerated Final Milestone in March 2020 for all of the Spectrum Licenses," promises Dish. "This network will not be burdened with a requirement to be backward compatible with legacy services."
Of course Dish has been promising to build a new wireless competitor for the better part of the last decade. Or at least, that was the reason given by Dish boss Charlie Ergen as to why the company has been
hoovering up spectrum the last few years. Again though, many believe Ergen's just warehousing spectrum -- with the obvious eye on just selling it back to the highest bidder (read: AT&T of Verizon) down the road.
