EchoStar’s Boost Mobile division is set to ditch a platform vendor in a move that could put the carrier’s open-network architecture to the test and comes as it’s putting a bigger focus on becoming a competitive player in the domestic mobile telecommunications space.

Boost Mobile CTO Eben Albertyn told SDxCentral in an interview that the carrier was about to change “out a very, very large portion of our software base with a different vendor in a way that our customers won’t even know it’s happening.”

Albertyn wouldn’t name the specific vendors that are part of the swap, but did state that it would involve its container-as-a-service (CaaS) platform.

“[CaaS] has been deeply integrated into our automation platforms and how we run the network, but we will be changing out that software vendor for a different one,” Albertyn teased. “I can't talk about the names, maybe two or three weeks from now all of that will become clear, but we are going to be changing our entire CaaS layer going forward.”

Albertyn did say the move was based on what he termed “cost effectiveness” or a combination of “operational performance, strategic roadmap, and overall cost.”

“Performance combined with price combined with strategic roadmap going forward, the combination of those, we are able to evaluate with open RAN [radio access network], decide whether the disposition that we have right now and the vendor landscape that we have right now is at the most optimal inflection point, and if it's not – as in this case is the matter – so where we consider those three factors combined, and we compare it against what the market is able to offer us, we can see that we can make a better decision when it comes to those three components,” Albertyn said.

Is it VMware? Albertyn did not name names, but he did point to a current issue larger rival AT&T was having with a vendor. AT&T is currently locked in a high-profile support dispute with Broadcom over licensing and billing changes it has made to its VMware services.

“It's public information, but you've seen that AT&T has a problem with a software vendor where that software vendor is deeply entrenched in their systems and so fiddling with that is dangerous,” Albertyn said. “Obviously the recourse that AT&T needs to take is to take other forms of steps because changing those things are hard. I'm naming AT&T because they're in telecom, but I can probably quote somebody from banking or a lot of other places where there are pieces of software that it's operationally very risky for them to touch it, and therefore you have a disproportionate relationship in that engagement.”

Boost Mobile, which is the consumer-facing brand for what was EchoStar’s Dish Wireless mobile business, has been working with VMware on the CaaS layer of its unique open network architecture. It initially announced work with VMware in mid-2020, using that vendor’s Telco Cloud platform to provide the underlying cloud platform and infrastructure to power its open RAN-based 5G network.

The VMware platform provides an abstraction layer running across multiple network domains allowing Boost Mobile to tap into hyperscale public cloud capacity while maintaining core control points. The carrier at that time said they had tested and onboarded “dozens” of cloud-native 5G network functions from “multiple software vendors” on top of the VMware Telco Cloud platform that used its embedded Kubernetes container orchestration capabilities and cloud-native principles to “dynamically move and scale workloads within the cloud, based on consumer demand.”

Albertyn noted that Boost Mobile’s open network architecture will allow it to make the vendor swap without impacting customers.

“We've seen that we can actually do something better for our customers, and being able to deliver a better piece of software at a better price point with a more robust strategic roadmap that will serve us better in the coming years, and not only can we see that, but we actually have the ability to take something that's a very important part of our architecture, but we can now go and change it. We don't have a gun to our head,” Albertyn said.

Broadcom did not respond for comment by publication time.

EchoStar's Boost Mobile is relying on dozens of vendors to provide its network components, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Samsung, Cisco, Dell Technologies, Nokia, VMware, Mavenir, and Oracle,

EchoStar money taps are on The Boost Mobile network change comes as the carrier is looking to bolster its deployment plans.

The carrier recently gained concessions from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that modify existing spectrum license and coverage requirements. The carrier now has more favorable conditions to hit coverage requirements for some of its spectrum licenses.

“One-hundred-percent confident that we will meet every single one of those milestones,” Albertyn said of those new requirements. “I have no concern about that. The team is very focused. The FCC have been very clear about what the pivot was that they want us to take. We have worked with them very closely, and we have pivoted accordingly.”

More importantly, EchoStar is working through a multilayered financial transaction that will provide billions-of-dollars in new financing that it has targeted at its 5G network. The carrier said it will invest more than $10 billion in its 5G build out, which aligns with numbers EchoStar Chairman Charlie Ergen had stated it would likely cost to complete the build.

However, EchoStar’s financial plan will require current bond holders to forgo around $1.5 billion in assets, which has drawn the ire of those bond holders. More details on this hurdle are expected to come from EchoStar’s upcoming earnings call scheduled for November 12.