Dish Network is moving forward with its plans for what it says will be the first standalone 5G broadband network in the US. The company has released a new Request for Proposal (RFP), its third, for different elements of the 5G national network. Dish has said it wants its standalone 5G broadband to be available for at least 70 percent of the US population by June 2023, conditional on the successful merger of T-Mobile US and Sprint.
The latest request for end-to-end deployment services vendors is for contracts and expertise on certain pre-construction and construction matters, including site acquisition and regulatory compliance, and civil engineering and network element installation. Dish wireless operations EVP Jeff McSchooler said the company wants to build upon the existing relationships it has with deployment vendors from its NB-IoT buildout. Dish signed a number of master services agreements with national deployment vendors when it initiated the buildout of the network last year.
Deployment of the 5G network is conditional on the successful merger of T-Mobile US and Sprint.
