Connect (X) 2023
Dave Mayo, EVP-Network Development at DISH Network (NASDAQ: DISH) shared his perspectives on DISH’s growth and outlook with me in a keynote address on the main stage at Connect(X) last week. The discussion followed the company’s 1Q23 earnings call, Inside Towers reported, and focused on three main areas: network build, spectrum, and Open RAN.
On the network build, Mayo stated that the company has started construction on about 18,000 sites as of the end of the first quarter. He says it will take approximately 16,000 fully fibered and powered sites to meet the June 2023 objective. He acknowledged the company is making significant progress, giving a shout out, “The teams are busting tails and thank you to all the general contractors that are here. You guys rock and we couldn’t have done it without you. Big deal, thank you, but I’m happy with the progress. We’re confident that we’re going to see our way to 70 percent before June 14.”
Once the 70 percent milestone is reached, he says the company will continue to build more cell sites. These will be in new areas and to densify its top 36 existing markets towards the next milestone of 75 percent of the 406 partial economic areas by June 2025.
Mayo acknowledged that capital spending would moderate through the balance of 2023 and into early 2024, before picking up towards the end of 2024 and into 2025 as DISH completes its buildout commitments. The company reported aggregate capital expenditures incurred in 2021, 2022 and in 1Q23 of approximately $2.3 billion towards its estimated $10 billion budget for its full 5G network deployment.
He explains that Open RAN allows DISH to deploy 100 MHz of spectrum efficiently. Each cell site uses two radios per sector, one each in low- and mid-band, and just three antennas on a relatively small site footprint. The cloud-based core network does not represent a capital cost and allows DISH to pay-as-you-go for core software as it adds radios and new customers.
To provide 100 MHz bandwidth in each market, DISH uses a mix of 600, 700 and 850 MHz low-band frequencies and the company’s novel Band 70 (a combo of AWS-4 and H Block, and unpaired AWS-3) and Band 66 (AWS-3) mid-band spectrum. DISH bought in spectrum auctions, nationwide 3.45 GHz and CBRS licenses that it will deploy for incremental capacity. Mayo said that DISH is the only carrier that has nationwide CBRS licensed frequencies. That situation presents the company with the “ability to do some interesting things over time in both those bands and over the country.”
The company’s business goal is to migrate its 7.9 million Boost Mobile prepaid subscribers at the end of 1Q23 to postpaid accounts on its 5G network. Boost is a MVNO on T-Mobile and AT&T networks. Mayo pointed out that postpaid subscribers are more profitable than prepaid since DISH will not have to pay other MNOs to handle its customers’ calls. DISH plans to launch a postpaid product later this summer followed by Voice over New Radio (VoNR)-based service in new markets and infill in existing markets.
Mayo concedes that the company’s biggest Open RAN learning was that it needed to be its own system integrator to be successful. The early thinking was that the vendors would coordinate integration among themselves but that didn’t work very well.
He shared that system integration was not that difficult once the company made the commitment. Moreover, the system integration role proved to be not as resource-intensive as originally thought. He believes it is difficult for a single Open RAN vendor to serve as the lead and defeats the point of where the operator controls the network.
“We’re not slowing down the build,” Mayo concluded. Once the June milestone is reached, the company will continue to add cell sites, both in new areas and to densify its top 36 existing markets towards the ‘75 percent by June 2025’ milestone. He acknowledges some ebb and flow, saying they want to pause a little as the markets add customers and DISH optimizes network performance as it works towards its 2025 goal.
By John Celentano, Inside Towers Business Editor
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