Dish Network today added another piece to its jigsaw puzzle of 5G vendors, bringing Nokia into the mix to supply 5G standalone (SA) core software. 

The company, which plans to deploy a nationwide cloud-native and virtualized open radio access network (RAN), said Nokia will provide multiple services and network functions, including subscriber data management, device management, packet core, voice and data core, and integration services. Nokia will also provide cloud-native services for 4G LTE and voice over WiFi access for core network functions, the companies said.

Dish has the option to service a full 5G core from Nokia, but it's leaving its options open and pursuing potential deals with other 5G core vendors, a spokesperson told SDxCentral. Moreover, while Dish is building a 5G SA network, the company is also sourcing 4G LTE cloud-native gateways and capabilities from Nokia to interface with other mobile network operators, mobile virtual network operators, and roaming agreements, the spokesperson explained.

The contract marks the sixth vendor selection to date for Dish, following previous deals with Altiostar, Fujitsu, Mavenir, VMware, and Matrixx. It’s also a significant win for Nokia after it fell out of favor with Verizon and was effectively sidelined on that carrier's 5G network build.

Dish is required to cover 20% of the country with 5G service by mid-2022. And while it intends to activate 5G service in a single market before the end of this year, it’s unclear if it will meet that goal. Charlie Ergen, Dish’s co-founder and chairman, recently said the company is waiting on prototype radios from Fujitsu to deploy 5G in a yet-to-be named city.

The company still has to traverse many hurdles on its marathon to 5G beyond its ongoing vendor selection, including a timely delivery and integration of various network functions, site acquisition, permitting, zoning, and leases. The operator last month said it is about midway through completing radio frequency design for all U.S. markets.

"We can stand up a full network now, but for the extreme automation and slicing capabilities we need, we are also pursuing advanced orchestration, slicing at scale, and full automation," a Dish spokesperson said, adding that work is also underway with vendors on components for security and other critical functions.

By embracing open RAN, Dish is poised to be the first major mobile network operator in the country to completely disaggregate the hardware, software, and various components that comprise network architecture. Executives at the company maintain that open RAN is ready for prime time, arguing that the onus is on Dish to execute on its vision and facilitate all the necessary pieces from various vendors. 

“We’re not reinventing science, we’re not reinventing anything," Ergen said last month during the company’s second quarter of 2020 earnings call. "We’re just taking really good cloud providers and making what’s been a very clunky, hardware centric, highly operational cost environment, very similar to data centers 20 or 30 years ago, and we’re going to make that into a modern network.” 

Nokia’s 5G core software is also baked into T-Mobile’s 5G SA core network that it activated in August. The vendor claims 25 of the top 40 communication service providers are using Nokia’s core network products. 

More than 100 companies have responded to Dish’s various requests for proposals for different parts of its network and it’s narrowed those choices down to two or three potential vendors for each remaining category, Ergen said last month. 

Lower opex and capex costs, and the ability to work with multiple vendors are oft-cited benefits of open RAN, but it remains a more complex and, in some aspects, unproven technology at massive scale.