VMware scored a significant 5G win with Dish Network selecting the vendor to provide the underlying cloud platform and infrastructure to power its open radio access network-based 5G network.

The deal calls for VMware to supply its Telco Cloud platform to support Dish’s burgeoning 5G network plans. The carrier will use that platform as an abstraction layer running across multiple network domains and will allow Dish to tap into hyperscale public cloud capacity while maintaining core control points.

VMware earlier this year launched its Telco Cloud Automation platform that was previously known as Project Maestro. The software platform is designed as an orchestration and automation layer underpinning current 4G LTE and 5G networks and to help service providers accelerate their time to market and onboarding of virtual network functions (VNFs), cloud-native network functions (CNFs), and network services. Service providers can use the platform to build and automate network services on top of VMware’s telco NFV platform, and it also enables interoperability across operators’ environments including core and edge as well as public and private clouds.

Dish and VMware said they have already tested and onboarded “dozens” of cloud-native 5G network functions from “multiple software vendors” on top of the VMware Telco Cloud platform. They noted that by tapping into that platform’s Kubernetes capabilities and cloud-native principles they will be able to “dynamically move and scale workloads within the cloud, based on consumer demand.”

The deal is significant as it will be a greenfield deployment. This means it will be built from the ground-up using cloud-native architecture unlike so-called brownfield deployments where an operator is integrating a cloud-native architecture into an already established telecom network. This should provide for a cleaner and more efficient network deployment and operation.

The deal is also a significant step for Dish, which has been eyeing the domestic wireless space for a dozen years. The company has been acquiring spectrum assets for most of that time and mentioned often its plans to use that spectrum to become a player in the highly-competitive space.

Those efforts ramped up earlier this year when Dish closed its long-gestating $1.4 billion purchase of Boost Mobile as part of T-Mobile US’ purchase of Sprint. The Boost acquisition provides Dish with more than 9.3 million customers, additional spectrum assets as part of a separate $3.6 billion deal, and more importantly gives Dish access to T-Mobile’s network for seven years while it assembles a 5G standalone network.

Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen last year latched onto the cloud-native route for constructing the company’s network, citing plans to emulate Japan’s Rakuten Mobile network infrastructure strategy in building a cloud-native, virtualized open radio access network (RAN). Dish has already tapped a trio of vendors as part of those plans, including Fujitsu, Altiostar, and Mavenir.

The deal also progresses VMware’s increased focus on the telecommunications space.

Company CEO Pat Gelsinger noted during an earnings call last year that telco cloud and 5G represent a “great opportunity to participate in an enormous market.” And Craig McLuckie, VP of product and development at VMware, told SDxCentral at last year’s KubeCon + CloudNativeCon event in San Diego, that the vendor looked at 5G as a “fantastic and interesting challenge” for Kubernetes.

The vendor’s focus has been playing out in the market with a number of 5G deals with telecom operators.

One of the largest is with European telecom giant Vodafone, which has been working with VMware for several years to virtualize its network assets. The carrier recently said it had rolled out VMware’s network virtualization infrastructure across all of its 21 European business markets in a move that reduced the cost of its core network functions by 50%.

VMware also has network deals with AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, and NTT DoCoMo.