and Verizon, its two bigger rivals, have had to delay their large-scale roll-outs, most recently in December after the Federal Aviation Administration aired concerns that their 5G radio spectrum interferes with avionics on some ageing aircraft. Both firms insist that the technology is safe . However on January 3rd, they agreed to hold their 5G networks back for another two weeks.
Dish’s network is the culmination of a process that started in the early 1980s, when antitrust regulators allowed AT&T, the world’s largest network operator, and IBM, its biggest computer firm, to enter each others’ markets. AT&T started selling personal computers and IBM bought ROLM, which sold telecoms equipment. Pundits predicted an epic battle between the two giants—and a rapid convergence of the telecoms and computer industries into one.
As a result, Dish’s network will be cheaper to set up and to run. It will also be fully automated, down to the virtual “labs” where new services are tested. This should allow the company quickly to spin up special-purpose networks, for instance connecting equipment in mine shafts, or enabling drones to talk to each other and their controllers.
Newcomers are also elbowing their way into the business. Rakuten, a Japanese online giant, has already built a Dish-like network at home. Rather than outsourcing its cloud operation to big tech, Rakuten has built its own, and launched a subsidiary, called Rakuten Symphony, to offer the system to other operators. It is helping 1&1, a German web-hosting company, to build a network.